Sure, you got a hammer laying around?
this post was submitted on 03 Jul 2026
-2 points (47.1% liked)
No Stupid Questions
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Yes. IQ tests can be studied and your score can be increased like any other test. This is because IQ doesn't measure intelligence, it measures IQ score.
If your asking about intelligence, then also yes. You can study and become smarter and more knowledgeable. Or you can hit your head or read the Daily Wire and become less intelligent.
In fact, there are some "child prodigies" out there who are simply drilled from a young age to pass specific intelligence tests. If you're an overbearing parent desperate to live vicariously through your children, you can turn a fairly normal child into a "child prodigy." It only costs you a lot of time and money and it only costs your child their childhood.
IQ doesn’t measure intelligence
We don't even have agreed upon definition for intelligence so that seems like a weird claim to make.
- The ability to acquire, understand, and use knowledge.
- the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations
- the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one's environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (such as tests)
- the act of understanding
- the ability to learn, understand, and make judgments or have opinions that are based on reason
- It can be described as the ability to perceive or infer information; and to retain it as knowledge to be applied to adaptive behaviors within an environment or context.
Absolutely! Alcohol, heavy drugs or a brick to the head can all change your IQ.
Covid! An average loss of 1-1.5 IQ point every time you get it. Many people get it multiple times a year because you don't really become immune anymore (up to 70 percent immunity for up to 9 months).
Which explains many people.
IQ as a concept was invented by a white supremacist Eugenicist, and hasn't improved much in the years since.
It doesn't measure Intelligence. It measures your socioeconomic status in the country the test you're taking was made in and your engagement of academia..
So yes, you can improve your IQ. Study harder, eat better, go to better schools, and have more money. Also it really helps if you and the test giver are both white males.
They’re good only for finding deficits. I score well enough across the board, except my sequential memory, like you tell me five numbers then ask me to repeat them back in order a minute later and I cannot do that, basically doesn’t exist. I’m certainly smart enough to get by so I don’t really care about the positive scores but having proof I had a learning disability was critical for me to get the help I needed in school. Being perceived as smart often makes people believe you have to be smart in every possible way. So IQ tests have their uses, but like Steven Hawking said “people who boast about their IQs are losers”
IQ tests are one of the most well-validated and predictive tools in all of psychology for measuring general cognitive ability, and they predict important life outcomes better than almost anything else in psychology. Feeling discomfort about the results doesn't invalidate the test itself.
I understand, but why am I downvoted? I was just asking a question.
MAGA ?
IQ is not a thing you have, it’s merely a test score, useful only in comparing relative intelligences on a mass scale.
Take the test on a different day, or sleep more beforehand, or do a different test, and your IQ will change.
Take the test on a different day, or sleep more beforehand, or do a different test, and your IQ will change.
Not as much as people think. We're talking around 5 points of difference - 10 at max. Broadly speaking, the results of a well-designed test are highly consistent over a long period of time as long as it's measured under similar conditions. It's among the most repeatable tests in all of psychology.
IQ is not useful as a measure of intelligence, even on a mass scale. It is fundamentally bullshit
Short answer is mostly no. Long answer is nuanced, and depends on whether you are asking about the score or intelligence
Changing the "IQ score" (I am assuming a genuine test like WAIS-V, or at least something highly g-loaded like the old SAT):
- You can practice for them. This is actually a bad thing: IQ test is meant as a diagnostic tool, so practice effects make IQ tests less valid. I know most neuropsychs will discourage you from practicing the exam or taking the same test within 2~5 years after taking one
- Childhood IQ tests are somewhat less accurate than their adult counterparts, so sometimes two officially administered psych tests issued at two timepoints can differ by a lot
- People usually score more accurately if they take the test in their native language, using norms from their country. Doesn't affect most people, but some adult immigrants might benefit from this
- Some people have wildly differing scores on different subsections, quite common among Autistic people I believe. This defeats the whole premise of IQ itself and you will likely never get a very accurate aggregate estimate... but that does mean your score will change based on which test you take. For example, if you are a genius at quantitative reasoning (math intuition) but below-average at say processing speed, you'll score much higher on old SAT or AGCT (where math is 1/3, no processing speed section) versus WAIS-V (which has no math sections, but does have processing speed)
Changing "intelligence" itself. This mostly never changes. However, if you have external factors that clog your mental, removing them do indeed improve intelligence:
- The single best way is to have good early childhood nutrition. This obviously can't be changed...
- Have good nutrition and good sleep, and not take substances (alcohol, tobacco, drugs, etc...)
- Resolve ongoing mental disorders. It is well-known that depression drops IQ by quite a bit, for example
IQ has some white supremacist roots, so discussing about it is usually frowned upon... and even when used correctly, it is honestly much better used as a diagnostic tool. For example ADHD can get flagged on IQ tests very easily.
Personally I think instead of trying to improve per-se, it is much better used as a tool for self-discovery especially if you have any weird neurological conditions. If you're worried about accuracy or accidentally bombing an exam because you got too nervous with the psychologist, there are tests you can take at home such as old-SAT, CORE, CAIT, AGCT (the one US Army used to use)... which are all essentially IQ tests.
I'm not a bot, honest.
That's exactly what a bot would say... 🤔
But your a bot
Yes. I am a B.O.T.
Boy Over Thirty
Absolutely, with more education people on average score higher on IQ tests.
However AFAIK evidence shows that training specifically for higher scores on IQ tests does not significantly increase general intelligence.
To a certain extent yes, if you're lacking proper nutrition, not getting enough sleep, sleep apnea, stressed, i.e. if you have something that's impeding your intelligence you have room to improve.
I.E. studies of economic vegetarian children showed tremendous cognitive improvements when supplemented with one egg a day. They lacked proper nutrition
The impact on a fully developed adult brain could be just as impactful depending on the problem, but probably would be more subtle
IQ is meaningless on an individual level. It is really only effective at measuring something in large groups of people. You can do a lot to improve your reasoning and the brain is a muscle that responds well to being trained however.
use ai daily
"changing" for the worse lol
You can definitely educate yourself where you might score higher on a standard test because the concepts presented aren't as seeming obscure, but IQ is supposed to be a measure of underlying thinking I'm not sure that improves over a lifetime.
Depends. You can get smarter. You can take the test again and get a better score. You could take a different test and get a different score.
All technically "change your IQ," but if you're asking if there's a concrete way to record if you've "leveled up" in intelligence? Nope.
IQ is age weighted. taking it at the point where you are at the height of general learning and before you specialize to much should give you about the highest you will have. So like end of high school to end of college. maybe summer of sphmore year or just after taking the gre.