Britain faces TV test of IQ

[Gservo]

The UK's IQ will be tested via interactive television and the internet on Saturday night. The BBC hopes millions of people will watch and participate in the Test the Nation programme.

The results, along with those from studio-based tests of population sub-groups, will reveal, the BBC says: "where the cleverest people in the UK live. Who are the brainiest football supporters? Are blondes really dumb?"

However Colin Cooper, an expert on psychological testing at Queen's University, Belfast, who created the 70-item IQ test for the BBC, told New Scientist: "They have to do that sort of thing for televisual appeal - but I wish they weren't."

Previous national TV IQ tests in other countries have thrown up no scientifically interesting results. Unsurprisingly, an earlier Dutch version found no significant IQ differences between people with blue or brown eyes, or blonde or red hair, or between people with different star signs.

But the UK IQ test itself will be valid, says Cooper. "We administered it alongside a standard IQ test to 200 people, and we correlated the scores to make sure the test that will appear on the BBC does actually measure IQ. It most definitely does," he says.

more here (http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992270)

[BigBen]

The blond woman came bottom hahahahahahhahahahha :D Anyway LittleBen (15) took the test and got 61/70 questions correct and scored 130 BUT there was no age group catagory for him as the lowest was 16-19...... I did not do the test... its OK people thinking you are a fool but why take a test AND PROVE IT :D hahahaha lmao

Regards

[jema]

I'm a bit annoyed about it :( I knocked the test of last night on the spur the the moment, and so can lay claim to a million excuses (tireness, interuptions etc) for my score, but I did get 128 :) which was one correct question below the genius level :rolleyes:

jema

[GITster]

I got 124 :xblank:

everytime i do one of those tests i drop a number of points :eek:
i got this a while ago:
http://www.iqtest.com/view/iqtest/sale/010522/9905290467487

[BigBen]

LittleBens m8 Ezra scored 66/70 and got 135 he is 16 but has already done A' Leval maths and already passed lots of other exams etc....he does not go to school but gets home tuition..... Ezra has taken an official IQ test and scored exactly 160....LittleBen is at Grammar school.

Regards

[BigBen]

Originally posted by jema
I'm a bit annoyed about it :( I knocked the test of last night on the spur the the moment, and so can lay claim to a million excuses (tireness, interuptions etc) for my score, but I did get 128 :) which was one correct question below the genius level :rolleyes:

jema

Hi Jema,
How many questions did you get right?

[jema]

Originally posted by BigBen


Hi Jema,
How many questions did you get right?

58 not as good as I should have done :(

jema

[LinearB]

It's funny how little things give you the most pleasure. (Like beating Jema by 1 question :D )

I too should have done better I guess, the maths section being especially weak (me not the test, not a good advert for a maths forum moderator) but I was sitting at an angle to the television, with my son asleep on my lap ;)

[mackerel]

I sorta did some of the questions while I was packing, and I estimate I got well over 80% of the ones I saw. Main failing points for me were the memory test and the words bit at the begining. I think that worked out at a 120+ level. The maths ones were quite easy although I did run out of time on one or two, and the shape ones were a doddle.

Previously I did a mensa one by mail, and got scored 133 on that. I also did a web one from the US which scored me at 160. I find that hard to believe unless US IQ points are not worth as much as UK ones :D

[jema]

I think that accuracy of these things is a joke on a number of counts:

1) Practice. Tests of abstract sequences of patterns and numbers are something you can improve results on an awful lot. The Patterns I cought me on the hop as it is a very long time since I have done such stuff :eek:

2) Accuracy at either end of the bell curve is also going to be shaky. For example on 2 or 3 of the questions I clicked and missed the time out by a fraction of a second.

3) Culture, is English language fluency a guide to intelligence!

4) What is the wieghting to different skills? Whilst I am busy taking the piss at the moment :D my wife is i'm sure of above average intelligence, but got 97 :( My feeling is that this test was skewed towards the numerical/abstract.

jema

[LinearB]

I always treated this test in a light hearted way. I'm not actually sure what a high IQ really means in our day to day lifes. One assumes being able to manipulate shapes in 2 and 3 dimensional space in my head is a way of showing my brain can handle abstract problems and is why I'm a software engineer. My memory is also appalling but I got full marks in that part of the test which probably means my memory is of the goldfish variety ;).

My partner also got a score around the mid 90's, she earn's pro rata the same as I do and has a great memory but she did poorly on the memory test, her ability to guess right was also far better than mine. If I didn't know the answer my guess was usually wrong, hers was usually right.

To me it's just another measure which is interesting in it's own right but doesn't really show that much other than your good at doing IQ tests ;).

I seem to remember the way Bletchley Park screened new recruits was based on their ability to do a cryptic crossword in the shortest possible time. It may have been the case that people who wern't any good at crosswords still may have made excellent code breakers it's just on average, people who could did a good job.

Obviously my literary skills are somewhat lacking so I'll draw this ramble to a close ;)