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When I was IQ-tested in 8th grade, I was told my IQ was 133. I was in the
honors class of a highly competitive academic highschool for 4 years; was
in the math and chess clubs, and was one of the 3 best players in the
school, all of us about equal. The school was test-happy. I got 75 report
cards in those 4 years, and 12 sets of final exams. I read amazing
amounts
of science fiction and science, played a range of card and board games
from
easy to hard, from Stratego to complex military simulations. I took the
SATs and more tests to get into college. Got a full scholarship to a
minor
ivy league type of school. Once, in the dean's office, I got a chance to
peek at my record and saw my IQ score - 157. The college was trying to
burnish its image then, so it pushed the students hard. I got 1400 on my
college boards, and when I took the GREs, expected a drop of about 100
points in my score, which our guidance people told us was the average
change in scores. Instead, I got 1540 on the GREs, an increase of 140,
and
was the first one done on 2 of the 3 math sections in the morning - 3
because they were testing a new math section. I suspect any IQ test I
took
then would have shown over 160. I just don't know what it means, how
valid
IQ test are in general, and specifically, how accurate my tests were, as
I
was basically educated in how to take a very wide range of tests ever
since 5th grade, when Sister Mary Ruler II gave us 3 quizzes a day, a
science, history and geography test every single day of 5th grade. I
believe I got very good at taking tests, and chess, and some other rather
non-marketable skills, mostly in gaming-related fields. Is an IQ increase
of at least about 20% minimum, 18% demonstrated between IQ tests 1 & 2
alone, with a reasonable expectation of a 165 as a fairly conservative
final figure, something everyone could do? This 165 figure would be an
increase of 25%, not unreasonable from the figures given. How much of the
increase is 'real', and how much is 'just training', or does the
training merely contribute to a 'real' increase in IQ? Chess here is
just part of a kind of mental development program. Its significance may
be
its presence as an indicator of a developing mind, or, at best, an
indication that the mind is enjoying some, at least, of its development,
and thus may be expected to try to actively continue such development.
Finally, what does it mean to be able to increase an IQ score by about 30
points, say? What sort of changes would be expected in people who do this?