From: Philip Goetz (philgoetz@gmail.com)
Date: Mon Aug 21 2006 - 19:45:14 MDT
I recently took an IQ test - unfortunately, it was to help someone in
training, and so they couldn't tell me what my score was - but there
were hundreds of questions, and maybe 3 of them required thought, and
the only part of the test on which it seemed possible to lose points
was a speed-test in copying figures which seemed to have nothing to do
with intelligence. There were some obvious problems and cultural
biases with the questions, despite the fact that the test has been
refined over many years by many psychologists. (I think it was the
WAIS.)
I would say that
1) IQ tests are designed for placing people into one of 3 categories:
below average, average, or above average. They are neither designed,
nor able, to distinguish between 2 sigma and 3 sigma above average.
2) If a person whose IQ "should" be 180 takes one of these tests, and
gives an answer different from the one that is considered correct, I'd
trust the answer of the 180-IQ test-taker more than that of the
test-makers. The presence of any ambiguous questions containing
subtleties that the test designers were not aware of, means that the
most-intelligence test-takers will not have the highest scores.
- Phil
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