Learning the test

Mensa, the Oxford University founded high IQ society, uses testing scores to determine membership. The requirement for a score in the top two percent of the population is not restricted to IQ tests, but also to several other standardized exams.

Over the last six months, I’ve been able to take part in two standardized testing situations: the law school admissions test, or the LSAT, and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale. Over the course of studying for the LSAT I stumbled onto a debate over whether or not it was a valid measure of IQ, and whether it should be considered valid for admission to Mensa.

The LSAT is a kind of test that can be learned, and scores can be improved on. Entire shelves in Chapters are devoted to the subject, and students can shell out thousands of dollars on classes and private tutoring to better their chances of getting in to law school. From personal experience, I can say that studying and learning the test helped my performance. But then, which score is the best indicator of my intelligence? The raw score I got at the beginning, without studying, or the one I received on the test? If it can be learned, and by some accounts, beaten, how can scores on it truly reflect IQ?

Before I took part in testing and did the WAIS, some of the same thoughts popped up. As a student of psychology who had been taught some of the concepts, bases and forms of intelligence tests, was it possible that I be able to use prior knowledge of testing to interfere with my own performance? While I was tested, however, I found that the answer was probably not. Although some information on what the sub-tests were aiming to measure helped situate me, I was unable to evaluate how I was performing, which, I suppose, is rather the point.

The differences between these two testing experiences leads me to lean much more towards the side of the debate that says that high scores on the LSAT shouldn’t be used as admission criteria for Mensa. Although there might be something to be said about the dedication of spending such a huge amount of energy on getting your score higher that speaks to the self discipline and rigor required for law school in particular, the LSAT might not be reliable enough to measure IQ.

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