test iq of my child

Should your child take an IQ test? A somewhat controversial topic indeed. Shouldn’t we just let kids be kids? Why do we have to pigeon hole them and make them take IQ tests? Read on.

In 2016, an 11-year old girl Anushka Dixit from London received a near perfect score of 162 when she took a Mensa quiz. This is higher than Albert Einstein who (only) had an IQ of 160. In Singapore, MENSA has observed a surge in the number of young children joining. 25% of Mensa members in Singapore are under the age of 12. The number of high IQ Singapore children has increased rather significantly over the years, in fact, the number of ‘gifted’ children has tripled since three years ago. 

In Singapore, every Primary 3 student will be given the opportunity to the GEP Identification Exercise, you can find out more about the Gifted Education Programmes (GEP) and the schools that offer them here, we have also prepared some past year GEP questions which are notoriously challenging GEP Math Questions (free of course!) for your child to try. If you need more professional guidance, seek out our GEP Tutors here.

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We provide 1 to 1 online GEP Coaching and a free GEP diagnostic test when you sign up for our GEP Tuition lesson. This offer is only for valid for Primary Two and Primary Three students and valid till 30 November 2023. 

What are the signs to show that your child may have a high IQ? 

Some experts have shared that it is possible to identify if your child has high IQ by going through the following 5 points checklist:

1. Excellent Memory

If your child has a memory of an elephant, it may be a sign that he or she has above-average intelligence. It has been said that “The number of things people can remember is robustly correlated with fluid intelligence — the larger number remembered, the higher the IQ,” said Edward Awh, a psychology professor and a member of the Oregon Visual Working Memory & Attention Lab.

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2. Early Reading Skills

Are early readers gifted? Can your child identify sight words before the age of four? According to Harvard researchers, by the time children enter formal education, it is estimated that they know the meaning of about 5,000 to 6,000 words when they hear them, and can probably recognize in print a handful of easily memorized “sight words” — words like “the” and “to” and “stop” that pop up often in books and on signs and menus. But if your child seems to have a natural ability to remember sight words, chances are your child may just be gifted.

3. Curiosity

Curiosity is the ability to seek and acquire new knowledge, skills, and ways of understanding the world. It is at the heart of what motivates young people to learn and what keeps them learning throughout their lives. Children who ask a lot of questions are demonstrating an innate desire to learn. As they seek out opportunities to learn wherever they are, they further develop their minds and intellect.

4. Sense of Humour

Great men like Churchill and Lincoln are known for having a great sense of humour. Many of Winston Churchill’s most famous quotes are the funny quips that revealed his wit. According to BBC-News, the tell-tale signs of a genius child is through his wit.

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5. Sets High Standards

Is your child a perfectionist? Does he or she tend to set a high bar for themselves. They have an instinctual need to improve and do better in areas that matter to them. This drive also assists them in learning new skills and school subjects to the best of their ability. Being hyper-focused in specific areas of interest can also be a sign of a high IQ.

 

What are the advantages of having your child take an IQ test?

The original intention behind the IQ tests (developed in 1905 by Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon in France) was to get a diagnostic test that can help to select children at the lower ends of the intelligence scale, identify who might need special education to keep up with the school curriculum or if they may have certain learning disabilities that parents need to be aware of. It has since evolved to become an association with being a genius after Professor Lewis M. Terman from Stanford University translated it from French to English and termed it as the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale.

Believe it or not, there are some benefits when you let your children take an IQ test.

The main advantage of the intelligence tests is primarily to help you understand your child’s hidden potential or identify special needs. Having your child take an IQ test will also allow parents to understand their children’s specific strengths, what he or she is weak at, and how to what kind of curriculum would best fit your child’s abilities. Some parents may observe that their children are claiming he or she feels bored in class. This may just be a sign that your child needs a more appropriately match curriculum and instruction, taking an IQ test will then be beneficial as you would be able to have evidence of his or her learning capacity before you decide on your next course of action.

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Are all kids with high IQ successful?

Does a having a high IQ score mean that a child will become the crème de la crème?

Will they go on to change the world, go on to do great things like the two greatest scientists Stephen Hawking or Albert Einstein? According to the Genetic Literacy Project, studied a sample of close to 2000 boys and girls who have an average IQ of 151. None of them grew up to be what most people would see as ‘exemplars of genius’. Most of the children grew up to become professors, doctors, lawyers, scientists, engineers, and other professionals. At this point, it may be worthy to note that Elon Musk (the almost infamous TESLA dude that plans to bring mankind to Mars), has an IQ that is estimated to be close to 160. Observers have conjured this IQ score based primarily on his earlier aptitude tests, his ability to read and apply technical information, and his ability to use numbers to make process changes the engineering and space industry.

In Asian countries like Singapore, where education has been a national pride for decades, the Gifted Education Programme (GEP) has been thought synonymously as a programme for children of high IQ, was developed to nurture intellectually gifted students. The pioneer batch of the GEP selection test saw 40,000 Primary 3 students taking the GEP test in September 1983. Only a mere 100 best were chosen to pilot the Primary 4 Gifted Education Programme at Raffles Girls’ Primary School and Rosyth School.

To find out more about the GEP programme or get tuition for GEP, you can click here. If you are keen to know what does a Math GEP paper look like, click here for sample GEP Math Questions.

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If you are interested in getting IQ worksheets or get free materials on Intelligence tests, subscribe to our youtube channel  and we will send you an GEP Math IQ test for free. Just email us with a screenshot of your subscription and we will be in touch. 

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