Guardian IQ Test

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The Guardian today has an IQ test which is supposed to tell you whether your salary is too high or too low for your intelligence.

It's supposed to take ten minutes. It's a fiendishly difficult test of numbers and symbols. I'm terrible at this kind of test, yet I scored rather well (mostly by guessing). I got 15 right out of 25, scoring a low 'cash-cleverness coefficient' of 4, meaning I'm horribly underpaid for my IQ. Since I'm self-employed, I'm going to raise my salary immediately!

What gets me about this kind of test is that it assumes there is only one way to skin a cat. For instance, the number sequences are generated according to one logic, but might also answer to another. The shapes they show can be transformed in more ways than they probably assume, if you imagine them shown in a mirror, half buried in sand, etc. In other words, there are all sorts of circumstances (and possible worlds) these tests, with their convergent right / wrong mindset, just rule out of account.

Also, is intelligence (and making money, for that matter) just about manipulating numbers and shapes? Isn't it also about how to imagine, create, charm, manipulate, consolidate, and so on?

― Momus (Momus), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 19:59 (twenty-two years ago)

Here's the test.

― Momus (Momus), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:01 (twenty-two years ago)

i got 21 right

gives me a coefficient of 11. yeah, i'm underpaid too apparently, i ought to get more $.

i couldnt do the 2nd lot though with the shapes. i thought they were incredibly badly drawn

― gareth (gareth), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I got 21 too, but i don't need a test to tell me i'm underpaid. i've always been good at the kind of skills you need to get high marks in an IQ test, but that is not much use in real life. unless i get a job setting these tests obviously. in which case i'd make the drawings better.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:19 (twenty-two years ago)

One weird (chartgazer) phenomenon is how people earing £20,000pa are apparently more intelligent than people earning £30,000pa.

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/News/General/Pictures/1999/07/01/IQ_graph.gif

― Momus (Momus), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:19 (twenty-two years ago)

I got 21, too. I guess the kicker is that being a smartypants often is a liability to the jobs we end up with. Oh well.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:36 (twenty-two years ago)

I am rapidly emerging as the stupidest person in this community.

― Momus (Momus), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:43 (twenty-two years ago)

I am tempted to mark every answer 'a' -- even when that is not an option.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:50 (twenty-two years ago)

I also got 21.

"Wow. Your IQ is as far above the average for your salary level as the scale permits. What are you doing with your life?"

Pretty depressing.

― dleone (dleone), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 20:56 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm very dubious about the shape-matching portion, as you can get completely different answers depnding on if you view them as 2-D or 3-D.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 21:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, just about anything could be happening on the 'dark side' of those shapes if they're 3D. Also, the dark parts might be shadow.

You get rewarded (with points, and, presumably, with a higher salary) for thinking the same way as your boss (or maths teacher) rather than for being 'right'. (Being right might mean questioning things like the bad drawing style or pointing out the polysemous ambiguity of the shapes.)

I wonder how Einstein would have scored? I'm totally impressed that scientists have today discovered that his prediction that gravity travels at the same speed as light is right. He would probably have had some interesting questions to ask the people who drew those shoddy shapes. 'Are these drawings in three dimensions or four?'

― Momus (Momus), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 21:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I got 14. But I, uh, wasn't trying that hard. I still got the 'off the chart' reading, but for < £4,999pa in retail I damn well better.

― Ferg (Ferg), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 21:35 (twenty-two years ago)

You're all right. A bullshit test (mostly because I only got 15). Who isn't underpaid? If you're not - YOU SUCK. I'm as smart as you, Momus. I will no lose no sleep over this test, nor should anyone else.

― Bryan (Bryan), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 21:38 (twenty-two years ago)

These tests work in a certain way because the world works in a certain way, and figuring out the way you're supposed to think is as much a skill as thinking in that way. Considerably more, in this case. Vis the trick behind half of the number puzzles being the same.

It would be brilliant if i) there was a non-straightforward answer to the questions, and you got bonus points for finding it "You got 50 out of 25!" or ii) they inverted your right/wrong percentage if you picked creative as your occupation "You got 25 out of 25! You're shit!"

I also like the way that you don't need to look at the test to get the answers to the last page, just at the answers. "Hmm, most of the answers have a white shape, most of them have a triangle, and most of them have a right facing bucket, so I'll have a white triangle with a right-facing bucket, please, bob."

