Wow, another reader of The Bell Curve. You don't find too many people who A)read it and/or B)will admit to having read it... That book certainly isn't for the faint of heart if you don't like statistics. The multiple IQ theory is certainly valid and I would add that ALL IQ tests have some component of testing retained knowledge. If that person was never exposed to that particular topic, they would score poorly on that section... By the same token, (kids especially) some people are over-exposed or early-exposed to some topics and an IQ test would identify some of that knowlege as a higher IQ when that may not be the case. That is why the tests are generally quite comprehensive and are adminstered by a human that interacts with the testee...

For those of you that took tests in school... be it high, middle, or elementary, they are almost NEVER comprehensive IQ tests. They are a test of your ability to exceed your peers and whether or not you would be able to handle accelerated cirriculum...

Those stating that they have a 130+ -- you are smarter than 98% of the population. 140+? better than 99%... 145+? better than 99.9%... Mensa admits 130+ and anything 140+ is certified genius. We don't have that many Mensa members here nore do we have that many geniuses. I don't mean to offend anyone but I doubt any of the reported tests were comprehensive WAIS tests. They are time consuming and expensvie to administer and they aren't given unless there is a valid reason to do so.  Just as an FYI, the estimated cost to administer a WAIS III test is approximately $700 and takes about an hour and a half... Schools aren't spending that on kids... not gonna happen...

IQ is an effective measure of your ability to do IQ tests. My parents made me do a proper one when I was 8 and I got 149. I remember parading that around for a while until I realised it didn't actually mean anything.

every once in a while, mensa holds gatherings at my school on the weekends.  for all the geniuses they're supposed to have, some of them lack utter common sense, as in walking into meetings between me and my advisor.  i've witnessed this happening twice, and my advisor said it happens quite a bit. 

that time, this mensa guy was looking for a room.  it's in the same building, but on the second floor.  of course, he comes to the 3rd floor, and just walks straight into our meeting, no knocking.  "is this the mensa gathering?"  "no" "would you happen to know where it is?"  why he would assume that is beyond me.  "no idea, we could look it up for you."  so we took the time to actually look it up on the internet for him.  apparently, he doesn't use the internet very often, because he started saying things don't really makes sense about the internet.  after a while, we found the gathering place, and told him how to get there.  but giving him the directions took a few minutes, since he couldn't tell north from left.  in the end, we told him to get out of the building, enter through a specific entrance, and instead of telling him how to get there from our meeting room.

a similar incident happened on another occasion, but it was a phone call.  the person was locked out and apparently couldn't find the entrance that was unlocked.  

to me, mensa is just a group for people who have too much time on their hands, and possibly failed horribly at their careers and in need of an ego boost.  why else could you explain these pointless gatherings?

that being said, my take on a certain group of high IQ people is that they lie somewhere on the autistic spectrum of things.  they have some unbelieveable skills, but also lack some fundamental skills.  i find that some math grad students are a little like that... they could be so spacey when they talk to you, but really good at what they do--i.e. prove theorems.  in the end, some members of this particular group (not all high IQ individuals in general) serve a particular purpose in human society, or else evolution would have eliminated these genes by now.

I never took a proper IQ test, the closest I took was the ASVAB for the military. It's not a straight IQ test but it probably tells you more about a person's intelligence+common sense+ability to excel in different areas than an IQ test (which if I'm not mistaken is very limited in what it tests). I got a perfect score on it. I don't much care about that so the only time I mentioned it was when some moron with a 98 lorded his 98 over the 70's and 80's.

I'm sure I could get into MENSA but Lingyis' experience there is exactly why I want nothing to do with that group and people like them in general. I had more than enough experience with people like that when I was in high school since for some odd reason my school district insisted on putting gifted students in a special program instead of letting them graduate early or do dual-credit at a college.

Oh, and yeah, wow are there a lot of geniuses on this site.   Not to be rude but none of the threads provide much evidence to back up the notion that VGChartz is a supercluster of geniuses.

i've never taken an iq test, but my mom tells me i'm very smart.

(and i graduated with highest honors in b.s. in math and EE and i'm finishing my masters in math in the next couple of months)

Last time I did a test (for a friend that is at psychology) around 4 months ago, I got 134 if I remember correctly. But it's worthless, I'm very bad at math... BTW, can someone help with math? >_>

When I was in elementary and in jr high I always had the best scores and such. I even recieved a recognition from Mexico's president for my achievements, but in high school I stoped caring about that and gave more dedication to my music.

Yeah... IQ tests are pretty meanigless. I know this as I have degree in psychology.

A better test of IQ is to see when people score high enough to get into Mensa whether or not they pay money for no reason.

Also asking someone their IQ tends to be a somewhat pointless endevor, though it can be amusing when people post IQs that arn't even possible or scores that have just never been scored.

The biggest problem I have with IQ however is that it changes with age. Every year you get older there is a good chance you'll lose an IQ point or two. Your no less dumb, but it's still the case.

For example it's EXTREMELY easy to score very high as a child. I mean being under about 16 and scoring in the 120 and above percentiles is ridiculiously easy because they don't expect you to do much.

For example when I was in kintergarden i could read, add, subtract, and multiply, (long division I didn't learn.) Back then in kintergarden we were being taught the letters. This however doesn't really effect me or my IQ today.

Another problem is just that IQ tests rely heavily on "Tricks". Learn the tricks and it's easy.