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Posted: 2002-10-07 04:26pm
by Ted
What gets me is that most people dont even know what it tests. It test your ability to learn. And BTW, my IQ count, 155 was what I got from my therapist.
Posted: 2002-10-08 11:49am
by greenmm
160-165+ range from an official IQ test administered back when I was in middle school.
I don't know the exact range, thanks to my parents. They felt my sister and I were too competitive (actually, my sister was the only one competing -- she wanted to either be better than me or do things that I had never done; hence her picking the violin instead of the acoustic guitar), and since we were both within a few points of each other, they didn't want to tell us our scores and have us argue about which one was truly "smarter"... so they told us we were both between 160 and 170.
From personal experience, though, IQ doesn't mean anything. I had a higher IQ than the salutorian in my graduating class, and probably slightly higher than our valedictorian, but my GPA was only the 20th highest in my class of 320+... because I put hardly any effort into my classes, and was happy settling for a 3.78.
On to college, where I had a full-ride academic scholarship giving me tuition, room, board, books, and miscellaneous expenses. I flunked my 2nd and 3rd quarters, got kicked out, came back and tried again, and flunked my 5th and 6th quarters. All because I was still in coast mode, not turning in homework/labs, skipping class, not studying, etc.
I'd gladly trade 20 IQ points for the common sense my wife has, if only because I'd have been able to use a 140+ IQ more effectively than I used my 160+ IQ in the past...
Posted: 2002-10-08 04:45pm
by Hyperion
oii, i know that one too well... sliding thru engineering classes on brains alone will usually give me 2.0 on theory classes and 3.0+ on lab/hands on classes, though part of that is that i'm not "book smart", if i can't touch it i don't learn it. forgetting to turn in homework is another problem...
though i have observed this in people with high IQ (135+):
they're generally lazy conpared to those of lower intelligence
they've generally got a whole list of mental "issues" and learning disabilities
many are hyper and extremely intense people, and have been on medication at some point in their life and/or been to a shrink.
Posted: 2002-10-08 05:26pm
by Azeron
My problem was in college, and in high school, is that the class moved too slowly for me, and I get bored relatively easy. the effort for me to move my GPA between 3.0 and 3.9 is minimal. I ussually tried to settle for a 3.5 3.6, to make sure I didn't get obbsessed with doing something. Thats why I taught myself programming and other stuff. Bored of the lack of challenege.
In my spare time, when I had nothing to do, I ran extra help sessions, wrote up guides to tests (well economics really, I loved that subject). It really was a joy for me when I was able to come up with a guide that helped D students pass and economics final with an A or a B.
Posted: 2002-10-08 05:27pm
by greenmm
Hyperion wrote:oii, i know that one too well... sliding thru engineering classes on brains alone will usually give me 2.0 on theory classes and 3.0+ on lab/hands on classes, though part of that is that i'm not "book smart", if i can't touch it i don't learn it. forgetting to turn in homework is another problem...
though i have observed this in people with high IQ (135+):
they're generally lazy conpared to those of lower intelligence
they've generally got a whole list of mental "issues" and learning disabilities
many are hyper and extremely intense people, and have been on medication at some point in their life and/or been to a shrink.
Yes, I've noticed that too...
And now that the information that some high-IQ people can be subject to those problems, schools now have parents try to apply for the "Gifted" programs if their child shows those tendencies... even though some of those tendencies are also shown by kids that aren't smart (unless you count being a "smart-aleck" as being smart)...
Posted: 2002-10-08 06:23pm
by Jim Raynor
Can anyone give me a link to a good, accurate IQ test on net? Not some bullshit test where anyone can get 150 or above. I'm really curious as to what my IQ is, since I've never taken a test before.
Posted: 2002-10-08 07:41pm
by SWPIGWANG
Posted: 2002-10-08 08:02pm
by Raptor 597
I don't really now. Louisiana appraently doesn't have IQ tests mine from estimates is 130+
Posted: 2002-10-08 08:57pm
by Master of Ossus
I am actually astonished at how intelligent everyone on this board actually is. The results are, of course, severely flawed because only people who wish to post their IQ's can do so, and because many people are doubtless lying about their IQ's, but for any group to be averaging more than three standard deviations above normal is extraordinary. We should found a MENSA society here.

Posted: 2002-10-08 09:24pm
by Lord of the Farce
About 3 years ago I had aquired a special IQ testing program from a friend, the type that had thousands of questions built in and such. In that program, I got about 4/5 of the way through before getting bored of it (it was +150 questions long), so I just randomly selected answers.
My result from that IQ testing program, IIRC, was 137.

