Check your own I.Q. [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION Know Your Own I.Q., which was published in Pelican Books in 1962, had the distinction of being top of the best-seller list for a while, which seemed good evidence that the assumption made in preparing it was justified, to wit, that most people are interested in the measurement of intelligence, would like to find out more about it, and would like to see, under actual test conditions, what sort of thing an 'intelligence test' really is. Many people may complain that intelligence tests are too much with us, night and day; however, they have come to stay, and it is likely that better use will be made of them if it is more widely understood what they can and cannot do than when they are regarded as either instruments of the Devil or inviolable tools of science. The Introduction to Know Your Own I.Q. discussed in some detail the nature of intelligence tests, but the large number of letters written in response to the publication of that book indicated that it left many questions unanswered, and the Introduction to this new book seems an excellent place to answer some of these questions. The main part of the book, of course, consists of tests; many of these are similar to the ones in Know Your Own I.Q., but some are rather different. Before turning to the questions a brief explanation of why these additional tests have been included will be in order. The eight tests in Know Your Own I.Q. were all what are sometimes called omnibus tests; in other words they were measures of general intelligence which used verbal, numerical, and pictorial material indiscriminately, and also used many different ways of presenting the problem. In this way one hopes to cancel out specific abilities and disabilities; thus a person who is good with problems involving words, but poor with problems involving numbers, will find both equally represented, and is thus neither handicapped nor favoured. The first five tests of this book are similar in type and give an overall estimate of the reader's I.Q., provided instructions are faithfully followed. However, the reader may wish to know a little more about his f i :