IQ Score of 128: Analyzing Its Significance

[Prof Sabi]

Recently I checked my IQ at Mensa iq test and got an IQ score of 128.
Is there anything special about it?

 

[Prof Sabi]

https://imgur.com/a/ySEVsdi Probably this link will work..

 

[russ_watters]

Recently I checked my IQ at Mensa iq test and got an IQ score of 128.
Is there anything special about it?

Special about the test or results?

You measure above average in a test that measures intelligence in a certain way.

That's a fact. I'm not sure the word "special" (or not) can apply. It just is.

 

[litup]

Well it is not high enough for Mensa. Still pretty high, probably 96th percentile or so. On a good day you could qualify. They cut off anything under 98 percentile. Top 2 percent.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Is there anything special about it?

It's an integral power of 2.

 

[Mark44]

In the words of Groucho Marx:

I don't want to belong to any club that would accept me as a member.

 

[Prof Sabi]

It's an integral power of 2.

Hahaha yes it is...

 

[Prof Sabi]

Special about the test or results?

You measure above average in a test that measures intelligence in a certain way.

That's a fact. I'm not sure the word "special" (or not) can apply. It just is.

Special means in the sense that is that score of IQ good or something above average.. that's what I asked :)

 

[Prof Sabi]

In the words of Groucho Marx:

Powerful quote... Well who is groucho Marx I need to see

 

[rootone]

It depends on what you mean by 'a test' really.
Some legitimate complaints exist about bias.
Bias in the sense of that the not very good tests are just measures of a person's conformity with a belief,
Scientology is a famous case of this kind of outright bias.

 

[jtbell]

Well who is groucho Marx

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Groucho_Marx

See also quotes and dialogue from some of his movies, e.g. Duck Soup.

Aha, here's another one that fits this thread:

I got a good mind to join a club and beat you over the head with it.

 

[symbolipoint]

Recently I checked my IQ at Mensa iq test and got an IQ score of 128.
Is there anything special about it?

What does that mean? Does it mean that you are intelligent or unintelligent? If yes or yes/no, then in WHAT WAY?

Now that you have this measure of your intelligence, what do you understand and know how to do, which if your IQ were 80, you would not? Also, what are you unable to understand and know how to do that you would, if your I Q were 150?

 

[FallenApple]

It means you are likely to be competent in certain tasks, actually many tasks. Psychology, and studies of human cognition in general, is still in it's Pre-Copernican stage, so it's of limited predictive power. But despite that, you will probably be fine in life.

 

[Ryan_m_b]

Online IQ tests are not proper IQ tests. Even the Mensa one should have a disclaimer that it should be used as an indicator and that it is not a true measurement of IQ (or at least it used to). Properly administered IQ tests are done in person and whether or not they are an accurate measure of "general intelligence" is a controversial subject.

 

[Tosh5457]

That's a bogus IQ test. I've seen it before on another forum, and people were taking all the wrong answers and still getting a good score.

 

[Prof Sabi]

That's a bogus IQ test. I've seen it before on another forum, and people were taking all the wrong answers and still getting a good score.

... **feels sad**

 

[Philip Olson]

As an autistic savant I find calling these tests "intelligence quotients" amusing.
Yes, I score quite high.
Every other "quality of life" measure scores me quite poorly.
Anecdote only, real life averages are for a certain social class in a specific environment. Quite accurate when used in context.

 

[Rive]

As an autistic savant I find calling these tests "intelligence quotients" amusing.

The whole IQ thing is quite controversial in science. There are a lot of problems already discovered with the idea. Would it not measure something it would have been abolished long ago.
But apparently a calibrated IQ test is able to measure something. It is just quite hard to nail down that something.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

I have heard a small story regarding the Menesa minds:

Several of the Mensa members went out for lunch at a local cafe. When they sat down, one of them discovered that their salt shaker contained pepper, and their pepper shaker was full of salt.

How could they swap the contents of the two bottles without spilling any, and using only the implements at hand? Clearly -- this was a job for Mensa minds.

The group debated the problem and presented ideas and finally, came up with a brilliant solution involving a napkin, a straw, and an empty saucer.

They then called the waitress over, ready to dazzle her with their solution.

"Ma'am," they said, "we couldn't help but notice that the pepper shaker contains salt and the salt shaker contains pepper..."

But before they could finish, the waitress interrupted and said, "Oh, sorry about that."
She leaned over the table, unscrewed the caps of both bottles and switched them.

There was dead silence at the Mensa table.

