IQ is a farce
 

I think the topic line explains itself, im going to give a few reasons.

IQ tests are written by people, that immediately makes their effort to be objective about what the average intelligence is and the best way to test intelligence completely subjective to the opinions of the test writers themselves. On an average, the test MAY be somewhat acurate, but the farther above or below the average, the more discrepency you have. Why? because the testers can only write a test up to an intelligence level no higher than theirs. If they cant think on the level of a person with a 150 IQ , how do they know that any questions on that test would actually be on his level of thinking if all the writers of the test had a maximum IQ of 130. This by logic would result in a deflated IQ since no question that would absolutely astonish the rest of us and confuse even more of us could ever be written by the very people it would confuse.

Additionally i see a bunch of questions on said tests when i was being tested for that farcical gifted program((thats another discussion though, i passed btw)) I see a lot of questions that seem to be diliberately below my level. I've seen POP culture questions on those tests before, and questions about random facts ((how many wooden teeth did george washingtons multi-material densures actually have to do with the price of sand in japan)) that i couldnt help but go...........HTF does that measure the level that i think on.....it seems more like a question that would get me a million dollars on a quiz show than a qeustion that tests my thought processes.

The proof?, ask anyone who has ever been in said "gifted program" where everyones IQ is supposedly above 130, and ask them if they ever had people in there that got confused by the question "what is your favorite combination of colors" or "what is your favorite class" ((and dont even get me started on why "gifted" students are required to answer such assanine questions))

IQ isn't necessarily a farce... but it is only part of the equation. A high IQ means that you can think logically, but the problem is that the tests themselves don't necessarily test that. They test if you can retain information, which is a totally different part of the equation. This is why you'll ocassionally have 'high iq' people that have no common sense at all. Of course, neither of those will tell you what your favorite things are... that's emotional thought. So, I guess I'm saying I half agree with you... however...

They take people that have been tested before as having an IQ of 150 through, preferably, various other tests, and then they see how those people answer the questions. Although, if they don't have access to a lot of someones with an extremely high IQ to take their test then they can't test their test. Thus, if you mean that the people who check the test are writers, then you're right... but if you just mean the people who write the questions, then not so much so.

I've taken IQ tests a few times in my life, and I never had any "pop culture" questions show up. The tests I took were mainly puzzle and logic based (as IQ tests should be since that's what they are supposed to test in theory). Questions about your favorite colors and whatnot are for statistical purposes (the favorite color of about 80% of serial killers is yellow ;) ).

I don't know my IQ (since it's information privy to your parents alone unless you take one of the online ones), but I do know that I was offered to join one of those "gifted" classes, I opted to skip third grade instead. Wow, that was a long while ago.

I don't like tests like that... As I've said before on here, I value simple means. Trying to calculate someone's intelligence is ridiculous. Finding their capacity of knowledge is equally useless.

When it comes to questioning one's knowledge, well that's certainly nothing special... It depends on what the person can do with their knowledge. I've met some people who have straight A's because they can memorize facts, but they aren't very bright when it comes to thinking beyond what the text book says in black and white.

Intelligence can't be measured with numbers, especially via a test.

I think the online IQ tests are crap that tries to make you think you're smarter than you are so that you'll buy the results for bragging rights.

How exactly do they work again? 100 is supposed to be wherever the average person is at or something. Well, someone posted an IQ test on a forum and no one there got below 115, even though none of them were adults, and I doubt that all the fanboys of Yoshitaka Amano happen to be a standard deviation higher than the average adult in intelligence. I got a good 140, which makes no sense to me because my brains about as logical and sensical as the plot of an NES game. I need a pad and paper to work out basic arithmetic and damned if I can figure out how to make myself a proper meal or drive or walk straight, or what the hell I'm doing in the kitchen or how even on occasion how old I am.

Well it's pretty obvious that the online IQ tests are questionable at best. I scored something rediculous on one while working on sociology homework at the same time.I got a 190 or something equally improbable, I know I'm at least above average intelligence, but I'm far from calculating planetary orbits in Alpha Centauri.

Wow, i have to say ive never looked at them in this light before. I knew that they were never very accurate, but dang. Also, i think a problem with IQ tests is that they're multiple choice. If you're a good guesser, then u can get a really high score even if you're a complete moron. Also, online tests are entirely questionable at best due to the fact that anyone can write a test, and claim it as ur actual score. What i really hate nowadays is how parents get really mad when their kids are complete and total dumbasses and arent allowed into gifted classes. Then, when the kids finally get in, they fail, and again the parents complain. So thus, the classes get so much easier to compensate for this, and thus the gifted classes are turned into the remedial classes. pisses me off.

you do know, of course that there are REAL IQ tests, like 12 hour long ones done by psychologists over the span of 4 days.. right? you know, comprehensive insight on your ability to internalize knowledge, analyse patterns, etc.. that are far from BS. also, i'd like to point out that there isn't just one scale of IQ.. the formulas had to be redone a few times. there's even a set of tests for certain brackets (as in, take test 1, if you get 150+, take test 2, if you get 100-150, take test 3, etc.

perhaps looking at online tests and the endall and beall of iq tests is not right. after all, tabloids aren't the same as newspapers.

Planetary orbits aren't that difficult to calculate, really. Well, I suppose doing it for Alpha Centauri might be a bit tougher, seeing as how it's a trinary system.

just use the summative gravitational field, or the average mass-position technique.. and magically, you can pretend there's only 1 star (yay!)