Comments on: let the mefi pissing contest begin!

let the mefi pissing contest begin!

crunchland — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 07:20:49 -0800

"Check out the big brain on Brett!" ... A visual IQ test.

By: Robot Johnny

Robot Johnny — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 07:52:12 -0800

128... I'm a goddamn genius and I just guessed the last quarter or so.

By: Irontom

Irontom — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:03:20 -0800

113... same experience as Robot Johnny on the last quarter.

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:04:28 -0800

128...tough stuff.

By: ursus_comiter

ursus_comiter — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:06:35 -0800

128... No guessing, except an educated one on the last.

By: vraxoin

vraxoin — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:07:31 -0800

126... now my head hurts.

By: samelborp

samelborp — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:12:42 -0800

104... I suppose I am bad at guessing... I swear I got 130 on the traditional IQ test! (the one in which you have a puzzle that once solved shows the figure of a very big mammal...)

By: DragonBoy

DragonBoy — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:17:37 -0800

128 too. I hate these sorts of things. Now I'll be seeing patterns all day.

By: brettski

brettski — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:19:01 -0800

Crunchland - thanks for the namecheck!

By: ursus_comiter

ursus_comiter — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:20:39 -0800

Metafilter: Am I højt or not?

By: notsnot

notsnot — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:22:57 -0800

126...with a couple phone calls in the middle...and some guessing.

By: grabbingsand

grabbingsand — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:23:21 -0800

119. Ow. The questions were not too painful, but the twitching bits in the background were starting to get to me.

By: Cerebus

Cerebus — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:26:23 -0800

133. I tend to stay in the mid-130's on these web IQ tests. 8)

By: Johnny Assay

Johnny Assay — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:26:56 -0800

130. Go me, or something. Did anybody figure out what the hell was going on on Nos. 36 & 37? I ended up just giving up on them...

By: milnak

milnak — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:31:56 -0800

85! Time for me to make another MeFi front page post.

By: zsazsa

zsazsa — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:33:45 -0800

Okay, what was with the animated buttock-looking things in the background. At first I thought it was my imagination.... or is it?

By: Cerebus

Cerebus — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:37:56 -0800

It's a neuron.

By: greengrl

greengrl — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:38:17 -0800

113, and I guessed on most of the last quarter too.

By: daver

daver — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:45:04 -0800

113 makes me slightly above average in denmark,I think, but seeming a bit below on the 'filter. I noticed the movement in the background as well, zsazsa...

By: jennyb

jennyb — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:45:05 -0800

I got a 121, but it took me like ten minutes to figure out how to make it give me a score so I think I should have to deduct some points.

By: Samuel Farrow

Samuel Farrow — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:46:01 -0800

Got bored and gave up an number 9.

By: adamrice

adamrice — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:48:19 -0800

123. I feel dumm. Only flat-out guessed on the third-to-last one (or was it second-to-last). Had about 10 minutes to spare at the end--I wonder if it takes time into account? There's a BBC IQ test that gives you limited time for each response.

By: Lafe

Lafe — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:50:41 -0800

I scored 130. In truth, this isn't a test of IQ (which I view as "ability to learn new things") as much as pattern recognition. But some of those patterns are tough to recognize!

By: taz

taz — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:52:06 -0800

zsazsa, the buttock-looking things at that site were not animated, but don't be discouraged; there really are animated buttock-looking things almost eveywhere else in the world, and it's not your imagination.

By: woil

woil — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 08:55:51 -0800

130. Now if only I could read whatever language this is. :)

By: Cerebus

Cerebus — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 09:00:39 -0800

Pattern recognition and spatial reasoning are tightly correlated with IQ. For whatever that's worth. Personally I don't put much stock in it. I score high on these things, but I can't invent new recipes like my wife no matter how much I try, nor can single-handedly build an addition to a house (including AC & plumbing) like my father-in-law.

By: kindall

kindall — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 09:04:03 -0800

I'd characterize general intelligence (which is what IQ is intended to measure) as "ability to deal with complexity," rather than "ability to learn new things."

By: TimeFactor

TimeFactor — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 09:05:26 -0800

I swear I saw the buttock thing move.

By: Ufez Jones

Ufez Jones — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 09:05:50 -0800

128. Fun little test but definitely unidimensional, as Lafe points out.

By: donth

donth — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 09:10:17 -0800

133. If anyone has answers to the last 3 I'd like to see them. The answer to #36: The white spaces are filler, ignore them. Each section has a 3-block single color tower, a 2-block tower, and a single block. In every section the colors cycle in the same order: black->dark gray->light gray. In the sections on the board there are these 3 block towers: 2 black, 3 dark, 3 light these 2 block towers: 3 black, 2 dark, 3 light these single blocks: 3 black, 3 dark, 2 light So the last section has a black 3 block tower, a dark gray 2 block tower, a light single block, and cycles in the correct order. So it's F.

