Whether you want to get under the skin of the IQ testing process, or have an interest in coming up with your own questions for an IQ test for yourself or others, learning about how IQ tests are made provides valuable insight which could help boost your score.
The standard IQ test questions you see in online IQ tests, international IQ tests, and other similar intelligence quotient assessments have been meticulously formulated over decades of professional study and psychological research. They aren’t just tricky or difficult challenges – each has something to say about the people who are able to solve the puzzle quickly, and each has been specifically made to obtain insight into the nature of human intelligence.
The Foundations of IQ Test Validity
It’s important to bear in mind that simply coming up with interesting questions which look or feel like standard IQ test questions isn’t enough to accurately, appropriately, or scientifically measure an individual’s IQ. In order to gain results which have any kind of meaning, you’ll need to have a representative section of the populous undertake your IQ test. Only once the data is gathered will you be able to set these essential IQ test components:
- Establish the norms for your test. This means you’ll be able to determine which intelligence quotient corresponds to which specific test result. All IQ tests should have an average score which reflects an IQ of one hundred.
- Determine whether or not your IQ test can be deemed as valid. All IQ test setters have to ensure that the test solely measures the IQ of the individual taking the test, and not something else (e.g how quickly they can answer questions). In order to do this, you will have to have a representative group of test sitters take your IQ test, alongside a certified IQ test that already exists. If your test is valid, there will be a strong and identifiable correlation between your IQ test results, and the certified IQ test used to check the validity.
- Establish and determine the reliability of the IQ test. This means determining if the difficulty level of the IQ test questions are similar, and if the questions all measure the same concept.
- Your test will also have to cover the four question types which make up certified IQ tests. There is, naturally, some flexibility when it comes to these, but nonetheless, the questions will have to be split between the categories of analogy questions, number series, syllogisms, and rotating shapes questions.
