Testing...Testing

The benchmark for intelligence has long been measured by what we know as our “IQ”, or Intelligence Quotient. I’ve never known it to be much of a standard, and it’s far less notorious than your SAT, ACT, and GPA scores. IQ registers a person’s reasoning ability rather than education or knowledge. But before 1912 and German psychologist, William Stern, how did we know Plato, Aristotle, Da Vinci (est. IQ score of 220), or a host of other so-called geniuses were THAT intelligent? Certainly, their accomplishments speak for themselves, but I wonder how well they’d do on our modern “standardized” tests?

I was curious, so I took my own IQ Test online. In my research (10 minutes), I found that you can accomplish whatever score you’d like based on what that given site is selling! There doesn’t seem to be a standard “IQ Test”, but instead, a litany of promotional marketing sites that front their sales-pitch with a free test. I didn’t take any of these. I can’t honestly believe an accurate IQ score goes hand-in-hand with 5 DVD’s for $5.

My score on http://www.iqtest.com/ was 137, which I feel fairly good about. After all, that number fits into the ”very superior intelligence” category. But still, I’m not quite sure of it’s overall legitimacy.

I had always been told a score of 160 = Genius. I think Albert Einstein receives credit for this. This made me double-y curious, so I looked to the wide world of Google to find more answers (they’re always credible, right?). Below are just a few names you might like to compare yourself to:

• Madonna = 140
• Hugh Hefner = 152
• Bill Gates = 160 (Calculating “Biz Smarts”?)
• Tony Romo = 124 (Scored a 30 on the “Wonderlick”)
• George Bush Sr. = 98
• George Bush Jr. = 125
• Kim Ung Yong = 210 (worlds highest)
• Muhammad Ali = 78 (taken by the U.S. Army…hmmm??)
• Lee Harvey Oswald = 118
• James Woods = 180
• Stephen Hawking = 160 (Yeah, but can he do a pull-up?)
• Quinten Tarantino = 160 (”Kill Bill” equals E=mc squared)
  

As with everything else in life, you can always find someone worse off (dumber) or better off (smarter) than yourself. I’m sure my score went directly to the heads at MENSA for my opportunity to join the ranks of comedian Steve Martin and actress Goldie Hawn (yes, Goldie Hawn). I might even use it as a resume builder and provide a comparison chart to show I’m a better “reasoner” than President Bush and Tony Romo. Look for my name in headlines somewhere, doing something greater than these two hacks. : )