Posted: 2002-10-08 09:43pm
by Jadeite
Mines 135.
I remember one IQ test on the net thats never ending. After about 5 pages it starts randomly generating questions.
One complete moron I know went through 200 pages before realising this. His IQ was subsequently rated in the negatives.
I pinged onto it after 2 "fake" pages and clicked the nice "end test" button.
Was that from thespark.com by any chance?
Posted: 2002-10-08 09:52pm
by weemadando
Probably.
Posted: 2002-10-08 10:19pm
by Jadeite
hehe, i love thespark, so many fun tests, and the stinky meat projects are hilarious
Posted: 2002-10-09 12:34am
by XPViking
The world seems to be run by "C" students anyways. I told that to my uncle who is a school principal. He couldn't stop laughing when he heard that.
XPViking

Posted: 2002-10-09 12:52am
by Rathark
johnpham wrote:I asked my therapist to look at my records and it said 129 (don't ask me why I go to a therapist

). Also, YOU PEOPLE ARE ALL BSING!!!! Comon, only <3% get anything higher then a 131. Am I seriously going to assume that everyone on this board belongs to that 2%? Now come on, tell the truth. Internet tests do not count.
BTW, even though I have a relatively high IQ, it is useless since I am not good at applying it.
Point 1: SF fans generally have higher IQ than the general population, especially the university students / graduates.
Point 2: The more outspoken members of this board will probably have a higher average IQ than the less outspoken members. This is a terrible generalization, I know: many persistent trolls would not score that high, and there are bound to be a few quiet 150+ IQ members here laughing at our pompousity.
Posted: 2002-10-09 12:55am
by Master of Ossus
XPViking wrote:The world seems to be run by "C" students anyways. I told that to my uncle who is a school principal. He couldn't stop laughing when he heard that.
XPViking

Your principal was actually partially correct. The world is run by mentally challenged people, in terms of allocating resources. In terms of making most policy decisions, the world is run by C students, he is correct. Since there are as many people below a C average as above it, it is simply not realistic to believe that the best students will actually make the most decisions in life.
Posted: 2002-10-09 12:56am
by Rathark
Alferd Packer wrote:Of the many tests I've taken, both official and unofficial, I seem to fall into the lower 130's as an average. So, very conservatively, I figure I'm probably around 115 or so.
Umm ... if the official tests say that you've got an IQ around 130, then you're IQ is most probably close to 130. You're being too modest. However, I'd agree that 115 would be an absolute minimum. I know from personal experience that not everyone is a consistent achiever. Some of us need caffeine just to stay awake.
Posted: 2002-10-09 12:58am
by Master of Ossus
Rathark wrote:Alferd Packer wrote:Of the many tests I've taken, both official and unofficial, I seem to fall into the lower 130's as an average. So, very conservatively, I figure I'm probably around 115 or so.
Umm ... if the official tests say that you've got an IQ around 130, then you're IQ is most probably close to 130. You're being too modest. However, I'd agree that 115 would be an absolute minimum. I know from personal experience that not everyone is a consistent achiever. Some of us need caffeine just to stay awake.
Seriously. It's not very likely that your actual IQ is more than a standard deviation below what it is being reported as by the tests.
Posted: 2002-10-09 01:02am
by Rathark
Jadeite wrote:Mines 135.
I remember one IQ test on the net thats never ending. After about 5 pages it starts randomly generating questions.
One complete moron I know went through 200 pages before realising this. His IQ was subsequently rated in the negatives.
I pinged onto it after 2 "fake" pages and clicked the nice "end test" button.
Was that from thespark.com by any chance?
Anyone with a slow link (ie 100% of the population with modems and 67% of the population in crowded public PC rooms) is going to have 20-50 points shorn off their IQ in that test.
Posted: 2002-10-09 01:06am
by Rathark
Never judge your IQ on the basis of one test. Take several different, reliable tests and find an average. If you are a wildly inconsistent scorer, then find out what conditions allow you to perform at your best.
Posted: 2002-10-09 01:14am
by Master of Ossus
Rathark wrote:
Never judge your IQ on the basis of one test. Take several different, reliable tests and find an average. If you are a wildly inconsistent scorer, then find out what conditions allow you to perform at your best.
Incidentally, IQ, beyond a point, is not so valuable in measuring how most people would look at someone as being intelligent. I had a friend in school who got a 1600 on his SAT's (I'm not kidding). When we were sophomores, he was sleeping through Chemistry class while we were discussing the Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle. During break, we tapped him on the shoulder, he talked with us for a few seconds, then casually glanced at the board for a few seconds and said quite matter-of-factly, "I can derive that." Then he went back to sleep.
Another good friend of mine was not nearly so bright, naturally, but he worked his tail off every day to study material. The teachers thought he was MUCH smarter than the first friend. He got much better grades, simply by working on it. To an extent, you can still be very knowledgeable and wise even if you are not incredibly gifted, naturally. It does take more work, it does take more effort, and there are things that you might not be able to do, but if you reason things out well, then in my experience you can accomplish much more than someone who is REALLY smart, but also lazy.
Posted: 2002-10-09 06:55am
by EmperorMing
IQ? Don't know. *shrug* My military scores for the ASVAB however, were all between 100-134 for those who know. Those clowns really wanted to keep me in...
Posted: 2002-10-09 10:05am
by greenmm
EmperorMing wrote:IQ? Don't know. *shrug* My military scores for the ASVAB however, were all between 100-134 for those who know. Those clowns really wanted to keep me in...
I don't doubt it. My brother-in-law just recently took it as well -- his welding company isn't doing so well, and he's joining to make better money. He's not stupid (although he's made some stupid decisions in the past), so he's at least at average level if not above average level. His ASVAB result, though, was pretty high -- maybe not as high as yours, but they told him that with his welding experience and ASVAB results he could pretty much write his ticket in terms of requesting where he wanted to be stationed...
Posted: 2002-10-09 10:19am
by greenmm
Rathark wrote:johnpham wrote:I asked my therapist to look at my records and it said 129 (don't ask me why I go to a therapist

