What your score means, and what it does not
Eight questions is a short test. A supervised assessment such as the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale runs for well over an hour across many subtests, precisely because a small sample of items produces a wide margin of error. Treat the number above as a rough indication and nothing more.
The bands themselves come from the standard distribution used in IQ testing, where the average is set at 100 and about two thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. A score near the middle is the most common outcome and it is not a disappointing one.
What the test does give you is a breakdown by ability. Categorization, pattern recognition, verbal analogy, deduction, working memory, second order sequences, cognitive reflection and careful reading are eight different things, and most people are noticeably stronger in some than others.
How to actually improve the abilities this test measured
Raw processing speed is largely fixed. Almost everything else on this list responds to practice, and the two with the biggest return are the least exciting: how you store what you learn, and whether you have the uninterrupted attention to use it.
If you got the last two questions wrong and the first six right, your reasoning is fine and your checking habit is the gap. If the middle questions were the hard ones, working memory is where the effort should go, and chunking is the lever.
- Weak on questions 1 and 5: work on how you organize and store knowledge
- Weak on questions 2 and 6: practise generating a second hypothesis before answering
- Weak on questions 4, 7 and 8: the fix is attention and checking, not ability
- Weak on question 3: read outside your field, where the vocabulary is unfamiliar
Where to go from here
Each of these guides opens in a new tab, so you can keep this page with your result on it.
- Memory techniques that actually work, covering the memory palace, spaced repetition and seven more
- Study tips that actually stick, and why highlighting and rereading are close to worthless
- How to improve focus and concentration, including what a single interruption really costs
- How to choose an online course you will actually finish
- How to pick skills worth your time, for deciding what to learn next
If you want a cleaner read on your own strengths, take the test again in a few days rather than immediately. Repeating it straight away measures how well you remember these eight questions, which is a different thing entirely.
And if one ability stood out as clearly weaker than the rest, that is the useful part of the result. A single number tells you very little. Knowing which of eight abilities is your weakest tells you where the next hour of effort should go.