I leave it to the reader to judge the utility of IQ tests.

 

[Prof Sabi]

I have heard a small story regarding the Menesa minds:I leave it to the reader to judge the utility of IQ tests.

HAhahahaahah... Really, I laughed hard

 

[jack476]

Unless the test was administered by a clinical professional, it should not be considered diagnostically relevant. And even if it is, its utility in determining a person's ability is questionable at best.

 

[nitsuj]

...and people were taking all the wrong answers and still getting a good score.

I was just thinking of the benefit of flattering someone and even "legitimizing" it, and then trying to sell something, like membership to a "washed out" smart peeps club.

 

[berkeman]

I leave it to the reader to judge the utility of IQ tests.

LOL. I'm just glad that I figured out the solution about half-way through the story.

 

[OCR]

LOL. I'm just glad that I figured out the solution...

Lol... are you absolutely certain in regard to the solution ? . .

.

 

[Aufbauwerk 2045]

I went to a school for so-called "gifted" kids. The minimum IQ for enrollment was 130. But I've read that Feynman scored in the 120s on his IQ test. IQ is potential intelligence. But what is important is making the most of what you have been given, in other words actual intelligence. I was in Mensa and also another so-called high IQ group. Never again. One is better off spending one's time actually doing something useful. Then people will say you are smart. We accomplish absolutely nothing by "being smart" or being in a group that strokes our egos because we scored high on some test. What is important is what we contribute to human knowledge. So we should get cracking on that.

 

[ConfusedMonkey]

As mathwonk likes to say, hard work is much more important than a high IQ. I agree with this. Michael Jordan didn't become who he was just because he was genetically gifted. He busted his butt in the gym every day making sacrifices that others didn't make.

 

[Fisherman199]

Whatever IQ measures I'm undecided as to its utility in life. If having a high IQ gives you confidence to go out, challenge yourself and learn, then by all means, make it the central figure of your identity. It'll be to your benefit. If you can push yourself without that drive, I don't think it's important or special. I've found use in deciding what I want to be (kind, intelligent, thoughtful, faithful, etc.) and simply living into the trait.

No one is anything by mere virtue of scoring highly on an IQ exam, in my opinion.

 

[Aufbauwerk 2045]

In my opinion, IQ tests can be very useful and some of them do a good job of indicating intellectual potential. I would not dismiss them as useless. For example, there is a correlation between IQ scores and a person's profession. I recall a book I came across in the university library that had a section about this topic. Sorry I do not have the reference.

One study listed various academic specialties, along with average IQ tests for each specialty. I wonder if members of this forum might want to guess which specialty had the highest IQ? Actually, there were two at the top, and they are closely related. :)

My original point was that just smugly trumpeting your IQ score is no substitute for actually doing something that will actually reveal you to be a high IQ person. People think of Feynman, who was certainly of far above average intelligence, as a very brilliant man, not because of any IQ test, but because of what he actually accomplished. Feynman had it all: high intelligence, immense curiosity, a strong work ethic, determination, etc. I would say a high IQ is a necessary but not sufficient condition for high achievement in STEM fields.

One other interesting item while I'm on the subject. In the book I mentioned, it pointed out that among the people who worked in the high IQ STEM fields, most did somewhat better on the quantitative tests such as SAT than on the verbal. The only exception was theoretical physicists, who did slightly better on verbal ability.

I would say also that if someone is very smart, they should be grateful but also determined to make the most of it. Physics is a good subject for this. As Bridgman said, physics is doing the utmost with one's mind, no holds barred. But I would say mathematics, or any science or engineering field, is also great. We need smart people to go into all of the STEM fields. I would encourage kids who show signs of high intelligence to do just that.

 

[ZapperZ]

One study listed various academic specialties, along with average IQ tests for each specialty. I wonder if members of this forum might want to guess which specialty had the highest IQ? Actually, there were two at the top, and they are closely related. :)

This is unverified without proper citation. I'd like to see how they would get enough data to be able to do this.

The APS and AIP have sent out many surveys to their members. NOT ONCE was there any survey or question regarding IQ scores. Never! So if the organization in which practicing physicists in the US belong to do not have such data, what are the odds that another entity will have a reliable and accurate data on IQ scores of physicists, for example.

And I believe this is true for most of the other professional organizations, if not all.

Skepticism, analytical inquiries, and the demand for valid data, which are all necessary in any scientific analysis, need to be applied here.

Zz.