). Also, YOU PEOPLE ARE ALL BSING!!!! Comon, only <3% get anything higher then a 131. Am I seriously going to assume that everyone on this board belongs to that 2%? Now come on, tell the truth. Internet tests do not count.
BTW, even though I have a relatively high IQ, it is useless since I am not good at applying it.
Nope, not BSing. My IQ results came both from a therapist (Mom and Dad were worried when they found some "questionable" artwork I'd made) and from official tests administered by the school district.
I also took an online test 3 months back. The results gave me an IQ of 155, fairly close to what the older test had done.
Point 1: SF fans generally have higher IQ than the general population, especially the university students / graduates.
Point 2: The more outspoken members of this board will probably have a higher average IQ than the less outspoken members. This is a terrible generalization, I know: many persistent trolls would not score that high, and there are bound to be a few quiet 150+ IQ members here laughing at our pompousity.
1. That's because the typical SF fan tended to grow up reading as opposed to just watching the movies and TV shows. That's how I started, by getting hooked on books like the
Lucky Starr series, the
Foundation trilogy, Arthur C. Clarke, and the old masters, gradually working up to the newer authors that continue their tradition.
As a corollary to that, though: the younger you are when you learn to read a book on your own, the more likely you are to not only enjoy reading more but also do better on tests like IQ tests or SAT's. I was always pestering my parents to read to me as a little kid, so much so that my mom couldn't get any housework done. Instead of just telling me to play outside, or even worse watch TV, she taught me how to read at the age of 3. Yep, that's right: I was reading books on my own 2 years before I entered kindergarden -- which made kindergarden a pain looking back, since I was incredibly bored during the time when we'd be learning the alphabet.
So, for any parents out there: 2 and 3 years old is not too young to start teaching your kids how to read on their own.
2. Probably is a generalization. But trolls aside (which I would imagine are pretty self-evident by now), I wouldn't be surprised if the IQ average here was much higher than the general populous. This isn't a generic BBS site where people of all types hang out and shoot the breeze, or even a BBS site devoted to a "cool" computer game. This site is dedicated to rational debates concerning SW, ST, and other SF settings, and that point is hammered home as much as possible by the mods. The appeal of this site, then, is to a subset of the general group of SF fans out there, a group that should be known for higher-than-normal intelligence and ability to grasp the essentials of rational debate.
Posted: 2002-10-09 10:28am
by weemadando
johnpham wrote:I asked my therapist to look at my records and it said 129 (don't ask me why I go to a therapist ). Also, YOU PEOPLE ARE ALL BSING!!!! Comon, only <3% get anything higher then a 131. Am I seriously going to assume that everyone on this board belongs to that 2%? Now come on, tell the truth. Internet tests do not count.
My 145+ was based off a psychologist administered test taken during a course I was in last year.
Throughout school I was rated in the 120+ (highest category in our schools test) from gr7-gr12.
And no I don't trust internet IQ tests, but damn are some of them fun.