The main thing an iq test measures is one's ability to do an iq test. This is influenced by intelligence, awareness and understanding of the nature and construction of iq tests, cultural familiarity, enviornmental factors, general knowledge, conformity in thinking and interest in particular topics and activities.
So i just did a quick free online test here
http://www.free-iqtest.net
This test is not a good or accurate measure of intelligence or 'iq' because of the way the questions are structured and its comparitively short length to other iq tests. But, long iq tests are boring and time consuming, and i personally find them a waste of time and fairly pointless.
But anyway, i did extremely well on this test, and this is why:
- i am aware of and understand the structure of iq tests. I learned about them, their purpose, the structure of the questions etc when i studied them in psychology. In being aware of how the test works and how it has been created, and what it is trying to measure- i have a better idea of how to answer the questions- like learning to read and respond to a pattern.
With some of the questions, i knew how the test wanted me to answer, yet it was not the answer i really agreed with or would have naturally chosen. In this way, i think that doing well on an iq test is influenced by how well we understand expectations and can conform.
I have also done this when applying for work. They've given me a test to measure my capacity and aptitude for a certain job. Because i know how these tests work and what answers they want- i just fill it out accordingly to fulfill their expectations. This is plain manipulation and lying on my part. But i 'honestly' wanted those jobs (needed the money!), and i made myself jump through their stupid predictable hurdles.
I've also done something similar on many of my assignments and exams. I understood the critera, and i responded accordingly. Not because i agreed with the material, but because i knew what they wanted and i knew that to get a good grade i had to fulfill their expectations.
Doing this is not congruent and it feels 'wrong' to me. I dont enjoy this, and i dont find it conducive to learning and understanding. In many ways, education can be learning to conform. This is incredibly boring and unfulfilling.
- i have done iq tests before- ive had practice in doing tests like these. I did a lot of iq tests- different kinds- 'professional', tests administered by fellow students, free online ones etc- when i was learning about them 8-9 years ago. The more i did iq tests, the better i became at understanding the nature of the questions and how to answer them. The results improved with the experience i had.
I also really enjoy things like brain teasers, puzzles and lateral thinking. The more i do these, the better i become.
In the test i just did, i think i got one question wrong- im pretty sure i know which one. if i did that particular test again, i would most likely get that question right this time. Not because i am more 'intelligent', but because i am now more 'educated' or 'knowledgeable'. But i guess most people use these terms interchangably and they are related.
- i have good general knowledge and cultural familiarity. These things are influenced by level of education, general interests, exposure to and integration into culture. I read a lot, and i like things like geography, learning about different animals etc. So these things are familar to me. People may be very intelligent, yet also be uniterested and therefore unaware of things often included in iq tests. People may or not be engaged and intergrated into culture either. I remember many years ago, i ran through administering an iq test with a foreign student, someone who i knew was highly intelligent. She did very poorly with some questions- especaily questions to do with language, and with familial relations (eg.if w is e's uncle, and q is w's mother etc), because her native culture had a very different way of conceptualising family. Im sure she would have gotten an entirely different result if she had done an iq test designed and constructed in her native language and culture.
- i am very good at guessing- i think this is because of ni, or intuition in general. In the test i just did, there were 2 questions where i wasnt sure of the answer. I just made a likely guess- picked the answer that 'looked' right, although there is no way i can logically justify my choice.
This is one of the reasons why i think that this particular iq test is not very good- because of the multiple choice questions. I think intuitive people can sometimes 'know' the answer, just by seeing it there. If the questions hadnt been multiple choice, it would have been harder for me to do the test and i dont think i would have been able to answer two particular questions
- and lastly, and most controversially- i did well because i 'believe' im intelligent. I've always 'known' im intelligent and felt that im intelligent. People have consistently agreed with this. This makes it easier for me to be intelligent. This made it easier for me to be a nerd and immerse myself in all kinds of learning- people expected me to do this and they more or less supported it. It also made other people encourage me to learn more and be intelligent.
Other people believe and are told the opposite- they are told they are unintelligent and are treated as such. They are not encouraged. I was always encouraged and forcefully pushed to be intelligent and do well acadamically. My sister was never told or encouraged by my parents.
This was also very apperant to me at school. I remember a particular occasion very clearly when a boy that didnt normally take interest in science suddendly started taking an interest in a topic we were covering. Because he was normally the 'funny, clueless' guy, no one took him seriously. They expected him to say funny and clueless things. Yet one day he started saying brilliant things, and no one took him seriously. It was so bad, during one particular class, he said something very clever and everyone ignored him. Maybe less that 10 minutes later, another guy said the same thing and everyone was like, oh thats amazing and so smart!' The guy ended up losing interest in the topic, started feeling resentful towards the class, and probably lost faith in himself.
