“You are not intelligent”, IQ tool evaluates.
“You would never succeed in your life”, the evaluator says.
“You have left us ashamed”, my parents affirm.
It was summer of 2002, the evaluator walked in the classroom with the most awaited result—the IQ Test result. There came the trembling moment of my life. My adrenaline was showing no mercy on me. I was shaking like a leaf, showing no sign of relief.
I felt I did not belong to this world ‘cause I failed the IQ Test. Yes, you read that right, I failed…fell under Low IQ Score Classification.
We all have been evaluated by this tool-at least once-at school, college, institute, or an organization, haven’t we? And, within a while our intelligence results were out. Mine was horrible. How was yours?
Before you answer, can I field one more question?
What’s IQ except its expansion?
Intelligence Quotient that measures Intelligence, you say.
I see. But, what intelligence do you think this tool measures?
Hey, never asked and thought of it, you say..
Never mind! I’ll take you through it.
IQ (Intelligence Quotient) is a tool. It is designed to measure General Intelligence, widely used by schools, colleges, educational institutions, and organizations. Academic Psychometric Testing is used by Schools, Colleges, and Educational Institutions. Interview Psychometric Testing is used by several organizations.
General Intelligence is purely Academic Success Driven, not Life Success Driven. Thus, General intelligence alone can’t help you succeed in life. Human Intelligence is multidimensional, after all. You got to acquire a plethora of skills, one after another, and another.
The most common IQ Tests in use:
The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale for Adults.
The Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children.
The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scales.
The Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children.
The Cognitive Assessment System.
The Differential Ability Scales.
The Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Abilities.
They assess you in the following indicators:
Mathematical Skills
Spatial Aptitude
Language Learning Abilities
Memory
Information Processing Speed
Reasoning
Here are the High, Average, and Low IQ classifications:
High IQ classification;
131+ IQ points:
This is the highest attainable score when testing the intelligence level. We call such people geniuses. They have no trouble solving the IQ test. As a rule, they complete the test successfully faster than the specified time. Many people with similar IQ levels achieve significant success in various areas of life. Such people comprise about 2.2% of the population. Even fewer people can get the highest results exceeding 145 points. For instance, there are only 0.2% of people in the world that are capable of getting this score.
121 to 130 IQ points:
This is a rather high result of the IQ test. We often call such people gifted. They can answer easy, mid-level, and most difficult questions with no problem.
111 to 120 IQ points:
This is the upper margin of the average result, which is good for many people. As a rule, they can answer easy to mid-level questions with no problem. However, they may have a harder time with difficult ones.
Average IQ classification;
90 to 110 IQ points:
This is the average IQ level for an individual. More than 50% of all people have intellectual abilities within these limits.
Low IQ classification;
80 to 89 IQ points:
This is the lower margin of the average result. This result is normal for many people. As a rule, they answer easy questions with no problem. They can also solve mid-level questions but may make mistakes due to poor attention or a lapse of concentration. As a rule, this test-taker skips the more difficult questions or takes too much time to answer them.
66 to 79 IQ points:
This is a lower margin of a poor result showing that an individual has problems with attention, memory, and reasoning, as well as difficulties in solving mathematical and logical problems. Nevertheless, an individual like this is still capable of leading an independent lifestyle and solving daily problems the way most people do.
65 IQ points or less:
All the results below 65 points are extremely low and mean that an IQ test-taker manifests mental retardation. As a rule, most people like this cannot live on their own and have difficulties with everyday tasks.
The question now arises here:
Does high or low IQ score predict success and failure?
I often answer this through my quote:
“There’s absolutely no harm in undergoing any IQ test, but believing this test alone predicts your success and failure in life is a fallacy.”
Furthermore, I introduce John Medina’s contribution in the field of IQ, the Developmental Molecular Biologist:
Go ahead, and multiply 8,388,628 times 2 in your head. You can't do it in a few seconds, can you probably? But, there's a young man who can double that number 24 times in the space of a few seconds, and he gets it right all the time.
There's a boy who can tell you the precise time of a day at any moment even in his sleep.
There's a girl who can correctly determine the exact dimensions of an object twenty feet away.
There’s a child who at age 6 drew such vivid and complex pictures, some people ranked her version of a galloping horse over one drawn by da Vinci.
And to your surprise, none of these children have an IQ greater than 70.
The human brain is an amazing thing, isn’t it?
In the end, I would like to close my response with Albert Einstein quote:
“We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
And, IQ was created a century ago. We live in a different era—21st Century. Therefore, we must acquire 21st century skills to come up with real solutions to real problems, and Education 4.0 serves better. Will talk about Education 4.0 in my upcoming write up.
Dear readers! Hope you are now well equipped with IQ, right? So, if somebody tells you, your IQ is low, do ask them what’s IQ except its expansion. Information is easy, Knowledge is hard.
Spread the words!
Have a good life, and make others’ lives good too!