Do you know what the IQ score is? No, no, no. I don't mean
if you know about it; everyone knows about the IQ score, but
hardly anyone knows what it is. And even though no one is
really certain about what the IQ score is, or how it is
calculated, society puts a lot of pressure on us if it seems
too "low", or makes us feel like we have extra
responsibilities if it is really "high." Well, let me clear
some things up for you right now.
It is generally known that the IQ is a number, that the
number measures level of intelligence, and that the level of
intelligence is determined by the individual's performance
on an intelligence test. Beyond that the average person
knows little about the IQ.
The letters IQ stand, of course, for Intelligence Quotient.
This quotient is obtained by dividing mental age by
chronological age and multiplying the result by 100.
It is Mental Age that is supposedly measured by the test.
For example, if a child's test score indicates a mental age
of nine years and the child is actually aged eight years and
six months, his IQ would be 106, and the whole thing is
calculated like this: 9/8.5 x 100 = 106
Another child who makes the identical score but whose
chronological age is ten years would have an IQ of 90, and
that is calculated like this: 9/10 x 100 = 90
So, the question is then, what is Mental Age?
Mental Age is the average score made by people of a
particular age group. Mental Age is arrived at by a process
known as "standardizing testing." The test is given to a
large number of people of all ages and of presumably similar
backgrounds.
When the results for the test are averaged for each age
group that took it, that average test score becomes the
yardstick that measures all other people of the same age. So
if a person of the same age gets a lower score, the math
would calculate that person to have a lower than average IQ.
And if a person get a higher score, they would end up having
a higher than average IQ.
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