IQ Score of 128: Analyzing Its Significance

[Drakkith]

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.

I'm in a similar boat. I scored in the bottom 1% on several tests involving memory and language, but my IQ was rated as average or slightly above average.

 

[stevendaryl]

I'm intrigued by the question of what intelligence means.

Let's just take one type of question that might show up on an IQ test:

What's the next number in this sequence?

3, 8, 15, 24, 35, ?

That's an easy one: To get from one number to the next, add an increasing sequence of odd numbers: 5, 7, 9, 11. So the next time, you add 13 to get 48. So it's a sign of intelligence that you can solve these sorts of problems.

However, mathematically, there are an infinite number of rules that can match a finite sequence. So the "next number" is not actually uniquely defined. What you're really being asked is to guess what answer the question-maker probably wanted. Some rules that could generate the given sequence, would be rejected as too ad hoc, too ugly. Figuring them out would not give that sense of "a ha" that you get when you make a discovery.

 

[symbolipoint]

3, 8, 15, 24, 35, ?

That's an easy one: To get from one number to the next, add an increasing sequence of odd numbers: 5, 7, 9, 11. So the next time, you add 13 to get 48. So it's a sign of intelligence that you can solve these sorts of problems.

However, mathematically, there are an infinite number of rules that can match a finite sequence. So the "next number"...

Just quick comment
note each term 1 short of a square
4-1, 9-1, 16-1, 25-1, 36-1
2^2-1, 3^2-1, 4^2-1, 5^2-1, 6^2-1