 

[Aufbauwerk 2045]

This is unverified without proper citation. I'd like to see how they would get enough data to be able to do this.

The APS and AIP have sent out many surveys to their members. NOT ONCE was there any survey or question regarding IQ scores. Never! So if the organization in which practicing physicists in the US belong to do not have such data, what are the odds that another entity will have a reliable and accurate data on IQ scores of physicists, for example.

And I believe this is true for most of the other professional organizations, if not all.

Skepticism, analytical inquiries, and the demand for valid data, which are all necessary in any scientific analysis, need to be applied here.

Zz.

You raise the appropriate objections to my unreferenced statement. Of course it's not enough for others to rely on my memory, so I accept your objection.

However, I did manage to find the following links. I'm not sure they reference the specific book I mentioned, but it's a start.

https://chhaylinlim.wordpress.com/2014/09/24/average-iq-per-college-major/

http://www.randalolson.com/2014/06/25/average-iq-of-students-by-college-major-and-gender-ratio/

 

[bhobba]

IMHO IQ is a load of rubbish.

Without going into the details why, I had an IQ test done by my GP who has just completed his qualifications as a psychiatrist - you have to do a year as what's called a registrar here in Aus before you can start practicing your specialty unfettered, but are still qualified. While doing that he still saw his regular GP patients, especially those that were of a psychiatric nature. He basically thought them useless because they often have various focuses. Knowing I was a strong math type he administered one that was tilted toward that. I got 151 - it was used to shut up the people that were causing me trouble. But my linguistic skills were not quite that good and my more balanced IQ was likely lower. Anyway I failed grade 12, not because of IQ but being a lazy sod only interested in math/science. In my case it was utterly useless.

Lets take Feynman - he had an IQ of 128 yet had the highest admission scores in math and physics ever seen by Princeton - but the lowest ever seen in humanities.

So while I did good at uni, IQ IMHO is the same as Feynman's example - Feynmam was a genius of of the magician type - I was just a student that worked hard.

Thanks
Bill

 

[Vanadium 50]

However, I did manage to find the following links.

These don't look high quality. Apart from being very far from a primary source, the chain of inference is long and not very straight. It seems to be that SAT is correlated with IQ (although since 1994 Mensa has said there is no correlation), and GRE is correlated with SAT, so therefore GRE is a good proxy for IQ. This is far from evident, and I would say far from likely.

 

[Aufbauwerk 2045]

These don't look high quality. Apart from being very far from a primary source, the chain of inference is long and not very straight. It seems to be that SAT is correlated with IQ (although since 1994 Mensa has said there is no correlation), and GRE is correlated with SAT, so therefore GRE is a good proxy for IQ. This is far from evident, and I would say far from likely.

Very interesting. After reading this I was curious why Mensa no longer accepts these tests. It turns out the reason is that they regard the newer versions of the tests as scholastic achievement tests, not as scholastic aptitude tests. They still accept these tests if you took them years ago, because they consider those as having been aptitude tests. They want Mensa membership to be based on your aptitude and not your achievement. I think their goal is a worthy one.

https://www.us.mensa.org/join/testscores/qualifying-test-scores/

This article has comments from a Dr. Salny who explains why certain newer tests are not accepted.

https://brane-space.blogspot.com/2013/08/why-so-many-past-aptitude-tests-are-no.html

For me this topic has no practical importance any more. But if I was trying to set up some kind of school for the gifted, I would not rely on one test to decide who was qualified.

I have read that Binet came up with IQ tests in the first place in order to identify French kids from poorer backgrounds who had an above average native intellectual ability. The idea was that these kids are an important resource for France and must be nurtured. They should be able to get the same education as a kid whose parents have money.

My conclusion is that I strongly support any effort to identify and help gifted children. They are a small percentage of the population, who happen to be critically important to our future progress. As for how good specific tests are, I am not qualified to judge.

 

[HAYAO]

Scores in IQ tests are relative scores based on millions of results who took the very similar test. The low level of confidence for individuals renders measuring individual's intelligence not necessarily fully reliable because you can only take the test once and you might be having a bad day. (And taking the test more than once might change the result) However, in average, many thousands of other people will be rather in an appropriate condition to take the test. So yes, IQ test might fail to correctly measure Feynman's intelligence, but it does not make IQ test completely illegitimate IMO.

 

[e-pie]

An old report:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/sc...929/IQ-tests-do-not-reflect-intelligence.html

IQ Tests do not measure the intelligence level of a person. Online IQs are far worse.