Something kind of similar also happened to me in a maths class once. Because i hated high school, sometimes i behaved badly and was very deviant. There was one particular class that was so boring and painful that i spent the whole term either wagging it, ignoring the teacher or otherwise being a nuisance and minding my own business with my good friend. Lol, she used to spend the whole class speaking in accents and drawing underwear and penises all over books and desks, it was so funny...and annoying.. there were penises all over my books and it looked really weird and embarassing. But anyway, we had an exam for that term and when i got my test back, it said that i had barely passed. I was surprised, i hadnt answered all the questions for my own reasons but i knew that i should have still done well enough. So i went through the test and i saw that he had marked lots of it incorrectly. It was like he hadnt even looked at it and just marked it wrong anyway. I showed him and he realised his error. And then he accused me of cheating! It was so annoying and embarassing, he went on about it and asked the class who i was sitting next to during the exam, and if anyone had seen me do anything dodgy. It was horrible. And then he only stopped accusing me when he learned who i was sitting next to during the test, and he implied that the other person was so stupid that no one would cheat off them.
So anyway, i dont think that the iq test measures intelligence. Intelligence is...something very difficult to measure in a meaningful way. Despite what some may believe, i do think that intelligence is fluid and that the brain is plastic. I know this through my own personal experience and observing others. Intelligence can be increased and decreased, and applied in different ways in different circumstances. The best way to nurture the elusive thing that is 'intelligence' is to encouarge it, support its development, encourage critical thinking, and to try not to 'confine' intelligence to route definitions.
I dont think im a genius. Their are people that are smarter, people that are happier, people that are more successful in different life aspects, and vice versa. These comparisions are not very relavant and useful in most regards. They are only useful if they are used to understand and empower 'self'. There are many things that i 'get'. And many things that i dont get. Many things that im good at, many things that im not good at. I do stupid things a lot, and ive made many many stupid choices. Ive had a lot of fun and pain. A lot of failure and success. We learn thorugh mistakes and experience, more so than through just 'knowledge'. It takes all kinds of people to make the world go around.
I think that the easiest way to be would be 'average intelligent'. This would make it easier to relate to most people, understand them, conform, and get along. Ignorance can most definately be bliss. Thinking about things for long enough makes just about everything that society does seem completely ridiculous, incomprehensible and insane. It becomes hard not to feel completely alienated! This is why i come out schizotypal on personality tests! Seriously, the things we do to ourselves, each other, and the world is completely fucked up! Culture is crazy, the only way to really fit in is to completely brainwash yourself by fear, greed and consumerism and to become a mindless sheep.
I dont think intelligence ncessarily leads to happiness or success. It leads to awareness, and perhaps even unhappiness as the fuckedupness of our systems are grasped. Its awareness and empowerment that brings true happiness and wellbeing. This is something that anyone can achieve through becoming more aware of themselves, turning inward, and taking responsibility for creating their reality. Self awareness, honesty, gratitude and courage are key. And success- i think...is basically just doing what you want and enjoying what you do. If you do what you want...if work and joy are the same thing in your life...if you live simply for the joy of living...you are successful.
But perhaps it is 'intelligence' that gets us there. My best friend (who is one of the smartest people i know) has a theory that intelligence is directly related to inspiration. The more we are inspired, awed and impressed by something, the more intelligent we become in regards to it. We are all inspired by different things and therefore more naturally intelligent with certain things. He also believes that the best way to support intelligence in a child is to inspire them and be inspired by them. This is really awesome for me, because he is my child's dad! I can relate to his thoughts and theory. I learn things because i feel inspired to do so. I have learned a lot of things because i feel inspired by lots of things. And sometimes there's a point when im learning something that i dont want to learn any further, because i dont feel interested in doing the necessary brain excercise or putting in the necessary effort to get there. If im not inspired by something...i dont care to know. Like...hiking up a mountain, we have to be really motivated to climb, curious about the view etc.
We live in an incredibly awe inspiring reality, and perhaps the more we tune into that, the more aware and 'intelligent' we are. The true joy of life becomes apparent when we let ourselves be inspired, moved, awed, when we let ourselves imagine...when we allow ourselves to really be honest and feel, and we become grateful for all that it is we are. When we acknowledge and become grateful for the incredible, mindblowingly creative and powerful wonder that it is to exist.
Pretty much as this 'genius' says,
“I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.” -Einstein
. The playing field levels off as we get older cause some of us are late bloomers.