In my high school psychology class, we talked about the limitations of IQ tests and their biases. This was in a small, midwestern, almost entirely white town in the 1990s. Our teacher first had us take an IQ test designed for a rural, Black population in the South in the early 20th century. It had questions like, “How long do you cook chittlins?” We all scored very low IQs because we were familiar with the references. They we took a more familiar sample IQ test, and across the board, we all had higher IQs. It was a valuable lesson. The point wasn’t to learn our actual IQs.

I hope the kids in OP’s child’s class very given some perspective on IQ tests not being the measure of a person’s worth.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they teach them about the test tasks, how the sub scores are calculated, and what the aggregate scores mean?

I suppose all of that was taught, I don’t see how it could be an official IQ since the kids scored it themselves, but I fail to see what good it gives to let 16-17 years olds know what their IQ is.

Seriously?

Wow. I'll never understand the type that deliberately avoids self-knowledge. My kid had his first full neuropsych at 10. It took 8 hours over 2 days. We explained exactly what was going on, and he read his report with us. It brought great relief to him, since he expressed he was different starting at 4 years old. He found out that he was twice exceptional - high IQ with learning disabilities - and all of a sudden, his life made a lot more sense to him.

It's very important to respect children and trust their intelligence and judgement, OP, and give them the tools to know themselves so they can grow and self-advocate. Your 16-17 year old will go to college soon, she's old enough to drive, she'll live without you. Surely she can know, ballpark, what her IQ is.

NP here. So your 2e child benefitted from knowing their Full Scale score. Well my child's profile is more complicated than yours, and the same goes for many teens. I can think of many reasons not to share a WISC score without context, qualifiers, background information or the right timing. I find your post to be very patronizing.

Did she fail

IQ tests are about as reliable as a magic 8 ball or a ouija board.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they teach them about the test tasks, how the sub scores are calculated, and what the aggregate scores mean?

I suppose all of that was taught, I don’t see how it could be an official IQ since the kids scored it themselves, but I fail to see what good it gives to let 16-17 years olds know what their IQ is.

Seriously?

Wow. I'll never understand the type that deliberately avoids self-knowledge. My kid had his first full neuropsych at 10. It took 8 hours over 2 days. We explained exactly what was going on, and he read his report with us. It brought great relief to him, since he expressed he was different starting at 4 years old. He found out that he was twice exceptional - high IQ with learning disabilities - and all of a sudden, his life made a lot more sense to him.

It's very important to respect children and trust their intelligence and judgement, OP, and give them the tools to know themselves so they can grow and self-advocate. Your 16-17 year old will go to college soon, she's old enough to drive, she'll live without you. Surely she can know, ballpark, what her IQ is.

Your son got a high IQ. You really can’t see how it would be harmful for a 16 year old to get a score that tells them that they are not suited for any job beyond general clerical?

What are you so scared of? First off, a low iQ kid probably wouldn’t be taking AP Psych, and second, iQ isn’t some sort of be-all and end-all for determining the rest of your life. It’s one factor about who you are. Facts are neutral. You’re the one putting extra meaning on it.

Put it in context:

There are different definition of intelligence.

An IQ test is a “squishy” measure, even for whatever aspect of intelligence it is supposed to measure. It’s not like a math teat to measure whether you know 2+2 or a blood test to determine blood type. It’s based on correlation and statistics.

There are going to be random variations based on the specific individual and test. A student’s score might vary based on many factors unrelated to the test - tired, hungry, stresses, hot/cold, etc. If there are different versions of the test, they should be functionally equivalent, but a student might score slightly higher on one than the other.

If the the class had fully explored the relevant topics, I think it would be great for them to take an IQ test, but tell them not to discuss the results with their peers.

Anonymous wrote:It's an AP psych class. I'd say yeah, it's fine.

Would you say it would be fine for high schoolers who are taking a genetics class to take a DNA test letting them know they were at high risk for Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s?


I don’t think 16 Year olds are at an age where they can easily accept that they have a not so high iq.

