Steve: have you ever taken an IQ test?

[AO1]

Hi Steve,


I'm extremely curious about your level of cognitive ability and if you've taken an IQ test or any other test that attempts to measure it.

If you ever have, could you share the type of test you took and your score?

[Steve Pavlina]

I took an online Mensa test several years ago which reported a 145 IQ (I think Erin got a 138 or something around that), but I think the test was only designed for Mensa qualification. It was only about 30 questions. It reported that I was in the top 1% IQ-wise and qualified for Mensa. My SAT scores also qualified me. I never joined Mensa though because it seemed like it wasn't much more than a social club, and I heard there were a lot of lame politics in the Vegas Mensa.

Since I've never taken an official IQ test, I don't know if my IQ is higher than 145. The Mensa test only checks to see if you're qualified to join Mensa, but it can't spit out a super-high score beyond that.

I don't think IQ is a good measure of overall intelligence though. It only measures your ability to solve certain types of problems. Real life is much more complex. I think true intelligence is the measure of our alignment with truth, love, and power. Only a small portion of that is IQ, which can increase your power to problem-solve and your ability to discern truth. I believe we can increase our intelligence if we set our minds (and our hearts) to it.

[Daffy Duck]

Steve, I agree with your thoughts of IQ tests.

The only thing an I.Q. test actually judges is how good you are at taking I.Q. tests.

[andreelerowes]

For further reading on intelligence, do check out the works of Howard Gardner and his "seven intelligences" theory. The basic idea is that we're all supplied with varying degrees of verbal, mathematical, spatial, kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and intrapersonal intelligences.

[Jasper]

I think Steve's view on Intelligence in his book is one of the best places to start, actually.

And since I don't have the book here, the way it stuck in my brain was:
Truth and awareness are major components in intelligence. Not looking at brain-specs, but the ability to see and connect truth, that's where the ability to learn is, and thus the real brain power.

And that gives you all you need to know! Be open, be aware, ask why, be like a child!

Personally I think IQ tests are fun, and a great way to play and learn at the same time. However, in my opinion they are very limited ways of looking at intelligence.

Intelligence is such a great thing. It's available in unlimited supply, and all you have to do to get more of it, is to be open. Let go, and let your perspective be changed. For me personally, reaching a new insight (helped by people like Steve) on a subject, is one of the most exciting things in life. All around me, people act like the world is what it is, and they have all the (wrong) answers... to figure out something new (and not meaning new, as in, nobody has ever thought of it, but more, more to me), man it's awesome.

Like the other day, when I realised that justice is an action, not a reaction... Such things take my breath away(but that's a whole different topic )!

[Laura Bruno]

When I had my 1998 brain injury, after 6 months they tested my IQ and it was 42 or 47 points lower than when I had previously had it tested. This was after significant cognitive improvement, too! It scared the crap out of me and was the first piece of evidence that got me to look at how injured I really was. My doctors argued with me that I was "romanticizing" a high IQ for which I no longer had any proof, but two years later when I was STILL injured but had gone through some cognitive/visual therapy, my IQ score on the same type of test was 21 points higher. It took another few years to recover fully, but official IQ tests are expensive, so I never had a follow up one done once I regained all my reading, thinking and writing ability.

(I'd actually be interested to take a test now, as I have a feeling my IQ would be higher than it was pre-injury. In compensating for areas that no longer worked, I had to maximize other latent areas, and those improved parts never disappeared after recovery.)

Anyway, ... while I don't believe IQ tests show everything, in my experience, they do measure something accurately. At the 20-point improvement mark, I was about 1/2way through my recovery (both time-wise and treatment-wise), and that was a measured regaining of nearly 1/2 the amount of cognition/abilities I had lost. The whole experience sure made me appreciate ALL of my brain, though! Sometimes you really don't know what you got until it's GONE.

[estudiant9]

Mensa's online test is virtually meaningless, and most people score suspiciously high on those. Be mindful that Mensa charges around $60 every year for a couple of shoddy magazines that they send to their members, and the only way they can get money is by enlisting more members. Also different IQ tests vary widely in their scoring range - a 160 on one test can be equivalent to a 131 on another, etc. 145 is definitely above average regardless. They stopped using SATs as a qualification criterion back in the 70's, can't use them, but when they used to accept them the cutoff score was rather unimpressive, like mid 1300s to low 1400s.

When you take the official Mensa qualification test, they don't give you a numerical score, only tell you whether you've qualified (scored in the top 2% - supposedly) or not. Around 60% percent of those who take the official test qualify for membership, according to Mensa's website. I'm sure most of those people took the test knowing that they were pretty smart, but 60% seems pretty dang high. I was a member for 2 years, starting in early 2004. And hey, I'm no idiot but I have my doubts about being super smart as they assure me I am.

In short, focus on what you can actually do in your daily life as opposed to paying too much attention to some arbitrary number.

[RRR]

Do you believe your increased mental clarity since college has increased your potential score on IQ tests Steve?