Ranges of I.Q. in terms of BRP.

[Dredj]

Ok, this is a little off-topic, but seems like it could be an interesting discussion concerning the INT scores in BRP.

My mom and I had a talk about how I couldn't possibly have an I.Q. of 150, despite what my aptitude and intelligence tests say. She says that that would put me in the genius zone. However I understand that I.Q.s of 130 to 159 are considered gifted, but not genius. 160 to 179 are considered minor genius. Whereas genius I.Q.s start at 180.

Anyways, I'm smart, but not a genius. I know that for a fact.

I thought I'd find out what other people think, since I've noticed that there is great variance as to what people assume the numbers of an I.Q. test means. And BRP seems to use the same progression for determining a PC's I.Q. (multiply the INT score by 10).

[rust]

Over here we tend to be a bit sceptical about IQ tests and test results, because

intelligence is still neither well understood nor well defined, different tests produ-

ce different results, and the same person tested at different times with the sa-

me tests usually also has different results. As we were told during our training,

all you can rely on is that IQ is what a specific IQ test attempts to measure, but

beyond that all we have is guesswork.

So IQ - or any other numerical value for intelligence - is quite useful for a role-

playing game, but I would very much hesitate to consider it important in the real

world.

[Dredj]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. But the thing is my mom sent me a bunch of data on I.Q.s that suggest that genius is a lower I.Q. number than what I thought, which would be 180. According to my mom, genius starts at 150. What do other people think about their 150 INT characters?

Edited March 12, 2011 by Dredj

[canology]

From what I know (and I'm not an expert), the "average" IQ in the US is around 100. The average INT in BRP is 13, which should be around the 100 IQ range. So BRP INT is more likely to be something like IQ x 8 rather than x 10.

[rust]

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. But the thing is my mom sent me a bunch of data on I.Q.s that suggest that genius is a lower I.Q. number than what I thought, which would be 180. According to my mom, genius starts at 150. What do other people think about their 150 INT characters?

Well, on the scale commonly used over here, which is corrected for the age of

the person and the statistical distribution of the test results, an IQ of 150 would

already put a person at the outer edge of the scale:

[Guest Vile Traveller]

The number depends on the scale used. I'm not sure how useful it would be converting BRP INT scores to IQ ratings, given that IQ ratings are not well-understood by anyone, either. Probably more effective to just put up a 3d6 bell curve percentile chart, so you can see whether your character is likely to be the most intelligent person in a room of 100 people. In my case there would probably be another one at least as smart, and someone else who could easily outfox both of us. If you think that IQ tests measure anything other than an ability to do well in IQ tests, that is.

[Narl]

My mom and I had a talk about how I couldn't possibly have an I.Q. of 150, despite what my aptitude and intelligence tests say.

Dredj, I think we should be discussing the real issue, which is why does your mom think you aren't as smart as the tests show?

[Dredj]

Dredj, I think we should be discussing the real issue, which is why does your mom think you aren't as smart as the tests show?

Hehehe.

That's ok, she isn't half as smart as she thinks she is, either.

[soltakss]

RQ INT was originally 3D6, which gave an average of 10-11, linking up well with the IQ100 average.

However, this gives a huge proportion of INT 3-7 characters, which is unrealistic, so it was changed to be 2D6+6, which gives an average of 13 and a minimum of 8.

Wikipedia has an IQ Chart at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IQ_reference_chart which gives some scales.

But, as stated above, I wouldn't put too much stock on IQ tests.