Measures of IQ tests should be kept as raw numbers, even for clinical assessments, and not translated into an age. This is to demonstrate that test results are not easily translatable into an age for which extraneous notions are then made.
With the above remarks out of the way, please take light-hearted the following IQ test that I developed and will be adding to in the future. My current limitations of making complex figures using a text editor falls short of measuring some components of intelligence. Whatever the outcome, do not put much stock into it, even if this test eventually ever is deemed as robust. Have fun with it and share thoughts with friends and family members about the test questions. Enjoy!
1. You want to cook pancakes and the only pan you have is limited in size to cook 4 pancakes at a time. If it takes 4 minutes to cook 1 pancake, about how long would it take to cook 6 pancakes?
A) 16
B) 12
C) 8
D) 6
E) 5
2. Which of the following figures below does not belong with the other three?
A) A
B) B
C) C
D) D
E) Cannot be determined.
3. You have a friend who becomes ill upon eating the flavor enhancer, MSG. Your friend eats at a Chinese restaurant that is known to use MSG in their food. Your friend goes to the restaurant and then immediately becomes ill. What was the cause of the illness?
A) Most definitely the MSG.
B) More than likely the MSG.
C) Something different than MSG.
D) Possibly MSG but could be from something else.
E) Probably not from the MSG.
4. A public health official while on duty parks his car in a parking zone that is reserved specifically for emergency vehicles. You watch the person get out from the car and walk to a candy store. You notice the health official making a purchase in the store, touching money and licking his fingers. What conclusion best fits this incident?
A) If there was no emergency such as a fire at the time, no harm was done.
B) The finger-licking after touching money is worse than the unlawful parking.
C) This is of no one else’s concern as the public health official may do whatever he wants as long as doesn’t get caught.
D) One does not have to be competent to be hired and retained in a job.
E) It’s fine to be a health official and lick fingers in public after touching money but the unlawful parking should be investigated.
5. The Federal Trade Commission, otherwise known as the “FTC” created a national do-not-call database to keep telemarketers from calling those people who register in the database. This act was given an overwhelming praise as it is effective. What is the most reasonable assessment of this act?
A) It’s simply wonderful since it works and most people like the idea.
B) It is unfair to telemarketing companies as they have a right to conduct their business.
C) It’s a terrible idea: since most people hate being annoyed with telemarketing phone calls, the database would best be set up with only those registering to be allowed to be called by telemarketers. Much less government employees would be required in this way as well.
D) It is good because it enables more people to have a job with the government.
E) It was a surprisingly good act but could be improved by the FTC using a computer to call everyone to see if they want to register.
6. In California, $6 Billion was spent on “remediation” of leaking underground fuel tanks. The major concern was of benzene, a component of gasoline, getting into drinking water. An oxygenate termed MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether) that is sometimes used in gasoline is about 1/3 as toxic as benzene but since it is partially water soluble, it can be detected miles from underground fuel leaks as opposed to benzene that normally can be detected no more than a few hundred feet from such leaks. Natural bacteria consumes gasoline but works slowly and so if a component of gasoline is water soluble, it will travel underground farther before it is consumed. A massive number of government regulators were hired that were able to earn 2 times the overall compensation of scientists in the private sector and yet these regulators job was only to watch that work was done and that a simple checklist was followed. It should also be noted that most of the work involved with the underground fuel tanks was removal of the tanks and immediate dirt that was allowed to get into the environment through evaporation as opposed to letting it stay underground for natural remediation from bacteria. Additionally, monitoring wells were installed on sites to check on the gasoline component concentration periodically that served no purpose except to look at numbers as it didn’t do anything to decrease the concentration and natural bacteria would inevitably within time render the soil safe anyway. In almost all cases, there was no threat to drinking water, except where leaking fuel tanks were nearby water wells that were improperly constructed. What best describes this use of taxpayer funds?
A) Benzene in water is so dangerous that it doesn’t matter how much money is spent to keep our water safe.
B) It was good for the economy and some members of the legislature started companies to take advantage of the law they passed for underground tank remediation. All in all, more people employed in government and in the private sector to carry out the legislation makes good sense.
C) It was an absolute waste of funds. Scientific understanding of the situation dictates that no additional government employees would be needed. Only the leaking tanks needed to be removed along with any obvious fuel that could be recovered with no need for newly constructed monitoring wells. Nearby water wells would need to be checked for proper construction and if so, would serve as the monitoring well if there were any contaminants, otherwise the water well would be mandated to be properly constructed. For massive leaks, bacteria could be added to speed up the remediation process.
D) Even though human life was minimally affected, gasoline should never be in contact with soil.
E) It was good legislation because we need many government environmental health regulators, no matter how much they are paid for menial work.
7. You are presented with coins dated 33 B.C., 65 B.C., and 64 B.C. Which of the coins are the oldest?
A) 65 B.C.
B) 33 B.C.
C) Either the 64 B.C. or 65 B.C. coins since dates this long ago are often inaccurate.
D) It’s interesting to know but they’re all so old and made within about 30 years from each other that it doesn’t really matter – they’re all within the same era.
E) Cannot be determined.
8. What is the sum of the numbers 1 through 100?
A) 50 X 101
B) 50 X 100
C) 51 X 100
D) 51 X 101
E) None of the above.
