Why more than one answer seems valid?
The most complex items have two or more patterns or rules that apply. Usually, when someone sees a different rule in a couple of answers, that is correct. However, an item follows best all the possible applicable patterns or rules. The test does not look just for the correct versus wrong answers, but for the “most correct” or “best” option out of all the available. This, we affirm, allows to discriminate better the highest levels of intelligence. Also, do not forget that you will not be able to understand/catch some patterns and this is normal. The test does not intend to be easy for you or so that you can answers everything. It is intended to discover your intelligence. If you do not have the highest intelligence possible, you will not be able to see some patterns and that is the expected result of the test.
Which IQ scale do you use (SD & Mean)?
We apply a “100 + 16x” scale, which means we use a sixteen (16) standard deviation and a one hundred (100) average score. Therefore most people will have scores close to 100, having less people scores that are further aways from any of both sides. For example, scores of 120 or 90 will be achieved by less people, and 140 or 70 will be achieved by even less people. To arrive to this scale, we first transform our test results into a normalized bell distribution. Once done that, we apply the abovementioned scale transformation. To simplify understanding of the results, we also communicate this in percentile terms, which tells you how much percent of the general population achieved better scores and which percentage achieved less score than you. Example: if you are in the 75th percentile, your are more intelligent that 75% of the general population and less intelligent than 25% of the population, according to the test results which must always be taken with caution.
What does my IQ score mean?
We will explain what your IQ score means in the email that we send you with your score and certificate. Please check our scale question to understand it better. We will give you an easy to digest score in percentile terms, which will tell you what percentage of the population you beat in IQ. The IQ score itself is a more complex transformation of that score used to compute the mental age of a person. In summary, if you are in the 100, you have a normal IQ. The greater the number in comparison to 100, the more intelligent you are. The lesser, then less intelligent.
Why does my score differ from other IQ tests I have done?
The main reasons why there could be a big difference with other tests that you have made can be: a) Other tests have more test items. This usually helps when you discriminate high scores. Take into account that our test is short. So sometimes a couple of questions up and down can make a huge difference. b) If by chance, the population that has taken other tests is more intelligent, while the population that takes our test is less, you will see a difference. IQ tests lose more sensitivity the further away the score is from the average score. If you check 130 IQ is aprox. 98th percentile. 155 is 99th. Since for obtaining that score you must compare with average score, by definition, extreme scores are less reliable. And you would need longer tests, more difficult items, and proven with a highly intelligent population, to make the test reliable enough for differentiating between highly intelligent with great reliability. In other words, our test is a short IQ test that answers better the question “How intelligent am I in comparison with normal population?” but it is not suited for differentiating well between a super intelligent and genius. We are actually looking forward to building in the future a version of our tests with a subset of population with high IQ in order to improve the most complicated items and gain as much reliability as possible.