Almost everyone has heard about IQ tests. They’re in lots of magazines, especially women’s magazines. You can find them online too, just by Googling ‘IQ test’. You’ll get this page of questions filling your screen and you’ve got to select your answer online quickly. Then you submit the test and before you can count to ten, you get your results – a two or three digit number.

To start over, what is an IQ test really? And what does the score mean? IQ stands for ‘Intelligence Quotient’, meaning how smart you are. It may be used to see if you are likely to do well in some proffessions or in academic studies.

The IQ test measures your intelligence to solve problems written on paper. Written problem solving is the core idea of IQ tests. Then your results are compared to other people. It is the most used method to measure human intelligence.

IQ 100 is defined as the average of the whole population. Any score over 100 means you are more intelligent than average. Any score less than 100 indicates your intelligence level doesn’t match up to the average John Doe.

Positive sides of the IQ test

• Hiring E.g. you like to hire someone for a position. You could get a better understanding of the applicant’s intelligence by conducting an IQ test. The test could be on logical, linguistic and spatial intelligence. This should be guided by the requirements for the type of work offered. A high score would indicate the candidate is well suited for the position. Some candidates who would probably not be able to do the work could be screened out this way.
• College entrance You could get potential students to sit for an IQ test to gauge their intelligence in addition to their SAT scores. As there are often fewer places than applicants, this could be an additional screening tool. That way there is a better chance to pick the top performers and weed out students with less potential.

Negative sides of the IQ test

• IQ tests don’t tell the full story A High IQ sore does not guarantee that you also perform well in other important aspects. Quite a large share of high IQ persons are simply not as successful as you would expect from their IQ score.
• Other factors may be more important College students who initially showed promising scores on their IQ test ended up not being so hot when they sat their term papers. Studies have found out that a student’s self-discipline is a better gauge of how well they’ll do at college or high school. Relying only on smartness is not enough you must put whatever IQ you have to work to do really well. Often high IQ students are overtaken since they do not put in enough effort as the courses become more difficult.

• Many abilites are not measured by IQ testsFor example IQ tests can’t measure how well you’ll do as a leader. It doesn’t measure your emotional quotient or EQ – how you’ll get along with other people, including co-workers, superiors and peers. There is also the theory of multiple intelligences, that defines 8 different aspects of intelligence that you may have to varying degrees. Intelligence is so much more than a single score.