Out of all the classes I’ve taken in my senior year of high school, the one I find the most useful is AP Psychology. In the first semester, we covered things from the history of psychology to the functions of the brain to sleep to memory. The chapter we are on now is Intelligence and Psychological Testing, which is very important when it comes to testing for learning disabilities and helping people find out what they are good at.
The idea of measuring intelligence started with Sir Francis Galton late in the 19th century, who studied the idea of intelligence being hereditary. Later came Albert Binet and Theodore Simon in 1905, who made a test to identify the mental ability of children. (This was originally to see if an education on a child would be a waste). The idea was improved with Lewis Terman. Later, David Wechsler made an adult version. The Wechsler version tests verbal skills (vocabulary, information, comprehension, arithmetic, etc.) and performance skills (picture completion, digit symbol, and block design.)
To test for learning disabilities on two different occasions, I was stuck in a room completing the Wechsler test for hours and hours. It was grueling to be honest. With some tests I was in the 90+ percentile; others I had such a bad score they wondered how I made it that far. I was particularly high in verbal reasoning, but my reading scores were abysmal. My IQ ended up being in the high 120s to low 130s. I can't remember the exact number. The test tests for potential intelligence levels, not how smart I am. The average score is 100 and if you are below 70 or so, you are considered mentally retarded.
Great, right? I have the potential of really being smart! Well, in Psychology, we took another IQ test. It wasn't the Wechsler. It was some 25-minute test with random junk that was simply impossible for me. I got an IQ of 18, which basically means I'm a vegetable.
Article comments
1 - Joanne Huspek
Intelligence test scores are simply an aid, and I believe should not be taken as the be-all end-all. It doesn't measure everything, and it's not always accurate. Your score can change from day to day, and from year to year. I know people who are MENSA level who can barely keep their lives organized. One didn't know how to turn on a vacuum cleaner.
As a parent with two kids who where labeled learning disabled, if there is a wide discrepancy between grades and test scores, that is usually an indication of a disability, not of intelligence or lack of it.
I'm pretty sure you're much above an 18, Maddy.
2 - Rolf Marvin Bøe Lindgren
Maddy,
Great article! I’m excited that psychology is such a hit with you. The possibilities within psychology are many, and you seem to have already discovered that psychology is a lot more than just terhapy.
Intelligence testing is difficult to understand, even among experts, and I’m not certain " from your reflections - that you have the best information available. If your total score in the WAIS (Wechsler) is above 120 I don't really see how many of your subscores can actually be in the 90+ percentile.
Are you sure that the test you got 18 on really gave IQ scores? Scoring is a difficult subject, IQ tests give differrent scores according to their purpose. For example, 132 on the WAIS is the same as 150 on the RPM. They are both very good tests but for different purposes.
3 - Marcela
Of course IQ tests are not completely relieable, specially when their purpose is to MEASURE any kind of inteligence. But I think they can be really good at helping people find careers they would be good in.
4 - Robert M. Barga
Did you look at the average in your psyche class? Most tests have an average of 15, which would be about the same end result for you