The shape matching is indeed shit.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 21:42 (twenty-two years ago)

exactly, these were fairly simple (if you know how these things operate). if it were not for the badly drawn shapes i think those of us with 21/25, would have got 100%, thats where the marks were dropped obviously

the thing with IQ tests is they measure "how good you are at doing IQ tests", but this is obvious. when people say this like some amazing pearl of insight thats really annoying. yes, they measure certain facets of intelligence, the fact that they dont measure others isnt a reason to just throw the whole thing out. they are fine for what they do, as long as you remember what they do, and what they dont

― gareth (gareth), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 21:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I am fantastically good at IQ tests. They are a great match for my skills. I might score higher than anyone here (I have scored over 200), but I know very well that there are plenty of far cleverer people here. Ability at IQ tests correlate some with any more sane notion of intelligence, but less than (say) talking to someone for five minutes then taking a guess. For me, these kinds of puzzles don't relate to much in the real world. They are why I am world class at Minesweeper, and could do maths at Cambridge, and they fit with me being good at programming, but they say little about my huge limitations in loads and loads of very important intellectual areas.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I am fantastically good at IQ tests.

Modest, too.

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Yes, I know. But it is true. I do carefully say "I am fantastically good at IQ tests" rather than "I am fantastically intelligent", because (as I said), I don't regard them as the same thing. Being good at IQ tests, as I was saying, isn't anything to get excited about.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm terrible for second-guessing these tests and have no truck with number section going here, so 15 but have smoked a zoot.

Am wondering what happens to someone who is way too stupid and overpaid for the job they are doing.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:37 (twenty-two years ago)

"You got 6 questions right out of a possible 25. This gives you a cash/cleverness coefficient of...

-37

Well, you certainly have the experts confused. You're not the brightest spark, in fact your test results put you in "plank of wood" school of intellect. However, you've managed to persuade someone to pay you massively over the odds, so you can't be all that dumb. Can you?"

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:41 (twenty-two years ago)

I got 15 right too! Giving me an 8.

There were no questions on Transformers of pop music, the test is fundamentally flawed.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:52 (twenty-two years ago)

The one that really threw me was the last number series one. Can somebody explain what the pattern was there?

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Each number was (4^n) - 1, where n = its position in the sequence.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:57 (twenty-two years ago)

or I meant or.

― jel -- (jel), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 22:58 (twenty-two years ago)

doh. that should so totally have been mine.

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 23:02 (twenty-two years ago)

Most of the number bits made sense, and the picto-blocks were terrifically easy, but: the middle bit? Assuming they're meant to be 3-D, it'd have been nice of them to actually skew the figures on the side to match their supposed placement in space -- I kept thinking they're obviously not the same as the first placement didn't have a black dot depending from one of the sides or had its little triangle properly centered or something.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 23:09 (twenty-two years ago)

That test has been on the Guardian site for yonks. Madchen linked to it here. I did terrifically well on it too. I'm not sure I trust it as I'm not that good at IQ tests generally.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 8 January 2003 23:27 (twenty-two years ago)

"You got 22 questions right out of a possible 25. This gives you a cash/cleverness coefficient of...

500
Wow. Your IQ is as far above the average for your salary level as the scale permits. What are you doing with your life?"

b-b-but I have to finish high school first!!!

― Curtis Stephens, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 23:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh shit, did I get higher than everyone else?

..yay

― Curtis Stephens, Wednesday, 8 January 2003 23:57 (twenty-two years ago)

21/25. I earn about a third of what I did two years ago; I daren't show this IQ result to my boss as he might merely choose the cheaper option of sending me back to 2001.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Thursday, 9 January 2003 00:06 (twenty-two years ago)

All these people who scored one better than me, with 21/25! I feel so inadequate. That's before having to deal with all the "wtf are you wasting that IQ for so little money" stuff.

I will go & top myself.

Actually I won't, as I have to go to bed in order to be ready for work tomorrow morning.

― Mooro (Mooro), Thursday, 9 January 2003 00:29 (twenty-two years ago)

I got 22/25, and a cash co-efficient of 13. Apparently I'm underpaid. But I'm happy with my job so ner ner ner. Getting a job you actually like and enjoy and find rewarding and stimulating = v. clevoh of me to get it.

― Dave B (daveb), Thursday, 9 January 2003 01:46 (twenty-two years ago)

I wonder if I could have gotten 22 if I'd have understood the first number question; I don't know if I got it right by guessing. So what was the pattern there?