By: PenDevil

PenDevil — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 09:16:49 -0800

135

By: jpoulos

jpoulos — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 12:04:34 -0800

Metafilter: I swear I saw the buttock thing move.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 12:06:03 -0800

By: stbalbach

stbalbach — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 12:18:55 -0800

Cerebus - cook and handyman are skills, not intelligence. The capacity to learn is intelligence. The test measures how quickly you can learn the patterns. Generally if you have excelled at one thing in life (programming, cooking, handyman) it's a sign of intelligence to learn and could do well at many things if you wanted.

By: schlaager

schlaager — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 12:33:58 -0800

149. What a load of crap.

By: thirteen

thirteen — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 12:36:47 -0800

121. My final choices towards the end were only doable by hitting the button during split second moments of confidence in my anwers.

By: Prospero

Prospero — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 12:45:50 -0800

133 for me. Doesn't seem like large enough of a sample of items, as far as tests of this kind go. But tough stuff anyway. I guessed on two of the last ones, but overall I'm pleased with my score on an intelligence test that I took while simultaneously pretending to be hard at work in my cubicle.

By: Cerebus

Cerebus — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 12:59:26 -0800

Being a chef requires a creative talent I do not possess. Being a carpenter requires a kind of spatial sense and manual talent I also do not possess. No matter how much I learn or how hard I try I'll never be Wolfgang Puck. Or Norm Abram. This test (and others like it-- I've taken several, including a section of the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery) measures a particular ability to recognize patterns and to apply a certain amount of reasoning about those patterns. That's all. That this metric is correlated with IQ points not to its usefulness as a measure of intelligence, but rather to the fact that IQ is measuring only a similarly limited aspect of intelligence. IMHO.

By: Blue Stone

Blue Stone — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 13:00:02 -0800

123. But I'm better than everyone else because of other reasons.

By: scarabic

scarabic — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 13:42:41 -0800

196,546,578,951 MWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!!

By: Wong Fei-hung

Wong Fei-hung — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 13:44:21 -0800

123, but I always do well on multiple choice*g*

By: muckster

muckster — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 13:45:41 -0800

i won't finish this unless there's a prize in it

By: aacheson

aacheson — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 14:02:49 -0800

Muckster, isn't bragging rights enough of a prize? I got 111. Not enough to brag about, but at least I'm on the right side of the bell curve!

By: Keyser Soze

Keyser Soze — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 14:09:50 -0800

The BACKGROUND MOVES.

By: bonehead

bonehead — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 14:14:37 -0800

128. Hmm... there seems to be a pattern here.

By: Shoeburyness

Shoeburyness — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 14:16:35 -0800

111. On regular IQ tests, I usually score around 140, but since it's mostly verbal skills that get me that high, it's not surprising that I would score lower on something totally non-verbal.

By: Keyser Soze

Keyser Soze — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 14:21:03 -0800

Oh god, what if the terrorists got a hold of this?

By: elwoodwiles

elwoodwiles — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 14:21:33 -0800

*desperately tries to slide the IQ ball to the right* *cries*

By: krakedhalo

krakedhalo — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 14:25:34 -0800

I scored a 135, but I'm confused as hell on numbers 34, 37 and 39. Anyone want to ruin the fun and help me out? And I must say number 35 made me giggle a bit when I got it.

By: CunningLinguist

CunningLinguist — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 15:23:56 -0800

124. But I guessed blindly at the last 15 because, well, I have no mental stamina. Also they were getting hard. The background? But it does move.

By: aaronscool

aaronscool — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 15:32:47 -0800

Wow...answering "C" on all them gets you a 79...

By: knapah

knapah — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 15:55:31 -0800

118, ... i finished with 27minutes to go... wonder if that lowered my score **tries to believe**

By: mbd1mbd1

mbd1mbd1 — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 15:57:43 -0800

128, despite the phallo-anal neuron background.

By: Hogshead

Hogshead — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 16:14:19 -0800

Another 128. Didn't realise I was being timed till the last few, and finished with 20 minutes on the clock.

By: evinrude

evinrude — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 16:24:46 -0800

128! I'm... (mefi-)average?

By: kjh

kjh — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 16:28:54 -0800

Wow...answering "C" on all them gets you a 79... 'send'ing a blank tests gets a 79. so does choosing an answer at random for each question. i'm suspicious.

By: Cerebus

Cerebus — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 16:30:15 -0800

37 was tough. The spots are advancing with each "frame": across each row right to left and top to bottom. When a spot advances to a black square, it isn't shown and it changes color in the next frame. Thus the answer is H. 31, 34, and 39 are still giving me fits though. 8)

By: Prospero

Prospero — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 17:00:34 -0800

31, 34, and 39 are still giving me fits though. 8) 31--hard to put into words, but I'll try. In each row of three, the first image provides instructions for the manipulation of the second image, in order to construct the third. Each image has four sides--north, south, east, west. Imagine overlaying the first image in the row over the second. Now check each of the four sides of the first image. If the side of the first image that you're checking is a straight line, then flip the side of the second image over the axis defined by the line. If the side of the first image is curved, then do nothing. The correct answer is D. 34 and 39 I don't have a clue about--for 34 I eliminated B, C, and H, and guessed.

