How to Evaluate IQ

How to Evaluate IQ

After spending a decade in training, consulting, Coaching and mentoring activities I started believing that the IQ of a person should not be measured on the basis of facts, what a person knows. In fact in this information age when search engines know more facts than any single human it is an outdated way of measuring IQ.

Corporations are spending a lot of money in selecting good candidates for the role in their projects and organization but they are also not going beyond question answers interviews or a standard exam. Most of the time MCQ are the criteria of evaluating. In a limited time how can we select a good candidate?

If you throw some facts before a candidate, and ask him to propose some unique interesting questions. That can be a good assessment of a thinking mind. What kind of thought and mind he has. In the next step ask him to get the answer to those questions. This shows what he has done in the past.

Does he feel excited in asking those questions or feeling that these are rhetorical questions? Does he feel excited in solving those or has he memorized some answers and repeating from memory.

In the process of gaining experience and learning something new we need to use memory. For what purpose we use memory is an important thing. Most people use memory to remember facts; they use it to “retain” concepts. Why? Because they don’t “learn” concepts and ideas. For most people, the purpose of reading books is getting more facts and information, they rarely focus on ideas.

To evaluate the IQ, let’s see one example, how to ask questions from the facts.
Facts:

1. Earth completes rotation around the sun in 365 days.
2. Circle is 360 degree angle.
3. Day has 24 hours.
4. Moon completes one rotation around earth in 28 days.
5. There are four seasons in Delhi.

Using the above facts, ask as many questions and propose as many answers. Avoid rhetorical questions. If you ask a question which is asked by many other people then you get lesser points. Lessor times that question is asked more points you get.

Possible Questions:
How many degrees does the earth rotate in a day?
How many latitude and longitude shifts happen on earth in one hour?
How much does the moon rotate around the earth in one hour? What is the rotation on a full moon day on the equator?

One of the biggest problems of our education is they are giving lots of facts, expecting learners to memorize the answer, learners remember the facts and information but they are ignoring information. They don’t know how to use that information. The main reason for that is they are not asking the right questions.

I am not against the memorization of facts. If someone can remember facts that is great. But the greatest thing is assimilate information, stitch the facts together and know what is not obvious.

Hari Om Tat Sat
Yours Truly Hari