Go look for one of those tests online. The ones with all the
little symbols on it, the word comparison things, take one,
no, take two, they're small. When you get your results,
compare them to your overall puzzle-solving track record
in your own life, see if you really honestly agree with
their assessment.
Now, take a minute, and ponder: If you had editorial
control, authority over these tests and their content,
what kind of stumpers would YOU put in it?
My point is this: Anything is possible, with some
coaching, and it's been said before that test-taking is
a learned skill in and of itself. You have to learn to
concentrate, to differentiate, to recognize familiar
language. For that last part, vocabulary is key.
If you don't get the lingo, the question won't make
sense, and neither will your answer. Mainly,
though, the key skill necessary to 'pass' an IQ
test is patience. It takes a long time, and a lot
of practice, to get into the mindset necessary
to do these things. If you don't like tests, or
you have other things you'd rather be doing,
the amount of mental energy you're going to
invest in this kind of thing will be pretty
minimal.
Now, does your IQ, your level of 'smarts', does
that come from genetics, or is it a product of
environment? You take someone from the
country, from the sticks, that's learned to
navigate by the stars by themselves, that kind
of thing, and put them at a desk for the first
time in their lives, and they'll fail that test.
They may also take the desk AND the pencil
for use as construction materials for something
else. Not everyone can take and pass stupid
little paper tests. A master sculptor isn't necessarily
an accomplished speaker, and might look at you
like you're from another planet if you started doing
math problems on the blackboard, or started up
a computer if they're not familiar with the technology.
Does that mean that IQ scores are a fraud? Well,
not necessarily, the pedagogues and other
learned scholarly types like tests, because tests
give you numbers that you can play with. But,
my money's still on the 'naturals', the ones that
pick up 4 languages independently, the geniuses
that figure out how to balance a 4-ton rock on
a tree stump, stuff like that. They're out there
and some of em have never seen a pencil in
their lives...
