Mensa Starts Dating Site

[garbon]

Where I come from we called it easily distracted and lazy.

Because doing extra work is lazy?

[Valmy]

That is not really the point of IQ tests anyway.  My father is a Psychologist who did extensive testing for over 30 years and the results were intended to aid with treatment for children not to identify the most brilliant people 

They also had a pretty good bell curve with the average being around what one might expect.

[The Brain]

They also had a pretty good bell curve

raciss

[garbon]

That is not really the point of IQ tests anyway.  My father is a Psychologist who did extensive testing for over 30 years and the results were intended to aid with treatment for children not to identify the most brilliant people 

They also had a pretty good bell curve with the average being around what one might expect.

I actually think mine wasn't an IQ test in so much as a test on how much of the information did you already know. I think that's what they used as the gauge - which makes sense.

[Maximus]

Where I come from we called it easily distracted and lazy.

Because doing extra work is lazy?

There was no extra work, no tests, no special programs. If you were bored with school it was because you were lazy.

[garbon]

Where I come from we called it easily distracted and lazy.

Because doing extra work is lazy?

There was no extra work, no tests, no special programs. If you were bored with school it was because you were lazy.

Well I don't think they tested me because I said I was bored.

[Maximus]

Well I don't think they tested me because I said I was bored.

I don't think I said I was bored. I just never got my work done because I was daydreaming.

[The Brain]

You were lazy so garbon was lazy?

[garbon]

You were lazy so garbon was lazy?

Canadians => blacks => racism

[DGuller]

Pretty sure my IQ was well below 130 (like 115 or something).  But then those of us who are below 130 do not go around wearing it like a badge of honor.

'Hey I am 105!  You can just call me 'above-average' Judy.'

As a kid I had an IQ test done at some point.  My parents never told me what I scored (for fear that knowledge would mess me up somehow), but it was high enough to eventually get me placed in an "academically talented" program in school, where they took the 'smart kids' from all across town and placed them in one class.

The thing is, of course, is that when I looked up some people from that class several years ago, we were all leading fairly ordinary, boring lives.  For a bunch of smart kids none of us were out curing cancer or anything.  Hell I might have had the most high profile job, and really all I do is go after drunk drivers in court.

So yeah, having a high IQ is vastly over-rated.

I don't think it is vastly over-rated.  On average, people with high IQ with lead more successful lives than people with low IQs.  It doesn't necessarily mean that they would amount to some extraordinary cases that are many standard deviations away from the mean.  For that other factors are important, and in fact sometimes high IQ may prevent wild success (because high IQ people are probably more risk averse and will not go for broke as often).

[The Brain]

I have heard from a source that seemed credible that information about IQ is a great help when hiring people.

[merithyn]

I don't think it is vastly over-rated.  On average, people with high IQ with lead more successful lives than people with low IQs.  It doesn't necessarily mean that they would amount to some extraordinary cases that are many standard deviations away from the mean.  For that other factors are important, and in fact sometimes high IQ may prevent wild success (because high IQ people are probably more risk averse and will not go for broke as often).

Is this actually true, though? I mean, I know that I've read several studies that kids in Talented & Gifted programs crash and burn in college more often than average kids, resulting in serious employment deficits.

[merithyn]

Well I don't think they tested me because I said I was bored.

Despite his quoting you, I think he's more speaking in general. Where he went to school, there was no concept of "gifted". All children received the same education, and if you were bored in class and/or daydreamed because of it, you were deemed lazy, not gifted, no matter how smart you were.

[Barrister]

I don't think it is vastly over-rated.  On average, people with high IQ with lead more successful lives than people with low IQs.  It doesn't necessarily mean that they would amount to some extraordinary cases that are many standard deviations away from the mean.  For that other factors are important, and in fact sometimes high IQ may prevent wild success (because high IQ people are probably more risk averse and will not go for broke as often).

Is this actually true, though? I mean, I know that I've read several studies that kids in Talented & Gifted programs crash and burn in college more often than average kids, resulting in serious employment deficits.

Some quick googling suggests that while there is a connection between IQ and career success, it tops out at a comparatively modest 120.  IQs higher than that weren't any more likely to be successful.

[Malthus]

Pretty sure my IQ was well below 130 (like 115 or something).  But then those of us who are below 130 do not go around wearing it like a badge of honor.

'Hey I am 105!  You can just call me 'above-average' Judy.'

As a kid I had an IQ test done at some point.  My parents never told me what I scored (for fear that knowledge would mess me up somehow), but it was high enough to eventually get me placed in an "academically talented" program in school, where they took the 'smart kids' from all across town and placed them in one class.

The thing is, of course, is that when I looked up some people from that class several years ago, we were all leading fairly ordinary, boring lives.  For a bunch of smart kids none of us were out curing cancer or anything.  Hell I might have had the most high profile job, and really all I do is go after drunk drivers in court.

So yeah, having a high IQ is vastly over-rated.

Heh, same with me - here in Ontario when I was growing up, kids were streamed into various levels, level 5 being the "ordinary" one, I got streamed into level 6 in HS - the "enriched" one - based on some sort of standardized test I was given as a kid.

My oldest brother was initially to be streamed into the "retard" level in junior high, where kids were essentially taught how to be useful in society by taking on basic and menial tasks, but my parents objected. He went on to become a professor in quantum physics ... 

Suffice it to say I'm not a great believer in the predictive power of such standardized testing.