4 Steps To: Increase Your IQ
IQ tests have changed drastically over the years. What used to be a simple formula that divided your mental age by your chronological age (and multiplied it by 100) has been replaced, at least for adults, by calculations on a bell curve.
This aside, plenty of criticism and controversy surrounds the Intelligence Quotient, but for our purposes we will ignore the relative merits of the test itself. Rather, we’ll focus on how to increase your IQ with regard to the kinds of thinking it measures.
Although there is no single standard IQ test to measure smartness, they are all composed according to the same criteria, featuring a number of subtests -- half of which measure one’s verbal IQ and the other half of which measure performance IQ. Thus, in the following steps, we’ll use the abbreviated format of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) as a guide, which uses only four of the normal 14 subtests: Vocabulary, Similarities, Block Design, and Matrix Reasoning.
Note: In trying to increase your IQ, it is likely you will find the first two steps (verbal) far easier than the last two (performance) if you are left-brained, and vice versa. If this is the case, you will benefit from applying greater effort toward understanding the sections you've struggled in, as opposed to honing the sections you've already grasped.
step 1
Describe different words aloud
The Vocabulary subtest measures “the degree to which one has learned, been able to comprehend and verbally express vocabulary.” In short, it seeks to measure your ability to express yourself in terms of the accuracy and economy of your expressive vocabulary. Since this is largely based on prior knowledge and experience, it is said to measure your crystallized intelligence.To increase your IQ, draw words from a dictionary and describe them as though you were speaking to someone with a reasonable amount of knowledge about the world, but very little understanding of it. For example, if you land on the word “clarinet,” a poor description would be “musical instrument” since this answer presupposes far too much. Rather, you might say “a clarinet is a hollow handheld device powered by the lungs. By blowing into one end, we can produce a variety of sounds. Holes in the device allow us to modulate that sound into music.”
This answer may be too wordy, but it serves as a reasonable example of how you should approach each word.
step 2
Extract ideas from objects
The Similarities subtest measures “abstract verbal reasoning,” meaning that it tests your ability to form and express concepts. It typically involves trying to identify a pattern within three or more objects and then deciding among a selection of objects that most appropriately follows that pattern.To increase your IQ, pick 10 objects: DVD, cup, pillow, book, and so on. For each one, begin verbally describing it in as much detail as you can, and work outward until you’ve stripped it down to an idea. For example:
- My DVD copy of the first season of The Facts of Life is on the floor in front of the DVD player
- My DVD copy of the first season of The Facts of Life
- The DVD of the first season of The Facts of Life
- The Facts of Life
- A TV sitcom
- Entertainment
Abstract thought is crucial to being able to connect seemingly disparate things and to draw wider conclusions about them. Without the capacity to sum up certain things in an abstract manner, you lack the power of inference and deductive reasoning.
step 3
Organize your perceptions into concepts
The Block Design subtest measures “spatial perception, visual abstract processing and problem-solving” -- in other words, it tests how well you can put your perceptions into conceptual form.
Consider this: Nobody can define intelligence; it is a concept beyond any formal, nicely framed terminology. We believe we can, however, make it understandable. Since you’re clearly on a computer right now, think of the difference between two web pages: One is an archived web page without any links, and the other is an active Wikipedia page replete with hyperlinks. The archived page is similar to what we’ve learned -- hard, immobile data. Intelligence is like the Wikipedia page -- dynamically loaded with accessible avenues to a myriad of other ideas, and the agility to move in and out of them as if our minds were swinging on a vast web of interconnected vines.
In that example, we tried to organize our perception into a concept of how the brain works -- you can decide whether or not we succeeded. Now, increase your IQ by doing it yourself: Examine your perceptions of nature, the internet, whatever you choose, and put it into conceptual form.
step 4
Look for symmetry
The Matrix Reasoning subtest measures “nonverbal abstract problem-solving, inductive reasoning and spatial reasoning.”
In A Beautiful Mind, John Nash (Russell Crowe) has a unique ability to discern symmetry in everything across every dimension. In the same vein, your final step is to walk around the block, taking no more than 10 minutes to make visible sense of what you see. Visually piece together order from the chaos in front of your eyes -- the angle at which the gutter meets the pavement, how a windshield refracts the sunlight into forms, the way the distance between trees comes together like a curtain. For the time being, believe in the jagged reflection you see in a puddle of stagnant water more than you believe in the concrete you’re walking on.
The grids or patterns on an IQ test will not resemble the outside world -- at least, not yet. The aim is to increase your IQ by beginning the process of seeing with greater precision the lines, curves and cusps around you as a brand new design -- one that changes with every move you make.
Resources:
http://harcourtassessment.com
http://en.wikipedia.org
