Sample questions from IQ test that are bogus

[Jin314159]

Which one is least like the other four: A Z F N E

I picked A because it seemed like you can pair up the others. Like Z goes with N because they are rotations of each other. And F goes with E because E is just one stroke short of F. Well, it turns out the correct answer was E because it's written in 5 strokes and the others are written in 4. Yea... that makes sense and all but I thought my interpretation is equally valid.

Which makes the best analogy? Bullet is to gun as ball is to: Bat slingshot Pitcher Cannon Catapult

I picked pitcher but the correct answer was cannon. But the main problem is that "ball" has only recreation conotations to me, not ballastic ones. I mean, they could have specified by saying "cannonball" instead of "ball" but I guess that would be too obvious.

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1641/iq37.gif

I picked the screwdriver because similar to the first question I posted, the others could be paired up. For example, knife goes with saw and spoon with shovel. But it turns out the right answer is knife because it starts with a "K." First of all, when they ask for the one that doesn't fit and only show pictures, one has to assume it doesn't fit because of functionality not spelling. Also, suppose this question was given in another language, where the items are spelled differently.

Which one is least like the other four: Ham, Liver, Salmon, Pork, Beef?

I picked liver because it's an organ. Sure you can eat it, but it's not an official type of meat. Anyways, the correct answer was salmon. I'm like: "What the hell? Don't salmon also have livers?" They're stupid justification was that Salmon is a fish. Pfsshhh...

Anyways, I still got a 155 but it means nothing. IQ questions are often subject to personal biases and interpretations. Here's the dumb test if you want to look at it: http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/1641/iqown2.html

 

[Monique]

O sure, I agree :) but you picked a not so authoretive IQ test here.. on the internet everyone can put information on it. The trick is to know how much value to put to information posted, I would never take a test like this one serious.

But if you go to http://www.iqtest.com .. it looks like they know what they are doing.. should we believe that test to be valid and sought out?

 

[one_raven]

I picked A because it seemed like you can pair up the others. Like Z goes with N because they are rotations of each other. And F goes with E because E is just one stroke short of F. Well, it turns out the correct answer was E because it's written in 5 strokes and the others are written in 4. Yea... that makes sense and all but I thought my interpretation is equally valid.

But you are not pairing them up with the same criteria.
The answer would have to have internal consistency.

The same reasoning applies to the knife thing.

As for the cannon thing, you can fire any ball out of a cannon, not just a cannonball.
A pitcher does not fire a ball like a gun does, it throws it.
Agian, it is consistency of the anology.

As for the Salmon question...
I completely agree with you.

 

[Monique]

I too thought of the correct answer in the first two questions. I couldn't make out what the third image in the link is supposed to represent and the salmon question.. I choose the liver too :)

 

[Jin314159]

O sure, I agree :) but you picked a not so authoretive IQ test here.. on the internet everyone can put information on it. The trick is to know how much value to put to information posted, I would never take a test like this one serious.

But if you go to http://www.iqtest.com .. it looks like they know what they are doing.. should we believe that test to be valid and sought out?

Yea, I took the www.iqtest.com before and got the same score.

Actually, the most reliable IQ test I've taken IHMO is from www.highiqsociety.org. They offer 5 tests, but I think the "culture fair IQ test" was the most accurate. I think the "Ultimate IQ test" slightly inflates your IQ. The "verbal IQ test" was whack; you need to be a real bookworm for that one. The "Timed IQ test" was good but it would be inaccurate if you don't work well under time pressure. And the "Test for exceptional genius" was just too difficult.

Then there's the www.mensa.org worksheet but it doesn't tell you your IQ, it only tells you of your probability of gaining acceptance into their organization.

By the way, does anyone know where I can get a real IQ test? I heard you had to go to a pyschiatric clinic or something.

 

[Adam]

There is a test made of a series if smaller tests which shrinks use, and is the most widely accepted test as far as professionals in the field are concerned. I did it at the start of last year, and it's nothing at all like the internet tests I've seen.

 

[NateTG]

Actually, the most reliable IQ test I've taken IHMO is from www.highiqsociety.org. They offer 5 tests, but I think the "culture fair IQ test" was the most accurate. I think the "Ultimate IQ test" slightly inflates your IQ. The "verbal IQ test" was whack; you need to be a real bookworm for that one. The "Timed IQ test" was good but it would be inaccurate if you don't work well under time pressure. And the "Test for exceptional genius" was just too difficult.

There are a couple of questions on that one that do stupid things with color. I was looking at it, and trying to figure out whether the color differences were intentional, or intended to be shading.

 

[NateTG]

I picked A because it seemed like you can pair up the others. Like Z goes with N because they are rotations of each other. And F goes with E because E is just one stroke short of F. Well, it turns out the correct answer was E because it's written in 5 strokes and the others are written in 4. Yea... that makes sense and all but I thought my interpretation is equally valid.

Right, or A because all of the others have parralel lines, or N because all of the others have horizontal lines, or Z because it's the only one from the second half of the alphabet. F is, of course, the only one of the letters in that list that hits the baseline in only one place.

I picked pitcher but the correct answer was cannon. But the main problem is that "ball" has only recreation conotations to me, not ballastic ones. I mean, they could have specified by saying "cannonball" instead of "ball" but I guess that would be too obvious.

This one doesn't seem so bad to me

I picked the screwdriver because similar to the first question I posted, the others could be paired up. For example, knife goes with saw and spoon with shovel. But it turns out the right answer is knife because it starts with a "K." First of all, when they ask for the one that doesn't fit and only show pictures, one has to assume it doesn't fit because of functionality not spelling. Also, suppose this question was given in another language, where the items are spelled differently.

