One small benefit of having a wife who is a special education teacher is that I'm often called upon to be a guinea pig for a new testing procedure.

Because one of these tests was for intelligence quotient, I happen to know my IQ. Do you know yours? For fun you can take a 13 minute quick test to get a truly rough idea (they email you the results, don't pay for a print out!!).

http://www.iqtest.com/

Maybe you peeked at your high school transcript and saw your IQ. Either way, this week's Polling Place question asks, "Do you know your IQ?"

Do you know what IQ tests actually test?

Your ability to take an IQ test, not your actual intelligence!

BTW: Mine was 147...

Whoohoo! I got a 148!

This just proves all the comments below about the lunacy of IQ tests. (Yeah, right. I'm a genius. How come I'm broke?) The worst thing about this test was it's incredible cultural bias, and almost as bad was that I already knew the answers to about 1/3 of the questions!

Now for my un-official, un-scientific, and just as reliable IQ test. Ready, begin.

Do you smoke?

Do you do drugs?

Do you abuse your children/spouse/life-partner/dog?

Do you believe in astrology?

Do you lay for hours in the sun for it's health benefits?

Do you spend your evenings gazing at the sky waiting for the UFOs to take you away from all of this?

Do you read Cosmopolitan for any reason?

Do you believe Rosanne has 147 personalities of which 3 are Richard Simmons?

Do you watch Jerry Springer for it's informational value and biting social commentary?

Have you ever told a Senate inquiry that you never had sex with that woman when you clearly did?

Have you ever held public office and are a professional wrestler?
*******************************************************

And now, the results!

If you answered "NO" to all of the above, then congratulations. You are a Genius.

If you answered "YES" to one or more of the above, then you are a Moron.

If you answered "YES" to all of the above then you are an Imbecile.

Results of this test are being forwarded to your local government agency so you can be issued your appropriate trailer house.

You forgot "Do you solely use a PC?"

_I_ read Cosmopolitan so I can keep track of which of my 17 "hot zones" my wife is not adequately stimulating.

I got a 167 from the linked test. Having said that, I'm perfectly willing to acknowledge the issues with IQ tests pointed out in other posts. IQ tests are fairly good indicators of your ability to take IQ tests as long as they're basically the same style. They're an amusing parlor game, but intelligence is really too complex a concept to be summed up in a single number, and it's distressing to know that even today such numbers still given enough credence to influence peoples' lives and opportunities.

G

The following article and many more like it decry the use of assessment testing like Intelligence Quotient or "IQ. Assessment tests are a ridiculous means of attempting to quantify something which cannot be quantified.

"The Problem With IQ

By Tim Weiss

Assessment tests are one of the core measurements for determining what services your child will receive in school. One common measurement is the Intelligence Quotient or "IQ." However, there are major dangers in using an IQ score or any other test that claims to measure intelligence.

Does your child perform at the same level in all types of activities? Do you? All people perform better in some areas and worse in others. How can a single score describe these differences? It can’t. Let me give you an example. Suppose a store manager filled one brown bag with 5 apples, 3 oranges, and 1 pear. He filled another with 3 lemons, 5 limes and 4 grapes. He stapled the bags shut and labeled the first "9 fruits" and labeled the second "12 fruits." When you come into the store and see these two bags, which is better? Which will make a better apple pie? It is hard to say without opening the bags. The labels on the bags are useless. Yet we accept the IQ score imposed on people as having some sort of meaning.

Many famous brilliant people have performed poorly in academic areas, yet became great artists, musicians or scientists (like Einstein). The American Psychiatric Association admits that there are many different types of intelligence and many theories. In fact, there is not even a generally accepted consensus of what the word "intelligence" means. We don’t even know what we are measuring! At best we can say that we are measuring how well someone takes tests.

In 1904, Alfred Binet was asked by the French Ministry of Education to develop a test that would help them identify students who might have learning problems. Despite Binet’s objections, his test was labeled as a tool toward obtaining an Intelligence Quotient from individuals. Binet argued that intelligence is not a fixed quantity, but can change and increase. He also refrained from claiming that his test was a measurement of intelligence at all.

In 1910, H. H. Goddard, the director of the Vineland School for Feeble-Minded Girls and Boys in New Jersey, decided that the Binet test would be a wonderful way to screen students for his school. Goddard classified people as being normal, idiots, or imbeciles. Idiots could only develop to a mental age of three to seven years, while imbeciles could not progress to more than a three-year-old level. Goddard developed a new term, "morons," to describe people who were somewhere between normal and idiots. He felt that there was a danger of morons having babies and polluting the gene pool. His solution have to have everyone be tested for IQ and those determined to be morons would be sterilized or isolated at his school.

Goddard’s adaptation of the Binet test to determine IQ was also enthusiastically used to screen foreign immigrants. The testing caused him to conclude that, for example, 87 percent of Russian immigrants were morons. Of course it didn’t take into account that they were giving a test in English, with questions based on American cultural assumptions, to people who could barely, if at all, speak English. Vast numbers of immigrants were deported in 1913 and 1914 because of this test.