By: obfusciatrist

obfusciatrist — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 17:00:53 -0800

104. And I didn't answer any after the first 60% or so (grew bored).

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 17:23:18 -0800

123. Dammit!

By: evening

evening — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 17:29:35 -0800

109, and I thought I was better at finding patterns. shows what I know :(

By: Samsonov14

Samsonov14 — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 17:47:57 -0800

130. I'd like to say I got bored and skipped the last few, but the truth is they just looked so hard that I guessed. Judging by the scores here, something tells me 100 isn't average.

By: krakedhalo

krakedhalo — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 17:49:55 -0800

ah ha! 34 is a curse no longer. Think addition and subtraction of dots. Dots on the inside are positive, dots on the outside are negative (I suppose there's no reason that couldn't be switched, but anyhow.) Position of the dots within the circle doesn't matter. Thus across the first line we have 1 + 1 = 2. The second line gives 1 - 3 = -2. The third line (or column, works out the same) then gives 2-2 = 0 and the answer is the blank circle G.

By: litlnemo

litlnemo — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 17:59:31 -0800

If you enjoy this, there are a bunch of tests at the International High IQ Society you might have fun playing with. If your score is high enough they try to sell you a membership, but you can just skip that. You don't have to give any information to take the tests. They have one, "Test for Exceptional Intelligence," which is outrageously hard.

By: sycophant

sycophant — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 18:13:17 -0800

I got 132. But I was pretty quick off the mark for the early ones. I started to get bored towards then end. 36 was the one I spent the most time on, and I got the same answer as donth...

By: redshifter

redshifter — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 18:14:09 -0800

I rushed through and got a 126 and a headache. OK.

By: rschram

rschram — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 18:26:04 -0800

I got a 126, but you have to factor in the fact that I was exposed to soot and ash all this morning.

By: sycophant

sycophant — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 18:39:29 -0800

Oh yeah litlnemo, that felt much more like an IQ test - I did the 12 minute one and got 136. I am gifted!

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 18:46:27 -0800

109. Just barely above average. Story of my life.

By: cbrody

cbrody — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 18:49:22 -0800

I got 115 but please take into account that a) I'm drunk, b) I had the page open in a background tab for at least 10 minutes before I got around to starting the test, and c) I was simultaneously chatting to a couple of women on a dating site. OK enough excuses - maybe I'll try it again under better circumstances!

By: donth

donth — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 19:03:55 -0800

if anyone is working on the last question, the solution is B.

By: donth

donth — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 19:22:35 -0800

Okay, I think I solved 39. It took me well over 40 minutes, and it's largely a matter of trying out every possible rule and seeing if it works. Read the boards in rows. Label the elements of any board as 1 through 9, 1 being the top left, 2 being the middle top, 9 being the bottom right. To find element x of the third board in a row, choose one of X/O/Triangle that is not in either x-2 of the first board or x-1 of the second board. And it loops around, so to find element 1, take the element that's not in 8 in the first board and not in 9 in the second board.

By: pemulis

pemulis — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 20:31:43 -0800

162, guessed on 'em all.

By: arto

arto — Mon, 27 Oct 2003 23:46:17 -0800

Stupid smart people think you're soooo smart. I bet you wouldn't be so smart without your brains! 123, which I guess means adamrice, Blue Stone, litlnemo, Wong Fei-Hung and I all get to form some kind of club.

By: spazzm

spazzm — Tue, 28 Oct 2003 09:19:01 -0800

These are the sort of 'culture nutral' tests that are designed not to favour people who grew up in the western world - mainly by using right-to-left, bottom-to-top and diagonal directions for change in addition to the western left-to-right, top-down direction. Unfortunately, it's not that simple - people growing up without a writing system based on a linear direction that wraps around at the end of the line is pretty much boned, for example. 132, btw.

By: rich

rich — Tue, 28 Oct 2003 10:42:37 -0800

130, but now my head hurts, and I was talking on the phone while trying to figure them out.

By: mecran01

mecran01 — Tue, 28 Oct 2003 13:09:36 -0800

130, because I would never admit getting lower than the average. And you're right, that little ball is not a slider.

By: seanyboy

seanyboy — Tue, 28 Oct 2003 13:27:55 -0800

119. sobs.

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Tue, 28 Oct 2003 14:51:19 -0800

135, guessed on the last three. Here's an alternate explanation for 31 (gives the same ultimate answer as Prospero's explanation, i.e., D, but is perhaps a bit easier to understand): Across each row, the top and bottom of the figure stays the same. First row: flat top and bottom. Second row: top and bottom bulge inwards. Third row: top and bottom bulge outwards. Down each column, the left and right sides stay the same. First column: sides flat. Second column: sides inward. Third column: sides outward. On 21, did anyone else think it was an awfully close call between B and G? I picked G, which is apparently correct, but I think a case could be made for either one.

By: aws17576

aws17576 — Tue, 28 Oct 2003 21:51:07 -0800

138. re