General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Does anybody really believe Drumpf has an I Q of 154 ? [View all]wildeyed
(11,243 posts)That number doesn't mean anything if you don't know which test and the year it was administered. 160 is very high, but not that uncommon on the old SB L-M. A score like that would not put a person in the 'top 100 IQs in America'.
http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/highly_profoundly.htm
http://www.interesjournals.org/full-articles/scaling-three-versions-of-the-stanford-binet-intelligence-test-examining-ceiling-effects-for-identifying-giftedness.pdf?view=inline
There are also different ways to calculate the IQ score from the same subtest scores. The GAI is used instead of the FSIQ if there is a large enough discrepancy between subtests. The individual administering the test also matters. There is one in my city who is known to produce higher than average scores for gifted kids so all the hyper ambitious parents looking to make the cut score for one of the prestigious full day GT programs go to her.
IQ tests are a snapshot of some random abilities that we think might correlate with "intelligence". They are also a useful way to diagnose learning disabilities. IQ tests mean something, but not what most people think. Both my kids are on the high end of the bell curve and have been tested. The younger, who also has learning disabilities, has been tested repeatedly. Every single test score is different. He got very different scores on the SAME test taken a few years apart. As a result, I know more than I really want to about IQ tests and their applications.