For my father intelligence was all that matters.
Ever since my brother Charles was diagnosed to be a gifted child all he
talked about were IQ and intelligence research. W high IQ apparently strongly
predicts good grades, a good career, and even health and mortality and stuff. His
favorite story is Kim Ung-Yong a Korean with an official IQ of 210. Just six
months old he was already speaking fluent Korean and at age 3 wrote essays
in German and English. Then he would hug Charles and look at me with this
question in his face. I hated that I wondered if I could reach my little
brother in anything? When I was young me and my dad were best buddies.
He never even cared much about IQ or G or whatever. When my brother started
reading at just 2 years old everything changed. Suddenly I was forgotten and
soon after I was the slow one. Once when I got a C in math he didn't even look at
my paper and just told Charles that an ape is believed to have an IQ of 40. I
hated his sarcasm. Once at dinner when he started talking about intelligence or "G"
he'd say - G stands for general intelligence and scientists say it
exists because apparently most IQ tests correlate - whatever - he was talking
about it and then drew up this graph on a piece of paper saying: "look boy this is
the distribution of intelligence of all people in town 0.1% of people will have
an IQ of 55 or below, 2% have an IQ between 55 to 70, 14% between 70 and 85,
34% will score between 85 and the average which is set at a hundred.
Thirty-four have an IQ between 100 and 115 and 14% between 115 to 132.
2% have an IQ higher than 130 and only 0.1% will have an IQ of a genius of 145 or
above, like your little brother." I told him I'm not interested. I guess I
shouldn't have. He exploded "Not interested? Do you know what this all means
boy?" He turned the paper around and started all over: "It means that if you
take 1,000 people then one has some form of mental
retardation, which means trouble living alone. 20 will have difficulty reading
the map. 140 can perform simple tasks at work but cannot qualify to become a
soldier in the US Army. 340 probably finished high school and another 340
will go to college. Maybe 140 can do a Ph.D. and later work as surgeons. 20 are
capable of producing a significant scientific work and only one will make
it into an Ivy League college like MIT where the average IQ is 145. Your little
brother got an IQ higher than that!" A few weeks later was career day at my
school. Some people in suits showed up and told us about a new form of
cognitive assessment we could be doing which would help us find the right job.
The technical term is the Wechsler IQ score. When I heard the words IQ I got
completely sweaty hands my heart started racing. This could be the moment of truth.
Then one woman started speaking. She told us that we are now going to take a test
and just 1 week later we all get the results with some specific ideas about
our future career path. She said it takes only 90 minutes and measures our
intelligence in the following four areas: perceptual reasoning, verbal
comprehension, working memory and processing speed. The assessment was
voluntary and my friend instantly stood up to leave the class, showing what he
thought about this whole thing. My heart still racing I wasn't sure what
to do and kept seated. Our teacher then handed out some questions, when she
passed by my table she simply said: "you gonna do fine here". I don't think
she realized this but I was so happy to hear her say that! Maybe I'm not all that
bad at these stupid IQ tests? Maybe it's a day that I can actually show my dad
who I really am? What shall I do? I was so ready to show my dad that I'm no idiot, I
decided to stay. I turned the first page over it read the
following: perceptual reasoning is the ability to think and reason with visual
information. It is the ability to see what is being asked and to organize
information in our heads through images. The first question was: When folded into
a cube, which of the following corners would touch corner A? D, B, E or C? I tried
to fold the cube in my head and - yeah it worked!
It must be "D". The second section was about working memory: our ability to keep
several chunks of information in our mind simultaneously. One of the questions
was: what is the next number in the series: 4, 12, 6, 9, 8, 6 ?
There were four options: 6, 5, 10 or 12
The trick here was to put all the
digits in my head and look for a pattern: 4 X 6 X 8 X which means the next would
be 10! The third section was verbal comprehension, which measures our ability
to access vocabulary, express ourselves in a meaningful manner and apply
reasoning skills to information presented verbally. In the first
question it said: what is the difference between the words "refuted" an "irrefutable"?
Do they have similar meanings, have contradicting meanings or mean neither
the same nor the opposite? They must have contradicting meanings! The fourth
section was about processing speed: the pace at which we take in new information
and make sense of it in order to prepare a response. One of the questions asked
was: what is the 12th letter of the alphabet is it: T, L, R or B? I realized
I had to rule out all the options that didn't look right,
counting would have taken way too long, L is the right answer! I had completed all
of the 50 questions in time and I was very relieved. In the end, the woman said:
"A lot of research over the last century went into the IQ test we had just taken
and there is convincing evidence that our intelligence is mainly a product of
our genes. There is an estimate of a heritability range from
50% to 90% although the environment also matters,"
she continued: "especially negative influences during your childhood like
infectious disease, malnutrition, air pollution, or led in the paint of your
walls at home. These things can reduce your IQ forever." She explained that it's
because during the prenatal period and early years of life a child's brain
consumes a huge part of the body's energy to grow, and if the body was under
attack it cannot support the brain's growth to its full potential. In other
words you were born with a pretty fixed IQ. Good parents and schools can keep the
IQ at its genetically predefined level and maybe increase it a bit, negative
influences, however, can surely reduce it a lot. "I am just saying this" she closed
"because if you are getting your results next week and you are not happy with
your score or our recommendation, then know, that there is little you can do
about that. Even if you practice for years or continue school indefinitely,
it's almost impossible to improve your score by more than 10 points. Just think
about that before you open that envelope. You don't have to." When the envelope was
handed to me a week later I got excited to open it. I took a deep breath, but
before I ripped the cover apart I halted- do I really want this? Why do I care so
much? Do I really want to compete with my brother? And if so what does this prove?
There are so many aspects of my life that matter more than my measured
intelligence. I'm probably no genius but I know I did well. But more importantly I
know that I don't need to prove anything to anyone! I decided not to open the
envelope and I loved this new idea of myself - free from these limitations!
I felt like I had grown up. Now when I heard my father speak all proud about
Charles, I just smiled. I realized that it's not that he loved him more, no my
brother just gave my dad the chance to get attention, to be someone. He's the dad
of a genius and not just another middle manager at the bank on middle street.
A few years later I dropped out of college and started my own company and
soon after fell in love with a wonderful woman and also started a family. My
brother is now a professor at a famous university, but never found the right
girl and like many very smart people suffers from depressions.
My dad doesn't care so much about IQ anymore, he's now a proud grandfather.
They say it takes intelligence to know how to do things right but wisdom to do
the right thing. Leaving that envelope closed was the best decision of my life!
Here are five questions from a real IQ test, you've got five seconds each. When
you are done post your answers in the comments: Good luck!
1. A package of gift cards has a length of eight centimeters a width of four
centimeters and a volume of 64 centimeters cubed. What is the height of
the box?
2. Some Bargles are Chongos and some Chongos are Munhattsens. Are
some Bargles definitely Munhattsens? Yes or No?
3. Max needed to get seven
new doors from the home improvement store for his house. His car could only
hold two doors at once. How many times did max have to visit the
store? 2, 4, 7, 8 or 9?
4. Art is to wall as cup is to: handle, coffee, cupboard, rim, nail?
5. what is the missing number in the series: 1, 16, 81 blank 625, 1296?
If you like this video and the way we explain the subject, subscribe to our
channel. We try to explain complex subjects and simple language and
cartoons to support students all around the world in their learning. If you want
to support us you can go to www.patreon.com/sprouts and donate
just $1 from many fans makes a big difference.