Of course, the spoon is the only one that doesn't have a blade, the screwdriver is the only one that you twist to use it, the shovel is the only one you use with both hands.

 

[Nachtwolf]

As I understand it, online IQ tests are untrustworthy and unreliable. It may well be that some of them do give accurate scores, but there are many which do not - how can you sort the good from the bad with any confidence? I've asked professional psychometricians, and they tell me that the only way to get an accurate score is to see a psychologist.

Ultimately, however, it really isn't important that you get your own IQ tested except for diagnostic purposes (that is, to answer questions about whether you may have a learning disability, for instance). In my opinion, IQ is a better tool for sociologists than for individuals.


--Mark

 

[Moonbear]

I don't see what the problem is with those questions. All the correct answers seemed like the most obvious. When you're taking any sort of test, it's not enough to be able to come up with some rationalization of YOUR answer, you have to look for the BEST answer. Certainly when asked to pick the most different out of a group, you can't base it on simple pairs. You have to look for the pattern that fits ALL of the things in that category. With most of the internet IQ tests I've seen, they are basically asking you to think a little outside the box. Don't look at the letters as letters, look at them as collections of lines. So, when you rotate N to form Z, you can't rotate it one more time to get A, F or E, so that criteria isn't the best solution. The salmon one was easy too. All the other choices were parts of animals, salmon is the whole animal. I agree with the answer, not the reasoning...you're right, you shouldn't have to assume it's food, what if you think of liver as an organ that vertebrates have and not as a food product? Then it could be part of a fish as much as part of a pig or cow. Once you understand HOW they are testing you, it becomes very easy to keep finding the same patterns over and over. I've never taken a real IQ test, at least not that I ever remember taking, but have had fun while bored taking them on the internet...they're just puzzles to play...the ones on the internet are all too easy because they just keep following all these same patterns. For the most part, they are all about understanding relationships...thinking about numbers as words (they show you "2" and you need to think "two"), looking at pictures and thinking about the words that go with them or the parts of the whole. They seem to be about really thinking about what you're looking at, not just following a rigid set of rules. If you always think of 2 as a number and never as a word, never as the letters that make up the word or the number of letters that make up the word, or the shape of the strokes made to write the number, then you're just not going to find the right answer.

The point you make about the picture question needing to be different if it was in a different language is a valid one. I would expect it would be different pictures if that was the case, but it quickly gets to the point that there's no way to directly compare IQs across people who speak different languages, because the tests are necessarily different since so much depends on language.

 

[ShawnD]

By the way, does anyone know where I can get a real IQ test? I heard you had to go to a pyschiatric clinic or something.

Just take a bunch of online tests. I've taken about 5 different online IQ tests and they all put me at about the same range. Highest was 135, lowest was 132. These were tests from different websites, not 5 tests on the same site.
If all the sites agree, then I guess the test is pretty accurate.

 

[aychamo]

But... How "fair" are all these tests? If you get something right because of something that you were exposed to previously in life, or if you had seen a very similar problem before and got it right this time, then you really didn't "get" the score.

 

[selfAdjoint]

That's why they have a lot of different types of questions, and give you a battery of tests instead of just one. They idea is to make it it statistically unlikely that you will have an edge on all the questions. And if you have the edge on some of them, somebody else is likely to have the edge on others, resulting in an overall wash over a large number of people taking the test.

As somebody posted above, the tests are helpful but not certain for individuals, but become more and more solid as the population taking them increases (a la the central limit theorem).

 

[recon]

But if you go to http://www.iqtest.com .. it looks like they know what they are doing.. should we believe that test to be valid and sought out?

I know that IQ tests online aren't accurate, but anyway I did this one and came back with a result of 163! That must be WILDLY inaccurate. And English is not even my first language! Did they factor in my age? Because I don't think they did. So if I do factor the language and age in, I'll have a score of around 170? The test is F L A W E D !

 

[Chen]

How did you get your result, recon? I just took the test (in 7 minutes) and they want $10 to show me the results. lol

 

[recon]

They e-mailed the results to me. Didn't they ask for your e-mail address?

 

[Chen]

Oh yeah, here it is. I didn't think they send it there for free.

Thank you for recently taking the IQ Test, your score was: 164

Average: 85 - 115
Above average: 116 - 125
Gifted Borderline Genius: 126 - 135
Highly gifted and appearing to be a Genius to most others: 136 - 145
Genius: 146 - 165
High Genius: 166 - 180
Highest Genius: 181 - 200
Beyond being measurable Genius: Over 200

The test was stupid though. The questions were way too easy, and except for maybe 3-4 all of the answers were True.

 

[hitssquad]

I just got my results:

• Thank you for recently taking the IQ Test, your score was: 25

 

[Evo]

I just got my results:

• Thank you for recently taking the IQ Test, your score was: 25

Hitssquad, sometimes you can be endearing.

 

[recon]

Actually, I just found out that iqtest.com does factor in your age. Still the test results are too optimistic.

 

[BlackVision]

Most online tests tend not to be accurate. A lot of them inflate your scores. One of the more accurate ones I've found though was www.highiqsociety.com[/URL] .

For an accurate test, I recommend taking either the Stanford Binet IQ test, which is what MENSA uses, or the SPM (Standard Progressive Matrices) IQ Test test which is completely nonverbal so it'll have absolutely no educational bias. Both these tests are only available through psychologists and other professionals and not online however.