Named IQ for intelligence quotient, the test is fundamentally supposed to measure human intelligence on a point-scale, against other people with different levels of intelligence. It seems accepted that 100 is around average, below 65 suggests some learning-development issue, and above 130 is extremely gifted.
But are these tests accurate?
Well, in recent years researchers have been growing more and more sure of these tests leaving out vital parts of the human brain, and personally, I strongly believe that IQ tests don't necessarily measure intelligence.
So let us start with a question to help us determine the relevancy of IQ tests:
What is intelligence?
Is it memory? Or how you do in school? Or how successful you are?
According to googles definition, intelligence is the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills. Acquire and apply. It doesn't state it, but I feel it's implied that apply means in real-life situations. What's the use of your knowledge in knot-tying if you can't tie a knot in a high-tension, quick thinking situation?
(photo from www.edubloxtutor.com)
And that's where IQ tests run short.
These tests can measure some portions of intelligence, but in no way is it enough to completely define how smart you are. Taking one of these quizzes may give you an idea of your logic, maybe some reasoning, memory, and it will certainly give you an idea of how well you might do in common academics, like school, but it won't measure all sorts of important things.
Application and judgements
IQ tests can't measure how good you are at applying that knot-tying ability when you're climbing aboard your boat, or how good you are at avoiding cognitive biases that could interfere with your ability to effectively weigh information and make decisions. What's the point of having a high IQ if you can't weigh information and, based off of that information, make decisions?
That's what you have to do every day! Get Mcdonalds or go to the grocery store? Invest here or buy a house? Yell at your spouse or forgive them and move on?
Creativity
Is creativity not at all important to intelligence?
If you don't think it is, you should think again.
Imagine Thomas Edison. He created the first lightbulb, something so important in our lives today that it would be almost impossible to live without. He couldn't have done that if he wasn't creative--he was creating something out of nothing, and that is the definition of creativity. Creating things!
This also includes musical instruments, painting, innovating, and inventing. If none of those things matter in intelligence, what's the point of intelligence? Those things are what moves us forward, are what creates new things to advance humanity. Without it, we'd be at a standstill--no new ideas coming out, no discoveries being found.
Emotional and Social understanding
These tests can't measure how likely you are to crack under stress, or if you know how to convince a crowd your idea is important. If you deeply understand social situations or have a great intuition about how someone's feeling, that is a kind of skill that can be applied to real life, and therefore it is intelligence! And this is intelligence that just isn't being measured in IQ tests.
It isn't any less important than the intelligence that is being measured, and yet a number ignoring all of these different situations is being accepted as intelligence when it's truly not.
In Conclusion, IQ tests can probably be used to measure your success in academics and how well you can remember things, and keep those things in your head. What it can't measure is creativity, emotional understanding, and applying the things you can keep in your head.
I'm not saying that what an IQ test does measure isn't important, I'm just saying that other things are also important, and shouldn't be ignored.
Want to learn more about this topic? Check out my sources:
http://som.yale.edu/news/2009/11/why-high-iq-doesnt-mean-youre-smart
https://www.edubloxtutor.com/iq-test-scores/
https://www.webmd.com/brain/news/20121218/iq-test-really-measure-intelligence#1
Not sure If I would call it an unpopular opinion. Despite being able to score really high on IQ tests consistently, I've always felt that they were a bit flimsy and very much contextual.
Maybe not unpopular :) They've felt that way to me as well-- and probably others. I've come across some who swear by them though, and I guess I've been around more people who've argued against me than with me. Perhaps they strongly believe in school and memory, which in my opinion isn't the most important thing.
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For sure IQ only measures some fairly specific set of skills. But nobody can't argue against direct correlation. On more demanding professions people with high IQ do much better and people with lower IQ are not competitive at all.
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