What is my IQ, or Intelligence Quotient?

Answer:
The term "IQ" stands for "Intelligence Quotient",

and, as such, refers to a numerical score arrived at as the outcome results of one of a number of tests designed to measure a person's overall intelligence.

Intelligence is a tricky and elusive topic. Intelligence, by definition, refers to an innate ability or capacity to use one's brain to solve problems, to reason, to imagine, to conceptualize, to learn, to use language, and more.

In addition, intelligence definitions sometimes include references to a person's character, personality, general wisdom, and other similar traits.

Measuring one's intelligence is even more tricky, since few tests, no matter how comprehensive and wide-spectrum they might be, can effectively and accurately measure true capacity of an individual brain as relating to one's overall intelligence.

The IQ (Intelligence Quotient) standard for describing one's level of intelligence was developed by a German psychologist (William Stern) in the early 1900's, to serve as a means for applying numerical values to previously standardized intelligence-measuring tests in use at that time.

The term IQ is still used in many modern day intelligence-measuring tests, although it reflects updated parameters to fit today's revised tests and understanding of intelligence itself.

To learn your own specific IQ numerical score, you will need to complete one of the recognized, standardized tests designed to measure that. Often, children are given IQ tests in early school years; although some debate exists as to the overall viability of such testing.

Today, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) tests are frequently used as standardized tests for measuring intelligence. This includes the following four areas of functionality.
Note: Each of these consists of a subset of tests designed to capture and measure a wide-spectrum view of one's overall capacity in each of the four areas.

Perceptual Reasoning Index (PRI)
Processing Speed Index (PSI)
Verbal Comprehension Index (VCI)
Working Memory Index (WMI)

Two scores are derived from this testing, which are used to give a general overview and summation of one's overall level of intelligence based on given parameters, as follows:

Full Scale IQ (FSIQ), which includes the combined results of the VCI, PRI, WMI, and PSI factors.
General Ability Index (GAI), which includes results from the sub-tests making up the VCI and PRI factors.


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