Can iq change over time

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i think so, a person can learn and grow and develop where anything is possible. also the opposite can happen where somebody can lose their iq score with periods of events or tragedys happening to them that could cause such a thing. I knew somebody who was def slow as a child, now as an adult is on the honor roll, and doing amazing.

Ok, so you did really badly on an IQ test and got a certain score put into your records. There are some options:

1)re-take the test

2)don't re-take the test and go on with your life but you won't be eligable for jobs that require above a certain score on the test. Since you took this for the army, I assume it effects what jobs within the army you would be assigned. Were you looking to be in the army band and they need a certain score?

Outside of the army, employers don't have any idea what you scored on an IQ test. It isn't relevent. What is relevent is how well you can do a particular job. If you want to be a musician, the only thing that matters is how well you can play the instrument. That and how able you are to get to the gig on time. I don't have the faintest idea what the IQ score of any musician that I listen to is. It just isn't relevent.

I think doctors see the IQ test results as being written in stone but honestly, why would they be? Is there any other test that you take in your life where people assume that there is no way your score could ever be any different? Of course not! If you fail your driving test they won't give you a license. But they also don't say "that's it! You are incapable of driving and you may never have a license". No. You just get some more lessons, practice some more and take it again.

Roman is right. This isn't written in stone. Taking an IQ test is a skill. The doctors like to claim that it isn't and people either do well or they don't and never can. But it's a learned skill even so. That's why you can't buy any IQ test study guides like you can for other tests. Because doctors don't want people studying for it and "artificially" raising their score. They also won't let you take two IQ tests too near each other because they don't want you remembering questions from the first taking to the second. Because they know that it can be studied for.

If you want a job that requires above a certain IQ score, re-take the test after studying. There are countless online versions which aren't the real thing but I'm guessing that taking online ones over and over is the same thing as studying. If you want a job where nobody will ask your score (which is most of them), then stop agonizing about this. It will just be between you and your army records.

If you are going to retake it, I recommend studying by taking lots of different online versions over and over. Keep doing them until you can do them in your sleep. That way, if you have to do them in your sleep because you are sleep-deprived, you will score ok even without enough sleep. (That's my theory, anyway.)

Last edited by Janissy on 09 Sep 2009, 12:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.

they wanted to see if i could handle a tank
the thing is people treat me as if i am mr because of this test,they treat me as something as i am not since i scored in the bif range because of sleep deprivation

If someone's IQ changes by going up as they get older, then their IQ results weren't accurate when they were young. Sometimes people score lower than their intelligence due to autism or memory problems or being illiterate. My mom had a student in special ed when I was in 5th grade and everyone and even the parents thought this boy was ret*d but my mom didn't beleive it. She saw he was very bright but the problem was he couldn't read and no one bothered teaching him because he was "ret*d." I am sure the kid believe it too because that was what he had been told. But when my mother taught him to read, his IQ points went up.

I used to score in the mildly ret*d range and then I started to score average about by the time I was ten. Did that mean I was ret*d as a kid growing up? I don't think so.

I read that aspie kids score in the average or above average range and kids with autism usually score low. I think that is maybe because of their language delay, cognitive, etc. and the IQ tests are not designed for how their brains work. They are also not designed for blind people or deaf people or illiterates, so of course they would all score low on them. Give a person who is a concrete thinker an IQ test that is absract, they would also score low on it too.

But I also wonder if there were IQ tests designed for ret*d people, would they also score high on them or low?

well yes this can happen since iq is a skilltest and all of it's aspects can be trained for indirectly.
more importantly there is variation regarding things like energy levels and wakefulness at the time of the test.
also most adults do get dumber with time.

so a person with low IQ can reconsidered smarter than his peers later in life.
this variation applies to everyone in reality however.

I aways figured the brain is like a muscle, exercise it it will get stronger while not exercising it it gets weaker, My IQ as measured by the ASVAB went up 33%. Also the brain develops over time, I don't see any reason why someone couldn't be a late bloomer on an IQ test.

by that logic retardation doesn't exist

Why not? if retardation is an IQ below a certain measurement on a test, then that is what it is. Personally I'm more likely to respect the work that went into developing a skill to a certain degree the I am the degree attained.

Not "it doesn't exist"; more like, "it's more than just a low IQ". There are definitely people who learn most things more slowly than most people; and if those people have significant problems in their lives, we call it "developmental delay" or "mental retardation" or "cognitive disability". Most such people also have IQs below 70.

There are quite a few autistic people who are surprisingly good at IQ tests despite their low level of adaptive skills, or surprisingly bad at IQ tests despite their high level of achievement in one or more areas. IQ means less for autistic people than it does for most people. For example, at thirteen, I had the adaptive skills of a six-year-old, much like someone my age with moderate mental retardation would have. I also had the academic skills of an eighteen-year-old, which would mean the exact opposite. It is very hard to put me into a box like that, and I'd wager I am like most other autistics in that respect.

Other than convincing people that college training would be appropriate to get me employed, my IQ test results have been just about totally useless in predicting whether or not I will be capable of any given skill or in need of any given accommodation. The only thing I personally got out of it was that the subtests were so widely scattered that there really wasn't much point in looking at the overall score and expecting me to perform at that level. It's like saying, "Well, my car has a top speed of anywhere from 20 mph to 180 mph, depending on the road," and then trying to make predictions about how fast it will get you to work! You won't know until you try driving down that particular road and seeing exactly what your car can do.

Actually mine has changed twice (improved) since I was 10, and now stands about 15% higher than the first reading. But I don't think this is at all typical.

The standard earmarks of a person on the Spectrum is their scores in sub-categories are all over the place, whereas the scores of the NTs and the MRs are flatter, having homogeneous scores across different areas.

What is IQ? It is a test score. Take enough tests and you will get better at it. That does not mean you are getting smarter.

ruveyn

What is IQ? It is a test score. Take enough tests and you will get better at it. That does not mean you are getting smarter.

ruveyn

As I understand the testing, no.

I suppose if you are familiar enough with a particular IQ test, you could get better scores, but the test is supposed to evaluate your knowledge and ability to process information.

You could do more to raise your IQ by reading lots of books on various topics.

I'm maybe a case where the IQ changed... When I was a kid some specialist had said that I was "gifted". (I could had been tested, but the results had been lost.) Later my IQ had been tested by the sames who diagnose me of asperger, and the results were lower that the "gifted" scale. The psychiatrist has of the advice that my brain matured more quickly during childhood and that the maturing slowed down after that I got 10 years old allowing the others kid to "catch up".
Don't know if that's true or not, but it certainly suck not being "smart" anymore because of things like that.

(BTW Chief, don't think that you're bad results is because you're were "stupid" back then. The sleep deprivation certainly depressed your score.)

But...but...but.... In this anecdote you didn't actually become less smart. Your intelligence didn't go down. That's one of the myriad problems with these IQ tests. Professionals have convinced themselves that there is a 1:1 correlation between how intelligent a person is and how well they score on the test. This gives the illusion that somebody who scores high at one point in childhood has become less smart if they score lower at a later point. But it just isn't so. The other kids simply developed more slowly but eventually did develop. And is that so terrible? Is intelligence only worth something if other people have less of it?