It's an AP psych class. I'd say yeah, it's fine.

Anonymous wrote:This makes no sense. It can’t be a true IQ test. You can’t just give a Wechsler or Stanford-Binet without proper training. And you can’t easily get access to the test materials without credentials. It takes several hours to administer and time to score. I seriously doubt this was a respected valid full IQ test. I was a psych major in college and while we learned about IQ, we didn’t learn to administer. That didn’t come until graduate school.

I think it’s irresponsible to engage in this type of activity in a HS classroom. The results can be upsetting for some kids and it’s very personal. Kids administering to classmates don’t understand confidentially. My son has learning issues and is already feeling down about his school performance relative to his classmates and I can just imagine the classroom of kids comparing scores (no matter what the teacher says). He’s registered for AP psych next year. This post really gives me second thoughts. What school?

The kids didn’t administer it to each other. It was a paper test that was given over two class periods. They scored the tests themselves. It sounds to me like it was similar to the Naglieri and Cogat test that are given for gifted screening.

This makes no sense. It can’t be a true IQ test. You can’t just give a Wechsler or Stanford-Binet without proper training. And you can’t easily get access to the test materials without credentials. It takes several hours to administer and time to score. I seriously doubt this was a respected valid full IQ test. I was a psych major in college and while we learned about IQ, we didn’t learn to administer. That didn’t come until graduate school.

I think it’s irresponsible to engage in this type of activity in a HS classroom. The results can be upsetting for some kids and it’s very personal. Kids administering to classmates don’t understand confidentially. My son has learning issues and is already feeling down about his school performance relative to his classmates and I can just imagine the classroom of kids comparing scores (no matter what the teacher says). He’s registered for AP psych next year. This post really gives me second thoughts. What school?

My IQ test was given by a proctor in a medical setting when I was 11. No one explained much but I was told my score. I took another IQ test in a psych setting another time and the scores were exactly the same.

Just saying, I wouldn't discount it entirely.

Anonymous wrote:NP. I've done some online for-fun IQ tests and they all give very similar scores which are very similar to the IQ test I had years ago. Fake? Yes. Meaningless? Not sure about that.

I thought everyone gets 160 on the internet ones. Am I actually a genius?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did they teach them about the test tasks, how the sub scores are calculated, and what the aggregate scores mean?

I suppose all of that was taught, I don’t see how it could be an official IQ since the kids scored it themselves, but I fail to see what good it gives to let 16-17 years olds know what their IQ is.

Seriously?

Wow. I'll never understand the type that deliberately avoids self-knowledge. My kid had his first full neuropsych at 10. It took 8 hours over 2 days. We explained exactly what was going on, and he read his report with us. It brought great relief to him, since he expressed he was different starting at 4 years old. He found out that he was twice exceptional - high IQ with learning disabilities - and all of a sudden, his life made a lot more sense to him.

It's very important to respect children and trust their intelligence and judgement, OP, and give them the tools to know themselves so they can grow and self-advocate. Your 16-17 year old will go to college soon, she's old enough to drive, she'll live without you. Surely she can know, ballpark, what her IQ is.

Your son got a high IQ. You really can’t see how it would be harmful for a 16 year old to get a score that tells them that they are not suited for any job beyond general clerical?

That's not at all what IQ means...

NP. I've done some online for-fun IQ tests and they all give very similar scores which are very similar to the IQ test I had years ago. Fake? Yes. Meaningless? Not sure about that.

Anonymous wrote:It wasn't a legitimate IQ test. There aren't many that can be group administered, the teacher would have to be a licensed or credentialed psychologist, they aren't free, and parents would have to give consent/be notified.

Your child took an approximation of an IQ test for fun, which is completely appropriate for an AP psych class.

-Signed School Psychologist

This.

The teacher should have explained this (or did?) so that the students would understand that the results of this sort of test in that environment are not reliable.

Also, sharing results of such an assessment at school where scores will be known to other kids is not appropriate, esp without the context given above.

It has nothing to do with not wanting the kid to know their IQ. It’s simply not reliable.