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In what % bracket of the UK Population, would you deem your intelligence to be in?

Reply 160

carcinoma

17

heidigirl

Having a degree doesn't suddenly make you more intelligent than you were before. :s-smilie:

Aside from the top 1% is still rather a lot of people (and having an IQ of over 130 supossedly puts you in the top 2, and that's just rather clever, not particularly spectacularly clever), being intelligent (particularly having a high IQ as measured on IQ tests) is not the same as being immensely knowledgeable or well educated. And I don't think anyone's claiming to be in the same league as Stephen Hawking (who's certainly more likely to be in the top 0.01% than just 'top 1%-although he says he doesn't know his IQ).

I never said it did.

But the guy is 18 saying he is amongst the top 1% of UK Minds, even though he only has a fraction of the knowledge those people i mentioned have.

P.S - Its actually 148+ (or 132+ in the S-B IQ Test) (the MENSA score 98th Percentile in the world.)

Reply 161

RyanT

15

foxyamy

Funny that - I was always under the impression IQ stood for intelligence quotient...

You just failed.

IQ tests are just a battery of tests testing your ability to do certain tasks. Quite often they're just spatial re-arranging or very simple language comprehension. It's like testing your ability to fly by seeing how you can move a joystick around. They completely miss the point and I will go against some earlier posters who said that someone with an IQ of 140 is without doubt intelligent. It is very possible for people to get high IQ's but struggle to have complex original thoughts - in fact whenever IQ tests have come up the other person has often score-dropped a high score which is entirely at odds with what experience I have had of them.

IQ tests are supposed to correlate with general intelligence. Next time you take one, ask yourself how do the questions relate to any concept of general intelligence. You will then be deeply embarrassed at how useless they are. IQ's do not mean anything. They are often used by the same people/organisations/recruitment processes that also turn to trying to categorise something as complex as a persons personality into one of say, 16 discrete boxes that come labelled and with an explanation letter. It's absurd and is tantamount to modern day astrology.

Reply 162

RyanT

15

heidigirl

Having a degree doesn't suddenly make you more intelligent than you were before. :s-smilie:

I would disagree at this point. When you learn new ideas, new connections are forged in your brain which can then be applied to other problems. Thinking almost certainly makes you more intelligent. I know there is a significant difference between me pre-university and now as a graduate. Perhaps the issue is using the word degree - a period of intense thinking may be more appropriate given the content of some degrees.

I do think the original point does stand. It is absurd for young people to try and project their ability against their peers onto the general population. They may have more potential but that is not the same as actually being more intelligent.

Reply 163

Aeolus

2

Wow, the results do not seem to be consistent with the quality of posts on TSR. :beard:

Reply 164

crazylemon

20

Aeolus

Wow, the results do not seem to be consistent with the quality of posts on TSR. :beard:

Yes, though I feel I was correct with myself when I put top 40%.

But then the more you know the more you realise how little you know...

Reply 165

carcinoma

17

crazylemon

Yes, though I feel I was correct with myself when I put top 40%.

But then the more you know the more you realise how little you know...

True intelligence!

Same! (i put myself in the top 40%)

But then again when i look around Britain today and the posts in this thread i think that maybe top 20% would have been a better estimate.

Reply 166

crazylemon

20

vas876

True intelligence!

Same! (i put myself in the top 40%)

But then again when i look around Britain today and the posts in this thread i think that maybe top 20% would have been a better estimate.

Last night begs to differ on that one :p:

(my god I topped last time...)

The honest answer was not really sure so I was conservative (I think, could be an overestimate)

Reply 167

whitepearlbaby

18

I'd say definitely above average, I've heard the average is quite retarded :teehee:

Reply 168

whitepearlbaby

18

Now, I've just read a few posts and I'm a bit confused - Is intelligence defined by what you already know or by how fast you learn?

Reply 169

Psylencia

6

Define Intelligence, I have an IQ of 138, but the common-sense of road-kill.

Reply 170

sweeter than a cherry pie

13

Dunno. I'm bright, but not a genius. Maybe top 30%.

Reply 171

milliondollarcorpse

16

Probably top 30-20%. Not that I'd say I was born intelligent or 'gifted'; more that I've been relatively well educated so my brain has been trained to think analytically and logically. I'm a believer that someone who would be considered 'average' (i.e top 50%) would easily be considered top 20/10% given the right circumstances.

Reply 172

foxyamy

7

RyanT

You just failed.

IQ tests are just a battery of tests testing your ability to do certain tasks. Quite often they're just spatial re-arranging or very simple language comprehension. It's like testing your ability to fly by seeing how you can move a joystick around. They completely miss the point and I will go against some earlier posters who said that someone with an IQ of 140 is without doubt intelligent. It is very possible for people to get high IQ's but struggle to have complex original thoughts - in fact whenever IQ tests have come up the other person has often score-dropped a high score which is entirely at odds with what experience I have had of them.

IQ tests are supposed to correlate with general intelligence. Next time you take one, ask yourself how do the questions relate to any concept of general intelligence. You will then be deeply embarrassed at how useless they are. IQ's do not mean anything. They are often used by the same people/organisations/recruitment processes that also turn to trying to categorise something as complex as a persons personality into one of say, 16 discrete boxes that come labelled and with an explanation letter. It's absurd and is tantamount to modern day astrology.

So, please do enlighten me as to how you classify intelligence... Do you think of yourself as intelligent and why?

I fully admit that IQ tests may not be the best measure of intelligence there is out there. I would actually base my intelligence on many other things and do agree that a high IQ doesn't necessarily translate into any kind of real life ability. I am interested to hear your thoughts on how you would measure intelligence though...

Reply 173

Teebs

16

I'd put myself well int the top 1% in terms of academic intelligence. If we're talking other forms then lower although it would vary a lot depending on what areas you're talking about.

Reply 174

shark67

13

The most intelligent bracket, whatever that is.

Reply 175

TWF

13

Anywhere from 50%-70%. Voted 60%-70%.

Reply 176

RyanT

15

foxyamy

So, please do enlighten me as to how you classify intelligence... Do you think of yourself as intelligent and why?

I fully admit that IQ tests may not be the best measure of intelligence there is out there. I would actually base my intelligence on many other things and do agree that a high IQ doesn't necessarily translate into any kind of real life ability. I am interested to hear your thoughts on how you would measure intelligence though...

I reject any notion of intelligence that has not been more accurately defined. I may use the word in a sense to allow other people to relate to it, but my relationship with it is zero. It means nothing and is only a weasel word. A word people utter because they lack a more precise word or that they themselves don't even know what they want to ask.

If someone asks if you're intelligent, you have to wonder if the questioner even understands their question. My money is on no, they don't. They may have a superfluous understanding, but it is precisely that - superfluous. You may set people tests to gauge their understanding of a topic within your marking framework but that does not relate to intelligence simply because intelligence itself is not defined.

It's time we started to move away from such limited thinking. Even if we humour advocates of IQ tests as a measure of intelligence - most people have an "intelligence/ability to answer IQ questions" that vary over different topics. Yet to try and average it out is obscene. If people wish to use IQ scores it should be broken down to its components, never averaged and explicitly acknowledged as a metric of a test not as an approximation of "intelligence".

Reply 177

Natasha_c

Acording to IQ i'm in the top 3%, but in reality i'm useless and don't know left from right and can't do simple things hence bad spelling so I put 60-70%. Thinking about it now I was probably generous - but everyone thinks they're more inteligent then they really are.