Later, this test was "improved" at Stanford University to become the Stanford-Binet test that is still used today. Nearly all intelligence tests today are based on this one test, which was never proven to actually test intelligence or even define it.

My own son, for example, has scored very low in some areas, but very high in others. Different types of tests have placed his "mental age" at dramatically different levels. What can a single IQ score tell you about that? There are a number of types of intelligence that never get tested at all, such as body-kinesthetic, interpersonal skills, and artistic and musical aptitude. Instead, these tests usually focus on the very narrow fields of logical-mathematical aptitude and language skills.

Another problem is the cultural bias inherent in tests. They assume a familiarity or agreement with certain norms. Where else would they come up with such bizarre questions as "Why do most people prefer automobiles over bicycles?" The problems are not always cultural either. A recent assignment that my son had at school asked him to circle all nouns that fit the sentence "I found my ____." His teacher called me at work to say that he would not circle all the nouns and got mad when told that some of the other words were nouns. I asked to see his assignment and discovered that he only circled the nouns that named objects that he himself has at home. I called up his teacher to explain that since my son has autism he has difficulty putting himself in someone else’s shoes. IQ tests (as well as most other assessment tests) can frequently run into these subtle problems.

My recommendation is to exercise vigilance and reject any test that attempts to measure your child’s IQ. Instead of earning a grade, you will be damning your child to a meaningless measurement for the rest of his or her life. Most tests have ceased to claim they will give you an IQ score. I would urge you to also reject any test that claims to measure any type of intelligence and any that attempt to give you an overall composite score of any kind. Determining your child current level (not future potential) should be based on looking at each type of skill, aptitude or academic area separately. Only then can you ensure that educators see your whole child and not just a number."

Article from: http://www.parentsinc.org/newsletter/news0300/problemiq.html

Further information on the problem...

"Problems of intelligence testing. 

In designing an intelligence test, psychologists try to use questions on subjects to which every person to be tested has been equally exposed. But this cannot be done perfectly. As a result, every intelligence test measures experience to some degree. For example, a child who has always spoken only English is likely to score higher on a test given in English than a child who spoke only Spanish until learning English in school. Similarly, a child whose family reads and travels widely may score higher than a child who lacks these experiences. 

A home and school life that encourages learning may result in higher IQ test scores as a child grows older. On the other hand, deprived youngsters who go to an inferior school may score lower and lower through the years. Their falling scores could reflect the lack of many experiences that other children have had. Children may also score low because of malnutrition in their early years. IQ thus depends on both heredity and environment. 

Many people have tried to create culture-fair or culture-free tests. Such tests include only ideas, symbols, or words that are recognized by persons of different backgrounds. Sometimes they are called nonverbal (wordless) tests to contrast them with verbal tests, which use words. Some such tests consist only of pictures and diagrams that people of many cultures can understand. 

The IQ score of most persons does not change much from year to year. But scores of some individuals can vary from one test to another. People may score somewhat higher if they take a test feeling well, rested, and confident than if they feel ill or tired. 

Some educators and psychologists oppose using IQ tests for grouping students. These experts fear that a teacher may treat a child according to the "label" of the youngster's group. Thus, children labelled "slow" may think they are expected to learn slowly--and do so, even though they could progress more rapidly."

from http://www.a2zpsychology.com/a2z%20guide/intelligence_quotient.htm

A pretty good article on one person's experience with the Mensa IQ test:
http://www.observer.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,710091,00.html

Am I a genius - or what?

Anne Robinson is about to test the nation's IQ on BBC1. But what makes a genius? And how intelligent are you if you're good at crosswords but can't remember your own phone number?

Phil Hogan
Sunday May 5, 2002
The Observer

Besides which, pick up any psychology textbook and look for the chapter which mentioned IQ tests. You will undoubtely find further arguments against IQ testing.

i always respond to the polls before i scroll down and read the discriptions.

for once i wish i had read the discription for this poll before replying, because i chose "I don't know" before reading about the link. you'd think i'd learn with an IQ of 133±5

oh well :)

Woohoo! I got a 137! I feel special :)

one could think mine would be 110 but its 6 or 7

I received a 162 on my IQ test. However, I have done 3 IQ tests this year. On the first I received a 165, on the second, 167, and on the third, 162.
You would think that an IQ would remain unchanged , however, my results prove this to be false.

PS: I don't really talk like that...

If you really think your score would be the same or that these things are very accurate, there's no way you got 160 anything!!!! I hope you were just joking. Remember, we can't see emotions in plain text. Sarcasm requires excessive use of smileys.

Polls show that 88% of people report they have above average intelligence.

Psss...Statistics. You can come up with statistics to prove anything. 44 percent of all people know that!

... and 32% of all statistics are made up on the spot! ;)

yes well I didn't bother to take the test...
I was one of those referred to; I was informed that my IQ was 197 when I was 12 and I have suffered ever since.. I never did acheive what those peers of mine did, that is; those peers whom I was reputedly far enough in front of to see daylight between us.
They whom by the way, are now all filling positions in life which I could well do with.. financially or socially. Some of them have power I can never dream of.. Since they thought they were dumb and had to work hard., which they did.

Personally, all the IQ test proved to me:- was that I could read.

nothing more, nothing less.