Internet IQ tests score hit with challenge to gray matter

By Lim Tri Santosa

BANDUNG (JP): Bored with chat? Tired of shopping on the Web? Fed up with your friends' emails? How about taking a test? That's right, a test. The World Wide Web has become a breeding ground for psychometricians, professional and otherwise, who are filling cyberspace with thousands of tests that you can administer to yourself.

It is common to log on these days and be collared by someone with just a few questions that purport to test your intelligence, your emotional wellbeing or your predisposition to depression, alcoholism, hypochondria, diabetes or attention deficit disorder. The odd thing is that people seem to like to take these tests.

In a world in which children spend years suffering through tests, why adults would take them for fun is a mystery. But there is something alluring about an optional quiz, with its promise of ranking you in terms of your livability or likelihood of having a heart attack. Just look at the number of quizzes in magazines, on television and radio, and now, in spades, on the Web.

Aptitude tests with actual relevance to the workaday world are still hard to find online. Intelligence tests on the Web are something else altogether. The widely adopted, if also controversial, Wechsler and Stanford-Binet IQ tests are hard to find online, if they are there at all. Still, dozens of Web sites say they offer a test of basic intelligence, and those tests appear to be enormously popular.

IQ or Intelligence Quotient is a general assessment of your ability to think and reason. Your IQ score is actually an indication of how you compare in this ability with the majority of people in your age group. A rating of 100, for example, means that, as compared to the majority of other people in your age group, you have a normal rate of intelligence.

The "Bell Curve" (BC) also called a normal curve or normal distribution is a graph that shows approximately how much of the population falls into each IQ range. In theory, if we tested everyone in the world with a traditional IQ test, most people would score in the average range. A smaller number would score moderately below average and moderately above average. Very high and very low scores are rare. The final result often obeys the normal distribution; you can see the BC simulation at http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Center/1539/p765.htm.

According to the BC theory, consider those falling in the range of 95-105 as having a normal or average IQ (http://scnc.lisd.k12.mi.us/~psych/IQdistrib.html). Since it is difficult to pinpoint with absolute accuracy, your actual IQ may vary 5 points either way from your test score. In addition, there are many factors that may effect your scoring. If you are tired, ill or distracted, your score will be affected.

A person's intelligence, traditionally speaking, is contained in his or her general intellect. In other words, how each and every one of us comprehend, examine, and respond to outside stimuli, whether it be to solve a math problem correctly or to anticipate an opponent's next move in a chess game. Our intelligence, therefore, is our singular, collective ability to act and react in an ever-changing world.

I have not estimated the value of different online tests, but there exist a couple of good ones out there. One link is www.iqtest.com. This free test was developed by the Institute For Self Improvement. The main goal of the developer was to create an accurate, quick and entertaining test that could be marketed to the general population.

There are three cautions that you should be aware of before starting the test.

First, if English is not your native language, then your reported IQ score will probably be lower than it would be if you took an IQ test in your own language.

Second, scoring well on any IQ test is no guarantee of success in life. Professional psychological help can sometimes make all the difference between partially or fully realizing your potential.

Third, your score's validity is maximized if you take this test as fast as you can without skipping problems or guessing answers.

During the actual test, you must read and respond to a total of 38 statements in thirteen minutes or less. If you take longer, you will be penalized, or if you get through the test in less time than 13 minutes, your score will be increased. Be ready to check your starting time at the exact moment that you begin reading the first statement of the test, because at the end of the test you will be asked how many whole minutes you have taken to finish responding to the test's statements. You are not allowed to use pencil or paper during this test or the computer will report an IQ Score that is higher than it should be.

If you take too much time, then validity goes down. Too much is when your computational speed score is far below your general score. For instance, if you achieve a general IQ score of 162 but take longer than seven minutes to complete the test, then your validity is decreased significantly; however, if you achieve a general IQ score of 100-115, you may use a full thirteen minutes to complete the test and still have a valid score.

There are some interesting IQ test sites on the Internet, and they will give you a rough estimate of your IQ score based on their specially made IQ tests.

It is really fun to do the tests. You should try www.queendom.com/iq.html, www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1641/iqown2.html, www.geocities.com/HotSprings/3055/cyiq-test.html, www.stateless.com/savell/iq.html.

Important note, the above IQ tests are not performed under supervision of a professional, where the tests are constructed by professionals (statistically correlated), and to get the IQ score you have to perform a battery of tests. It can't be considered as really serious, besides, these tests are unfair to people who do not speak English well.

The test has never been intended for professional use nor has it ever been marketed as such. In my own view there is no intrinsic value on scoring high on IQ tests if it's not coupled with true and significant improvement in intelligence, which is not a necessary consequence of IQ test related training. Intelligence is too complex for that.

Finally, do not take those online tests too seriously. There are many abilities which are not measured by IQ testing. For example, IQ does not measure musical talent, manual dexterity, or a variety of other abilities. However, IQ testing does give you an important indication of your ability to think, reason and solve problems. Time to join the prestigious Mensa (www.mensa.org) perhaps?