# I.Q tests



## tropicalparadise (Dec 12, 2008)

are there any free online that are for real and don't ask pointless questions like number patterns, rearranging letters and some blorgs are glorbs etc? Closest thing I could find to real sadly was the
dumb test and I was only able to score 131 on it because there aren't that many questions and not
many of them are related to things like literature, basic history, langauge, science etc.:bored:


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## slowriot (Nov 11, 2008)

This is supposed to be good

www.iqtest.dk


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## Zulban (Nov 11, 2008)

tropicalparadise said:


> [tests] that don't ask pointless questions like number patterns, rearranging letters


It doesn't sound like you're looking for a traditional IQ test. The (flawed) IQ test almost always include that sort of thing.


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## DayLightSun (Oct 30, 2008)

God I'm so insecure about I Q tests I always score way different. Granted I do score above 100 rofl. Good enough I guess.


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## EaRMo (Nov 10, 2008)

slowriot said:


> This is supposed to be good
> 
> www.iqtest.dk


My I.Q. = 133. Woo-hoo. Just enough to sneak into Mensa and fuck it all up for everyone.


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## Nightriser (Nov 8, 2008)

EaRMo said:


> My I.Q. = 133. Woo-hoo. Just enough to sneak into Mensa and fuck it all up for everyone.


I'm somewhere in the range. *high-fives EaRMo* 

However, Mensa or some other high-IQ society has a "challenging" IQ test. I got something like 120, my lowest. 

That being said, I'm not wild about IQ tests. I just see them as another grade, another number. (Grades are mostly unimportant to me.) I remember a recent article (but naturally, I can't find it) saying that those who are told and who believe that their successes are the result of hard work are less likely to let failures get to them than those who believe that success is the result of an internal attribute, like intelligence. Finally, we get some interviews from one of the people I'm most fascinated with:

Inside the Savant Mind: Tips for Thinking from an Extraordinary Thinker: Scientific American
Inside the mind of an autistic savant - life - 07 January 2009 - New Scientist


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## EaRMo (Nov 10, 2008)

Sifr said:


> I'm somewhere in the range. *high-fives EaRMo*


When I was a kid, my friend and I had a "genius high-five": we would go for a regular high-five, intentionally miss, reach around, and pat each other on the back, all in one "smooth" motion. Don't know why we called it a "genius high-five," though; it was pretty stupid. Oh, yeah: irony. Forgot about that stuff.



Sifr said:


> However, Mensa or some other high-IQ society has a "challenging" IQ test. I got something like 120, my lowest.


Mensa's "Challenging" I.Q. Test? I prefer Mensa's Fun Test. 

Mensa Fun Test

On my first run-through I got 27/30. Respectable, I think. As its name implies, it's not meant to be taken as a serious measure of intelligence (if such a thing even exists), but I'm proud of my score just the same.

And cool articles. Wish I were a synesthete (then I could be like Vladimir Nabokov!)... and could learn Icelandic in a week... bastard...


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## Nightriser (Nov 8, 2008)

EaRMo said:


> When I was a kid, my friend and I had a "genius high-five": we would go for a regular high-five, intentionally miss, reach around, and pat each other on the back, all in one "smooth" motion. Don't know why we called it a "genius high-five," though; it was pretty stupid. Oh, yeah: irony. Forgot about that stuff.


Ha, my friends and I often did retarded stuff. 



> Mensa's "Challenging" I.Q. Test? I prefer Mensa's Fun Test.


TA3 IQ test. It's supposed to be more challenging, but I'm not sure how valid it is. 



> And cool articles. Wish I were a synesthete (then I could be like Vladimir Nabokov!)... and could learn Icelandic in a week... bastard...


Heh, I wish I had Tammet's mind in general. Bastard indeed. :tongue:
I am attempting to do something similar, though.


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## Zulban (Nov 11, 2008)

Sifr said:


> (Grades are mostly unimportant to me.)


Classic INTP. 



> ...[article saying] those who are told and who believe that their successes are the result of hard work are less likely to let failures get to them than those who believe that success is the result of an internal attribute, like intelligence.


That is the root to my biggest beef with IQ tests. If someone can recognize patterns in the arbitrarily chosen puzzles, so what. I want to see what they can do in terms of demonstrating an understanding of real life issues.
People have given Darwin a rough IQ rating, and he isn't scored very high at all. Although the facts behind his studies are generally agreed to be wrong, the idea he introduced classifies him as a practical genius in my eyes.



> ... and 150 million people worldwide sharing the same IQ score. This sounds a lot to me like astrology, which lumps everyone into one of twelve signs of the zodiac.


Solid. Also his theory on what creativity is matches up very strongly with my own, only worded much better, which is a surprise given his 'disorder'.


