An IQ score may not be a joke, but as my Psych 101 professor said, "What is IQ? It's a score on a test." What follows is my personal account. Take it or leave i

An IQ score may not be a joke, but as my Psych 101 professor said, "What is IQ? It's a score on a test." What follows is my personal account. Take it or leave it. When I was 11 years old and in the 7th grade, I was failing most of my classes. I was a big problem for teachers. I talked a lot and was generally distracted; also a distraction for other students. My teachers wanted to put me in the "STAR" program, which was for learning disabled students. My parents protested, demanding that I be thoroughly tested. I spent a full week being evaluated by psychologists and special-needs specialists. A psychologist administered an IQ test, which came back over 170. If I recall correctly, the first score was 174. They re-administered the test with another psychologist resulting in a score of 169. My teachers smugly denied having thought I was dumb and fell back to the position that being in the STAR program would help solve my "focus" issues; despite any in appropriateness for my learning ability. I barely made it through my first year of high school. I graduated with a 2.7 GPA. It wasn't because I couldn't solve the problems -- I liked learning the material and passed tests readily -- it was that I wouldn't do the work. Squandering ability is pretty stupid thing to do. This isn't a "look how smart I am" post. Do I think I'm smart? It'd be disingenuous for me to say no, but if I look at the outcome of my life, I can say without any feeling of self-disrespect that having a "genius" IQ hasn't netted me much. This isn't to say I haven't achieved success. To the contrary, I'm the proud owner of a business that does a couple million dollars a year in revenue and solves some fun problems, but by the measure of the greats, I've done nothing. So what does my IQ mean? It means I'm well suited to taking IQ tests. I wouldn't want to discourage this 12-yr old from pursuing his dreams, but I would caution against recognizing IQ as a universal predictor of greatness.