Sixteenth on the unclearness of the shapes puzzles. There were only 2, I think, where I said NO, not a chance, but I think I was misreading that section.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Thursday, 9 January 2003 02:34 (twenty-two years ago)

Question 1: 2,5,6,4,18,3,?

This is a pattern based on every other number, i.e., 2, 6, 18 is one pattern, and 5, 4, 3, is another.

― Curtis Stephens, Thursday, 9 January 2003 03:05 (twenty-two years ago)

I agree on the 2d/3d shape thing it was pretty sketchy.

My last job paid me what my 17 was worth, but now that I'm unemployed my rating has rocketed upwards, presumably. With people as smart as you lot hanging about it's no wonder I can't get work. *Puts on dunce cap, faces corner*

I aint leavin this pity party til 6 in the mornin yall. :)

― Hunter (Hunter), Thursday, 9 January 2003 03:34 (twenty-two years ago)

This is a pattern based on every other number, i.e., 2, 6, 18 is one pattern, and 5, 4, 3, is another.
Doh! I think I was looking for something deeper linking them all, which is dumb, since some of the other onces used the interleaved number pattern thing too.

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Thursday, 9 January 2003 03:40 (twenty-two years ago)

16/25.

It would be much more interesting if they told you the answers though.

― Chewshabadoo (Chewshabadoo), Thursday, 9 January 2003 05:05 (twenty-two years ago)

These things take me ages - I got 12 out of the 15 that I attempted before I became too fed up with it to continue. Despite the disclaimer that 'all this proves is that you're good at IQ tests', these have to correlate in some way with intelligence. I do seriously worry that I am actually quite stupid and that I've scammed my way through the eduation system by fraudulent means. I've never been able to do stuff like writing a computer program, I was hopeless at Maths ('A'-level grade D). Bar billiards, though....

― Dr. C (Dr. C), Thursday, 9 January 2003 08:18 (twenty-two years ago)

22/25. And I'll wager that the ones I got wrong were nabiscos skewed shape things. Trouble is, I still think I'm overpaid for my job because although I know I have quite a good brane I CAN'T BE BOTHERED USING IT.

― SittingPretty (sittingpretty), Thursday, 9 January 2003 09:45 (twenty-two years ago)

You got 20 questions right out of a possible 25. This gives you a cash/cleverness coefficient of...

14
Wow. Your IQ is as far above the average for your salary level as the scale permits. What are you doing with your life?

Wasting it, obv.

― michael wells (michael w.), Thursday, 9 January 2003 10:16 (twenty-two years ago)

i got 23 out of 25! i will keep mentioning this at my next salary review in a rather pathetic manner.

― rener (rener), Thursday, 9 January 2003 10:20 (twenty-two years ago)

These tests make me hyperventilate. I got 16 (coefficient 8), which still makes my IQ 'significantly more powerful than my salary bracket'. Which I knew already because a trained monkey could probably do my job. But I just CANNOT see how the skills required in an IQ test apply in highly paid, say, management jobs (though geek jobs are high paid too I suppose.) I would like to think that it's my people skills that will eventually turn my career around, not being able (sort of) to count. (It's also obvious crap because absurdly rich people like professional footballers or pop stars probably do not score very highly.)

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 9 January 2003 10:24 (twenty-two years ago)

But there again the world is one fucked up place.

― SittingPretty (sittingpretty), Thursday, 9 January 2003 10:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I got 13/25, which makes my cash/cleverness coefficient 300. This is the highest score I've ever received on an IQ test, as I can't do the numbers at all. I guessed the answers for half of them. Am not that clever after all, and should stick to my < £4999 a year retail job.

― Madeleine (Madeleine), Thursday, 9 January 2003 10:50 (twenty-two years ago)

what a terrible set of questions. i did very well, but bollox to it, if that's an indicator of anything it's how well can you guess what the question setter had in mind. there are at least 6 (what out of 25, practically a 1/4) questions there where there is room for ambiguity and alternative sugegstions.

― Alan (Alan), Thursday, 9 January 2003 10:51 (twenty-two years ago)

I was going to say, ooh wouldn't it be even more fucked up if people who do well on IQ tests ran the world. But I would actually quite like to live in a world run by Martin. He is wise.

― Archel (Archel), Thursday, 9 January 2003 11:08 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, but he's a pervert.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 9 January 2003 11:13 (twenty-two years ago)

You can find the answers pretty easily from the last screen, since it keeps your responses in the URL. You can twiddle one at a time until your percentage goes up, and repeat...

― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Thursday, 9 January 2003 11:15 (twenty-two years ago)

My result said "You are the world's greatest person, you rule oh mighty leader of Earth"

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 9 January 2003 11:18 (twenty-two years ago)

You can find the answers pretty easily from the last screen, since it keeps your responses in the URL. You can twiddle one at a time until your percentage goes up, and repeat...

That MASTERMINDESQUE feat is surely trickier than the IQ questions themselves?

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 9 January 2003 11:38 (twenty-two years ago)

Can you not *remember* your responses without having to look in the URL? ;o)

― SittingPretty (sittingpretty), Thursday, 9 January 2003 11:41 (twenty-two years ago)

same score as rener. co-efficient of 8. and I may well be getting a pay cut soon!

― Jeff W, Thursday, 9 January 2003 13:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I took a look at the questions and realised I'd do fucking abysmally if I did the test. At least other IQ tests I did had parts which I aced. I did the Differential Aptitude ones back in school, my results were always full marks in all the languagey ones and absolutely dire marks in anything mathematical or mechanical, I can't even fucking lock a door. Well that's an exaggeration but you see where I'm going.

― Ronan (Ronan), Thursday, 9 January 2003 13:15 (twenty-two years ago)

This quiz makes the assumption that the more money you make, the smarter you should be. Which is nice in theory in an airy-fairy sort of way, but I have never found to be true.

― Nicole (Nicole), Thursday, 9 January 2003 13:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Well the graph above proves the correlation by science, but yes, these things do not follow for head in the sky ILXers maybe.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 9 January 2003 13:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Arghh. I did shit and then tried again actually using my BRANE and did better but still not so well, I NEED MORE IQ TESTS. Where do I find them?? Please. Please!!!

― Sarah (starry), Thursday, 9 January 2003 13:53 (twenty-two years ago)

Arghh. I did shit and then tried again actually using my BRANE and did better but still not so well

This is the most revolting image you have conjured up yet.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 9 January 2003 13:55 (twenty-two years ago)

I took an IQ test the other day. It got me thinking, what IS intelligence anyhow? I remember taking a psych. class once, and they defined it as being in 4 parts and all of them pretty much related to the ability to solve a problem. (E.g., one part was creativity to find the way TO solve the problem, etc.) If all of life is just a series of problems and solutions then I might as well just hang myself.

― David Allen, Thursday, 9 January 2003 14:39 (twenty-two years ago)

21/25.

― Graham (graham), Thursday, 9 January 2003 14:48 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh fuck off Dastoor.

― Sarah (starry), Thursday, 9 January 2003 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Co-efficient of 0. Find out how much I make and you'll know how dumb I am.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Thursday, 9 January 2003 15:13 (twenty-two years ago)

Now someone else hates me for a little wordplay. This is getting out of control.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 9 January 2003 15:16 (twenty-two years ago)

I was going to say, ooh wouldn't it be even more fucked up if people who do well on IQ tests ran the world.

Lisa: Welcome, everyone! Today we embark an a new era of intelligent governance.
Crowd: [chanting] Gov-er-nance! Gov-er-nance! Gov-er-nance!
Skinner: [clears throat] We have some new rules and regulations that you're just going to go ape-poopy over. Professor Frink? [yields the mike to Frink]
Frink: [clears throat] Well, first of all, we're going to ban such barbaric sports as bullfighting and cockfighting. [cheers from the crowd] Also boxing, both, uh, kick and the kinds with the gloves, there. [less enthusiastic cheering] And hockey, football, push-ups, and anything in general where you have to take off your shirt, which is embarrassing. [crowd murmurs]
Lisa: [whispering to Lindsay] I don't remember discussing that.
Comic Shop Guy: Inspired by the most logical race in the galaxy, the Vulcans, breeding will be permitted once every seven years. For many of you, this will be much less breeding. For me, much, much more.
Willie: You cannot do that sir! You don't have the power!

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Thursday, 9 January 2003 15:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Sarah, try this:

http://www.mensa.org/workout.html

for a start. It'll prolly have links and stuff too. And sossidge.

PS. I may have lied about the sossidge.

― SittingPretty (sittingpretty), Thursday, 9 January 2003 15:19 (twenty-two years ago)

But I would actually quite like to live in a world run by Martin. He is wise.
-- Archel

Yeah, but he's a pervert.
-- N.

Sadly, Nick is far more OTM than Archel.

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Thursday, 9 January 2003 20:19 (twenty-two years ago)

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