9. You just cooked a cheese pizza for yourself. No one else is around so you try to pick up the pizza without slicing it but it is unmanageable to hold as it droops from your hands. You then decide it’s best to cut the pizza into smaller pieces to make it easier to eat. How many straight cuts with a knife are required to do cut the pizza into 6 pieces?
A) 6
B) 5
C) 4
D) 3
E) 2
10. A manhole is a hole in the ground that enable access for some purpose such as to a sewer or underground cables. To prevent falling into a manhole, covers or safety railings are constructed. Even though manhole covers are usually circular, what are other suitable choices?
A) Square.
B) Triangle, but it must be perfectly shaped as in all sides having the same length.
C) Oval.
D) Hexagon with all 6 sides of the same length.
E) There are no other practical choices as only the circular shape is suitable.
11. Which of the following is least like the others? Mouse, Zebra, Llama, Horse, Gopher.
A) Zebra.
B) Llama.
C) Gopher.
D) Mouse.
E) Not enough information given.
12. You are about to check-out of a grocery store and encounter two checker lanes. Lane 1 has 3 persons, each with 4 items and lane 2 has 4 persons, each with 3 items. Which lane is likely the best in order to leave the store sooner?
A) Lane 1.
B) Lane 2.
C) Lane 1 or Lane 2 since there are 12 items total for each lane.
D) Not enough information to make a decision so just choose either one and hope for the best.
E) Odds are whichever lane you choose, it will be the slower one so it doesn’t matter.
13. If marbles are dropped onto a smooth, flat floor such that no piles are formed, what is the most number of marbles touching any one marble?
A) 4
B) 5
C) 6
D) 7
E) 8
14. There is a 25% discount sale at a store. There is tax added on all purchases. Which scenario would yield the lowest cost of a purchase?
A) Apply the tax and then the discount.
B) Apply the discount and then the tax.
C) Apply the discount first only if the tax rate is higher than the discount.
D) It doesn’t matter, applying the tax or discount first, the final price will be the same.
E) Not enough information to determine.
15. You are instructed in school to read pages 44 through 94 in a textbook. How many pages are you to read?
A) 49
B) 50
C) 51
D) A number different than in the above three choices.
E) Cannot be determined since there may be pictures or diagrams on some pages.
16. The earth revolves around the Sun in about 365 days. Simultaneously, the Earth spins about its axis to cause there to be a day and night. What is closest to the number of times the Earth spins about its axis in one year?
A) 364
B) 365
C) 366
D) Either 364 or 366, depending on the direction Earth spins.
E) Not enough information provided.
17. In the figure below, how many triangles are shown? [If the figure cannot be seen, it is a pentagon with line segments connecting each vertex.]
A) 10
B) 30
C) 35
D) 40
E) 45
18. A 6-foot tall man is standing 8 feet away from a lamp post. A shadow is cast 8 feet long from where he is standing. If the man moves 8 more feet away from the lamp post, how long will his shadow be?
A) 16
B) 18
C) 14
D) 24
E) Not enough information is provided.
19. What number follows in the following sequence?
4,5,7,11,19…
A) 27
B) 31
C) 35
D) 37
E) 43
20. In the figure below, what best describes it?
A) Wheel D rotates faster than wheel A.
B) Wheel A rotates faster than wheel D.
C) Wheels A and D rotate at the same speed.
D) Wheel B rotates faster than wheels A and D.
E) None of the above.
Here are some additional questions that I would not put in an IQ test:
1. Is the string in this figure a knot? (Consider all the ways the string overlaps.)
2. Draw a line so that the areas of the circles on each side of the line will be equal. (There are two solutions.)
3. If a farmer has 5 haystacks on the left side of his field and 4 haystacks on the right side of his field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in the center of his field?
4. How much dirt would be in a square hole that is 6 feet wide and 6 feet deep?
5. What is 30 divided by a half?
6. If you were to drop a bowling ball in a bucket of water which is at 45 degrees Fahrenheit, and dropped another ball of the same weight, mass, and size in a bucket at of water at 30 degrees Fahrenheit, both of them at the same time, which ball would hit the bottom of the bucket first?
7. A boat has a ladder that has six rungs, each rung is one foot apart. The bottom rung is one foot from he water. The tide rises at 12 inches every 15 minutes. High tide peaks in one hour. When the tide is at it's highest, how many rungs are under water?
8. Is half of two plus two equal to two or three?
9. There is one word in the English language that is always pronounced incorrectly. What is it?
10. Suppose you have four bottles, all of different shapes and sizes. You know that one holds 8 fluid ounces, one 15, one 22 and one holds 27. The first three are empty, but the last one is full. How do you divide the liquid into three equal amounts? Guidelines: Three bottles are to end up having 9 fluid ounces each. The bottles are not transparent and do not have graduations nor is marking graduations allowed.
For ease in notation, going from the original condition to filling the second bottle would look like this:
1. 0 0 0 27
2. 0 15 0 12
11. Mike was 20% older than Rick when Rick was half his present age. Ten years ago, Sue’s age was 24 years less than Mike and Rick's then combined ages. Sue is now 50 years old. How old is Rick?
And, here’s a game that will challenge your mind:
Red Square Game
