I doubt I had ever heard of Intelligence Quotient (IQ) before I was in the 8th grade and I only vaguely remember this event. I went to a small school (Pawnee Rock) in western Kansas for junior high and high school. One day in the 8th grade we were given an IQ test. I remember nothing about the test, but I do remember that at some later date, I was asked to leave the classroom and I believed it had something to do with the test. I don’t remember the reason why I was asked to leave, but apparently they discussed the IQ results. Sometime after that one of my friends told me that he heard my IQ was the highest in the class – “really high”. It’s hard to believe they were told that in class, but I do remember him telling me. Where he heard it from, who knows? If he told me where, I've forgotten.
I’m also not sure whether parents were discouraged from discussing this with their children, but some years later, my mom told me that my IQ had been very high. Whether or not she was using the same 8th grade test as evidence, I have no idea about that either. I simply don’t remember. But, then when you are so poor that your two favorite toys are a stick and rock, you tend to block out about everything you possibly can from those years.
I never thought much about it – especially since my grades were relatively bad until I was out of high school. At some point, I started realizing that I loved puzzles and things of the sort. And, eventually, I started discovering IQ tests. I would buy booklets that had these tests, take them and measure myself. If the numbers could be believed, I had high IQ.
One day when I was 25 years old I saw an IQ test in a magazine called OMNI. It was unofficially called “The World’s Hardest IQ Test”. The official name was “Langdon Adult Intelligence Test” by Kevin Langdon. There wasn’t a time limit associated with it. Apparently, the questions were designed in such a way that a time limit wasn’t the point. I went ahead and filled it out and sent it in.
I had completely forgotten about it, but around eight months later I got a reply in the mail. It said my IQ was 156! That’s way out there! I had only gone to college for two years, but within days I had a huge rush of confidence and I immediately quit my job and went back to school. I’ve often thought that when I opened my mail that day, it was the day that changed my life. I lived in Topeka at that time so I went to Washburn University – where my dad and mom had each attended when they were young.
My primary emphasis was math and computer courses. I met my wife-to-be Chris in my first class. I was on the Dean’s Honor Roll consistently. Life was good.
COOL FACTOID: Martin Allen Manley (Anagram) Mentally Linear Man
I never questioned my intelligence after I went back to school and realized that either I had just lacked confidence earlier in school or I was too distracted or too bored or something. Clearly, I was smart enough to learn what I had to learn.
Throughout the next 5-10 years or so, I would periodically take IQ tests in an attempt to validate my score. The more I took, the more I came to dismiss them. It wasn’t that I couldn’t do extremely well. I always did. The problem, as I saw it, was that if you “learned” how to take an IQ test, you could do better on them in the future. Essentially, you could learn how to think in an “IQ” sort of way.
There are many problems with IQ tests – not the least of which is what I just mentioned. IQ is supposed to measure something that is innate as opposed to learned. But, research has shown there are many learned things which play into a high IQ. This issue is most acute when measuring the IQ of different races or even the same race, but wealthy versus poor environments.
The issue of intelligence, even according to Kevin Langdon, is a function of at least four categories, the first of which is Abstract Intelligence. That is the category that IQ tests measure. It consists of numerical, spatial and verbal abilities, deductive and inductive reasoning, mental agility and attention span. I know I’ve always been extremely good in all those things. However…
…IQ tests do not measure perception, moral appreciation, sensitivity to other people, creativity, imagination, insight, original thinking, compassion, sincerity and any number of character traits which can either support a lucrative career or serve humanity!
“Because IQ tests favor memory skills and logic, overlooking artistic creativity, insight, resiliency, emotional reserves, sensory gifts, and life experience, they can't really predict success, let alone satisfaction.”
-- Diane Ackerman
The crime, therefore, is in labeling kids by a single test that is, at most, a predictive tool for part of their ability to excel in life. The good news is that the flaws in IQ tests have been exposed far better than they were 34 years ago when I took the LAIT.
I recognized the problems with IQ tests right away and even when I was still in college, I wrote a major paper for English Lit where I disparaged using them for any purpose other than giving kids confidence when needed.
IQ tests test what IQ tests test… and that’s all. If two people of the same age had the exact same upbringing, drive, health, personality and interest in mathematics, then you should be able to conclude that the person with a 130 IQ would most likely be more successful than the person with a 110 IQ in say, engineering or physics. But, with other variables that vary all over the place, it’s hard to make a lot out of it.
Still, since my interests were the same thing as what IQ tests… test, it was a big deal to me at the time. The confidence that came with it certainly enabled me to make decisions and take risks that I otherwise would not have. So, if nothing else, the knowledge that I had a high IQ changed my life.
Somewhere along the line I was invited to join the Triple Nine Society and I’ve been a member for the most part ever since, though occasionally forgetting to pay my dues. Here is a list of the Kansas and Missouri members as of July, 2013.
TNS is a group of about 1,000 people, mostly in the United States, that have an IQ in the top .1% - meaning the .999 percentile or one out of a thousand. Obviously, there are a lot of smart people in this “society”, but my experience is that they aren’t anymore successful than the average person who may have had the same upbringing and opportunities. If that’s true, then what’s the point?
It really boils down to the fact that we, as a society, want to quantify everything in order to understand it better. Don’t think I’m opposed to that. I’m the king of quantification! But, I also recognize that when it comes to the many subjective nuances that determine how successful in life a person will become (career, family, personal satisfaction), the factors that IQ tests measure are just a small part of it.
For whatever reason, I’ve excelled doing most of the things I’ve done vocationally, but there are many many aspects of life I have not been successful. After all, I've been married twice. Although it didn't work that well for me, perhaps the biggest benefit with respect to IQ is that it makes you more aware of what you can not do successfully – like knowing when to call it quits!
Copyright 2013 Martin Manley Life and Death. All rights reserved.