Q. Can you really tell anything about someone's intelligence by having them take an IQ quiz?

A. The answer to this question requires a bit of background information, so let me put my professor hat on and tell you a story.

An IQ quiz measures a person's Intelligence Quotient (IQ). IQ is calculated using this formula: IQ = 100 MA/CA where MA = Mental Age and CA = Chronological Age.

The IQ test was originated back in 1905 by French psychologist Alfred Binet and his physician research partner Dr. Theodore Simon. These two guys came up with the ""Binet Simon Test"". This test's purpose was to measure the intelligence of retarded children.

The test was based upon several observations:

1. Children grow more mentally capable as they grow older

2. Some children perform at higher grade and age levels than their actual grade and age level. While other children are just the opposite.

The mental age (MA) portion of the formula is the age level that the child is found to perform at. For example, a 6-year-old who performed at the level of an 8-year-old, is assigned a MA of 8 and, of course, a CA of 6. Conversely, an 8-year-old, who performed at the level of a 6-year-old, is given a CA of 8 and a MA of 6. With me so far? If you are then you've already passed my IQ test because I'm starting to get confused and I'm the one who is writing this article!

3. Binet and Simpson also discovered that these gaps between MA and CA grew wider as the children aged. Our child who had a MA of 8 when he was 6, was found to have a MA of 12 by the time that he reached age 8. Conversely, the child who had a MA of 6 when he was 9, had a MA of 8 when he reached 12.

4. They also noticed that although the MA/CA gap widened as the children grew older, the ratio of MA:CA remained constant. This constant ratio was called the ""Intelligence Quotient"".

The IQ quiz, or IQ test, was developed as a way of determining the MA:CA ratio of any person at any age.

So, what (if anything) can be deduced about a person based upon the results of an IQ quiz?

According to an article ""The General Intelligence Factor"