IQ tests have been around for more than four decades now, and there are chances that you may have taken one before without your knowledge. Nowadays, employers include cognitive tests as part of their candidate selection process. Even if you have never taken one before, you may someday, so knowing more about the test may help your case should the day come.
What Really Is An IQ Test?
An IQ test is a range of assessments used to evaluate the cognitive abilities of people. The end goal is to arrive at a score to measure the intellectual capacity of the individual. IQ tests are largely psychological, not emotional or physical, and test the brain power and fluid intellect of people.
The scores in an IQ test are standardized and are compared with the scores of other candidates who took the same test. This is why a candidate’s scores cannot be analyzed in isolation but relative to the scores of other candidates.
Now that you know what an IQ test is used for let us reveal five things you should know before taking one.
1. School Attendance Affects IQ
Before you take a test near in mind that your school attendance will have a significant impact on your performance and your final score. Based on research released by James D. Page, candidates with limited access to formal education don’t do well with IQ tests. If you did not complete high school or had a staggered education, you may not do quite well on the test.
2. Gender Categories
Are you a male or a female? Gender does matter when it comes to different cognitive categories. Men are known to score higher in spatial awareness, while women scored higher in tests for language development and emotional intelligence. So don’t feel let down if you seem to perform poorly or don’t post great results in certain sections of a test. It is not down to your lack of effort or intellectual deficiency. It is just your gender playing a role in your performance level.
3. It Cannot Measure Your Social or Artistic Skills
IQ tests are not the holy grail of intellectual unraveling because it has their limitations. For instance, the test cannot measure your social, artistic, or emotional skills. It is only limited to intellectual capacity and nothing more. And we know that emotional, social, creative, and artistic intelligence is important for the full development of an individual, not just intellectual capacity.
This is why you should not expect the test to mention your overall intelligence across all levels. If you want to know your level of social cognition or artistic expression, you will have to take separate tests for that.
4. Age Specific
Did you know that IQ tests are age-specific? For instance, there is the Wechsler intelligence for adults and the Wechsler intelligence scale for children. The former is designed to test the capacity of adults, while the latter is for children. So if you want to take an IQ test, make sure it is designed for adults.
IQ tests for adults have higher difficulty levels than those for children. Another thing to take note of is that your score is not solely determined by your performance but in relation to the scores posted by others in your age group.
5. IQ Tests Are Culture Blind
There are criticisms of the test. The tests are sets of Westernized tests developed using a Western concept. It does not consider cultural values, the different development stages of other cultures, society, and communication skills. In the “Geography of Thought’ by Dr. Richard Nisbett he argued that there is a difference between Eastern and Western views of intelligence.
So unless you are a Westerner or grew up in Western society, you may struggle with some of the IQ tests in use today.
How To Study For An IQ Test?
If you want to prepare for an IQ test, do these three things:
Study daily: A few weeks or months before the test, study daily for a few hours and make this a consistent habit. The more you study, the sharper your cognitive abilities will become.
Take Practice tests: There are IQ tests you can take online to sharpen your capacity to retain and analyze information. To improve your chances if it is a job interview, take practice tests similar to the one you are preparing for. Doing so will make the test familiar and reduce anxiety as the day approaches.
Play Cognitive Games: Another way to practice for an IQ test is to play cognitive games. There are many of them online that will help you improve your fluid Intellect. You will become better at spotting patterns and using limited information to solve problems.
