Yes. IQ tests depend on "interpretation" how intelligence is defined and how the test is given. I remember one child in school given an IQ test. They chose to give this test in a very small room with no windows. Not much bigger than a closet. Afterwards the child's parents questioned the school about the results. Two weeks later the child was given the test again in a bright open schoolroom and he scored much higher. 10 point difference! --------------------- "The National Education Association, with membership of almost 2 million teachers, has called for the abolition of standardized intelligence tests because they are “at best wasteful, and at worst, destructive.” "Consider, for example, that James Watson, the discoverer of DNA, has an IQ of about 115 — about the IQ of most college students. He claims that his great success was due to his persistent curiosity, something not measured by IQ tests. IQ tests, however, are poor indicators of many attributes of this nature. Generally, IQ tests seem to measure common skills and abilities, most of which are acquired in school. Thus, in opposition to the idea of a general intelligence, the concept of “multiple intelligences” came into being". http://iq-test.learninginfo.org/iq02.htm No doubt those who score well are smart. But average or low IQ scores are often meaningless, except to the degree that they fortify our belief that intelligence is a fixed value, like height or weight, and as easy to measure. The whole culture we've built around IQ tests serves to legitimize a creepy form of elitism. Worse, it substantiates our need to treat individuals always as members of populations. As typicalities. Nowhere is this more apparent, and obsolete, than in corporate org charts. Yes, hierachies are useful. But so are human beings that like working, and advancing, in companies that value their unique gifts. http://www.dustbury.com/archives/004274.html

I'm only adding to Alatea's excellent answer, but in the same way that a tendency to rush or not finish an exam in any subject out of boredom or distraction could cause you to look less knowledgable than you are, the same can happen with an IQ test See also: http://iqte.st/onlineiqtestiqtest/index.html

No, it is not possible to have both a high IQ and a low IQ. This would be similar to saying I can both be ontop of a building and beneath it. It is a logical fallacy. Even a ten point difference is meaningless. The standard deviation of an IQ test is 15, which means that one would have to score 15 points different to land on a different part of the scale. If you scored below 100 (the mean), then it is impossible to have an actual high IQ unless there is something else to explain it, like drug intoxication, language barriers, and the like. However, please keep in mind that there are different ways of measuring intelligence.

Other factors can influence test scores such as a good night's rest, stress, and health. There is also the factor that one may not be actually "exercising" their brain regularly, thus their potential iq is not being met, resulting in a lower than representative score.

Yes. I am reading a very good book ..called "emotional intelligence" by Daniel Goleman...It was a best seller in about 1995 but it still applies today. It attempts (quite successfully) to answer why people with high IQ's fail in life and vice versa...an interesting read..you might enjoy it. He argues that our IQ method of determining intelligence is far too narrow, and ignores a crucial range of abilities.

You do have a true IQ however it can vary from test to test in addition some individuals do better with oral, or visual and some people who are who have very high IQ's can be poor test takers, so yes you can.

Of course! How do the people who invented the Standford-Benet' go about inventing an I.Q. test to measure the intelligence of an Australian Aborigine? An African Bushman? An Alaskan Esquimo(old school)? All these peoples are excellent "survivors" in an environment most Stanford University professors would soon die in, given only what they know now. It can't be done. All I.Q. tests are inherently culturally biased. Albert Einstein was considered retarded and uneducable by his elementary teachers. Go figure.

I don't know how accurate an IQ test can define someone's intelligence, but I do know that people have mental abilities that cannot be measured by an IQ test. Just because I might not be able to figure out a particular pattern doesn't mean I'm not unique or intelligent. Kim Peek (aka the Rain Man) has something called Savant Syndrome. He can do things with his mind that 99% of the people in this world cannot do. He has phenomenal memory capabilities that definately qualify him to be unique. However, the IQ test has defined his IQ to be very low. Does this mean he is unintelligent? In my opinion this does not mean he is unintelligent. It just means that he has intelligence that an IQ test is not able to recognize. There is also another aspect of the mind that an IQ test would never be able to measure. The love to learn new things and a persistent curiosity could not be identified by taking an IQ test. In my opinion, I think these qualities should be valued above a "high IQ" because they are the true components to help you succeed. Someone with a high IQ could be extremely lazy and apathetic toward learning and discovery; therefore, that person would lag behind someone with a lower IQ who has a thirst for knowledge.

*sorry i meant to say unintelligent in the last word of the 1st paragraph

Yes. Some do not perform well on tests of any kind. Also if the test is given under less than optimal conditions the results will vary. Every one also has a bad day as well. Some believe the tests themselves are inaccurate also.

The answer can not be yes or no. Howard Gardner, a well known name in ecucation, proposed that there are nine types of intelligence, and most people operate well in three of them. Most IQ tests are built around Logic, linguistics, and spacial concepts. This leaves six relitivly unexplored. I do substitute teaching. My students urged me to take on online IQ test. When the results showed comfortably in the Genius range, I admitted that my MENSA test, which I fell asleep three times while taking, scored me at 159. I then went on to explain that while I ranked high with my reading skills, logic, and linguistics, when it came to common sense I have little to none.

No. It's not possible to score low on an IQ test and have a high IQ. It's certainly possible to score low on an IQ test and have high intelligence though. IQ and intelligence are two different things. IQ is your score on a test determined to gauge the statistical rarity of your intelligence. Your true "IQ" is simply defined to be your score on the IQ test. If you score 300 on an IQ test, that's your IQ (according to that test). You could be the smartest man alive and score a 130 on an IQ test. Your IQ would still be 130.

Not probable, but poor reading and language skills could affect the score of the entire test.