Re:Interview with Terence Tao
by kiba on Monday September 29, 2014 @07:30AM
(#8382426)
Certain things cannot be gamed, or even if they're gamed, they're still good, like your IQ score.
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You can improve your IQ score by taking lots of IQ tests (your "IQ" will slowly improve), and I don't consider IQ to be a good thing by itself.
Not really -- the IQ tests used by MENSA for example are quite reliable/stable. You can improve your result by 6-10 points with a lot of training, but that's usually the most that people can achieve.
A standard deviation on IQ tests is 15 points. A 6-10 point improvement from the median represents a jump of 15.5 - 24.75 percentile rank. Even at the level MENSA is looking at, someone with a 10 point improvement could have a "true IQ" at just above the 95th percentile and qualify for their 98th percentile cutoff.
Maybe the reason MENSA's tests are reliable is that not many people are interested in joining MENSA - I am not denying that MENSA can be of interest, but its admittance would not be worth preparing IQ tests like crazy.
On the other hand, if IQ tests were used for admissions in prestigious universities, you can bet some students will train specifically for IQ tests.