What Is IQ?
IQ (intelligence quotient) expresses performance on reasoning tasks on a common scale. Conventional IQ scales use a center of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. This test uses that display convention with provisional model parameters.
An IQ score is always an estimate from a particular set of tasks taken at a particular moment. It describes some aspects of thinking, not a person's knowledge, creativity, character or potential.
Our test is picture-based, so it relies on reasoning with pictures, shapes and quantities rather than on vocabulary or general knowledge.
Four Test Areas
The test samples the four areas below. Each receives an estimated score in the report and contributes to the overall result.
Quick visual matching
How quickly you notice and match simple visual details.
Pattern reasoning
How you discover rules and solve unfamiliar pattern problems.
Spatial thinking
How you imagine, rotate, and compare shapes in space.
Number reasoning
How you recognize quantities and relationships between numbers.
How Scoring Works
How your answers become a score:
This online battery samples quick visual matching, pattern reasoning, spatial thinking, and number reasoning with original deterministic items. Raw correct scores are converted to an IQ-style scale with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15 using provisional model priors for each age group. The priors are not population norms and will be replaced only through versioned releases after sufficient real response data, reliability, validity, fairness, device, and accessibility analyses. Results are for informed self-exploration and are not clinical, educational, employment, or capacity decisions.
Your IQ Score
Scores are displayed from 55 to 145 on a scale centered at 100 (SD 15). The current parameters are model-based, not population norms, and may change after empirical calibration.
Percentile
The displayed percentile is calculated from the provisional model scale. For example, 115 corresponds to the 84th percentile of that scale. It is not an observed rank in a representative population sample.
Time limits
Each question has its own time limit, and part of the test measures how quickly simple visual details are matched. Because timing is part of what the test measures, the limits cannot be paused or extended, and the test moves on when time runs out. The remaining time is shown under the answers and announced to screen readers when a quarter is left and when it is almost up.
Age Groups and Test Length
Each age group has its own set of tasks. You choose the age at the start, and the result is compared with the model of that age group. The time limit covers the whole test.
| Age, years | Time limit |
|---|---|
| 4–5 | 20 min |
| 6–8 | 25 min |
| 9–11 | 30 min |
| 12–15 | 35 min |
| 16–17 | 40 min |
| 18–29 | 40 min |
| 30–44 | 40 min |
| 45–59 | 40 min |
| 60–74 | 43 min |
| 75+ | 45 min |
Children aged 4–8 take the test with a parent or legal guardian, who reads the instructions aloud but does not help choose answers. Test-takers under 16 need a parent's permission.
How the Tasks Are Made and Checked
Every task is an original picture puzzle built from a fixed rule, not copied from published tests. The pictures contain no words, so the tasks work the same in every language.
Each task has exactly one correct answer, and a formal check proves it before the task enters a test form. Every wrong option is a named change to the correct one, so no second option can also be right.
Tasks, answer keys, forms and scoring parameters ship together as a numbered release. Your result keeps the release it was calculated with and is never recalculated later. A scoring model calibrated on real results, when it comes, will be a new release.
Important Disclaimer
This test is intended for entertainment and self-discovery. It is not a clinical diagnostic instrument and does not replace an assessment by a qualified professional.
Results are estimates. They rest on a provisional scoring model, and an online test cannot reproduce the controlled conditions of an individually administered assessment.
Do not use the result for clinical, educational-placement or employment decisions. For those purposes, please consult a qualified psychologist.
Sources
The scale, the test areas and the limits described on this page follow these works:
- American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education (2014). Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. AERA.
- Carroll, J. B. (1993). Human Cognitive Abilities: A Survey of Factor-Analytic Studies. Cambridge University Press.
- Horn, J. L., & Cattell, R. B. (1966). Refinement and test of the theory of fluid and crystallized general intelligences. Journal of Educational Psychology, 57(5), 253–270.
- McGrew, K. S. (2009). CHC theory and the human cognitive abilities project: Standing on the shoulders of the giants of psychometric intelligence research. Intelligence, 37(1), 1–10.
- Carpenter, P. A., Just, M. A., & Shell, P. (1990). What one intelligence test measures: A theoretical account of the processing in the Raven Progressive Matrices Test. Psychological Review, 97(3), 404–431.
- Floyd, R. G., Clark, M. H., & Shadish, W. R. (2008). The exchangeability of IQs: Implications for professional psychology. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 39(4), 414–423.
- Condon, D. M., & Revelle, W. (2014). The International Cognitive Ability Resource: Development and initial validation of a public-domain measure. Intelligence, 43, 52–64.