What is an IQ test?

Answer 1

IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient, originally designed to help detect and identify people having low "intelligence" and/or learning problems so they could get special assistance. Eventually extended and recalibrated for people having high "intelligence". However "intelligence" as measured by these tests has never been clearly defined and related to any aspect of normal everyday life functioning. The only thing IQ tests have been reliably proven to measure with any consistent accuracy is one's ability to score high on IQ tests. I believe this is simply because that is how the tests are calibrated when they are designed.

The above comment written by a person that when given an IQ test in grade school, the person giving the test had never seen a score that high and thought it must be a mistake. When retested with a different test I scored even higher. I was told never to tell anyone those scores! I have learned over the years to be very skeptical of IQ tests and scores.

Answer 2

Intelligence tests measure the relative intelligence of a person against a statistically average person of the same age and cultural background doing the same test. However the tests must be designed for the person(s) being tested on the basis of:

• age: a ten year old can't do a test designed for an adult and produce reliable results
• culture: non-Europeans might not understand the same concepts of alike or different, or answer questions with cultural context
• social standing: education and other factors )reading skills etc.) might influence comprehension more than base intelligence
• educational: as an example training in math makes some questions much easier
• background: questions on Bach and Mozart (for examle) would mean little to a person with no exposure e to Classical Music
• exposure to tests and puzzles: doing tests and puzzles is a trainable skill
• physical handicaps: colorblind people would not be able to do some pattern recognition (spacial IQ) tests

Answer 3

to see how clever you are lol plus to see who can apply for a job etc. hope this helped