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No, this is not an IQ test. > The CARS section is similar to verbal reasoning sections providing passages with questions testing reading comprehension. The 500
by zeckalpha 5y ago
No, this is not an IQ test.
> The CARS section is similar to verbal reasoning sections providing passages with questions testing reading comprehension. The 500-600 word passages can cover topics ranging from the social sciences to the humanities, sometimes presenting in a convoluted or biased manner requiring the reader to consider what is being written from multiple perspectives.[25] The passages are designed to discuss topics that are unfamiliar to the reader, but success in this section requires strictly using information from the passage without using previously known knowledge.[
- cfu28 5y agoIt does feel like it functions as one. It is a section of the MCAT that is least correlated with the amount of studying and the hardest section to improve on with retakes.
- toomim 5y agoThat sure looks like an IQ test to me.
- zeckalpha 5y agoHave you taken an IQ test? They are structured very differently.
- toomim 5y agoThere are many structures for IQ tests. Some use analogical reasoning, some use arithmetic pattern matching, some use vocabulary and language skills. You are perhaps thinking of the style of IQ tests that require you to fill in analogies and rotate shapes together. But what makes an IQ test is the theory that all performance on each of these skills correlates together strongly, indicating a single "general intelligence" factor (aka "IQ"). [1] Reading comprehension turns out to be highly correlated with mathematical aptitude, and musical aptitude, etc. So the main criteria for an IQ test is not how it looks, or how it's structured, but whether it measures knowledge that has been acquired (aka "nurture") or ability to reason about new things. Since this test is measuring reading comprehension on topics that are unfamiliar to the reader, it is measuring the latter, and is likely to have a strong correlation with g, and thus looks like an IQ test. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G_factor_(psychometrics) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G_factor_(psychometrics)