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## Zulban (Nov 11, 2008)

Generally I am happy not to have his mind... I understand the advantages but I'm not sure he will really create anything marvellous in his lifetime. Especially in the scope of social sciences, the arts, literature, even applied sciences, and government in general, he is essentially powerless to improve anything.

He might have a shot at computer systems but he doesn't seem to show an interest in that sort of thing. Learning a language (a difficult language) in a week is great, but so far he seems to just be an incredibly massive sponge. I could of course be wrong... Are there any cases where people with these sorts of minds have done something that lasts beyond their lifetime?

He does on the other hand demonstrate the huge versatility of the human mind.


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## Nightriser (Nov 8, 2008)

Zulban said:


> Classic INTP.


As you say, it is understanding that one ought to strive for, above all else. 



> People have given Darwin a rough IQ rating, and he isn't scored very high at all. Although the facts behind his studies are generally agreed to be wrong, the idea he introduced classifies him as a practical genius in my eyes.


This, or at least a similar observation, makes me believe that genius is not a product of raw talent. Edison did not have Tesla's intuitive genius, but Edison still had some genius of his own. (However, Tesla had both practical and intuitive genius, as is demonstrated by his hundreds of patents.) 



> Solid. Also his theory on what creativity is matches up very strongly with my own, only worded much better, which is a surprise given his 'disorder'.


It's why he is considered a "prize" subject for those who study these savants. 



Zulban said:


> Generally I am happy not to have his mind... I understand the advantages but I'm not sure he will really create anything marvellous in his lifetime. Especially in the scope of social sciences, the arts, literature, even applied sciences, and government in general, he is essentially powerless to improve anything.
> 
> He might have a shot at computer systems but he doesn't seem to show an interest in that sort of thing. Learning a language (a difficult language) in a week is great, but so far he seems to just be an incredibly massive sponge. I could of course be wrong... Are there any cases where people with these sorts of minds have done something that lasts beyond their lifetime?


Good point. I don't know that any savants have created lasting works. I've heard that Thomas Jefferson may have had Asperger's, which Tammet also has, but I think that's quite unlikely.


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## EaRMo (Nov 10, 2008)

Sifr said:


> TA3 IQ test. It's supposed to be more challenging, but I'm not sure how valid it is.


I went through the test twice: I scored 119 on the first take, 121 on the second. There was an entire section dedicated to trivia. Did not care for that. Not that it matters--as you said, an I.Q. is just a number.

**EDIT**

(Just wanted to add that I scored a 140 on the other High IQ Society test. )

********



Sifr said:


> Heh, I wish I had Tammet's mind in general. Bastard indeed. :tongue:
> I am attempting to do something similar, though.


What are you attempting to do? If you don't mind me asking.


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## Nightriser (Nov 8, 2008)

EaRMo said:


> What are you attempting to do? If you don't mind me asking.


Create associations. In fact, my dad has been hinting at doing what Tammet suggests for many years now. He always tells me to encode things, especially for memorization, in visual images. It's not surprising, coming from someone who had photographic memory. I have a few vivid associations, but they are not always distinct. "Four" and "five" both have a texture like an apple or potato, perhaps a bit of the sound of cutting through either. Also, some have more than one associated image. So far, the system I've built is very limited, but it should be interesting to see what effect it has on my memory and creativity.


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## Zulban (Nov 11, 2008)

Sifr said:


> So far, the system I've built is very limited, but it should be interesting to see what effect it has on my memory and creativity.


I'm quite sceptical of the influence a created arbitrary association has on creativity. In fact I would think that it is a negative influence on creativity, since you will be coming up with potato ideas when thinking about five... This would seem like a random extra creative thought, when really you should associate five with other relevant things, like five being the average family size, or five fingers on a hand.

Creating associations (essentially, creating links in your brain) by connecting two things that have absolutely no significance damages creativity, at least relevant creativity. I think...
I'm sure it helps memory piles though.


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## Nightriser (Nov 8, 2008)

Zulban said:


> I'm quite sceptical of the influence a created arbitrary association has on creativity. In fact I would think that it is a negative influence on creativity, since you will be coming up with potato ideas when thinking about five... This would seem like a random extra creative thought, when really you should associate five with other relevant things, like five being the average family size, or five fingers on a hand.
> 
> Creating associations (essentially, creating links in your brain) by connecting two things that have absolutely no significance damages creativity, at least relevant creativity. I think...
> I'm sure it helps memory piles though.


I also feel slightly hesitant about it, as it is not a natural intuition. However, the example I gave was a natural association I have, and it is about the texture, not the potato itself. That is what Tammet associates numbers with, textures, colors, shapes, etc. He describes prime numbers as being like a smooth pebble--what relevance is there to primeness? Of course, it has its share of problems, even when the intuition was not artificially created. He has admitted it himself in one of the articles. Nonetheless, I am willing to experiment. If nothing else, I am sure that several studies give evidence that visual encoding helps memory.


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