I'm sorry to read the misunderstanding taking place here... Kalamity, I'm not sure anybody was disagreeing with you in the way you think they were! At least I didn't read it that way... Sorry you feel like someone was attacking you.

Everything in psychology must be taken with a grain of salt. IQ is a theoretical concept, a psychological construct, to help us understand something that is far more complicated than IQ could let us tap into. IQ tests can be very useful to help determine a problem in a person where everything else seems to be normal, or can be used to help place a gifted child into a more advanced class. In general mental health, they're often used to understand whether a person is mentally retarded or is having a language or emotional difficulty that is interferring with their intellectual capacity.

Having said all that, virtually all online IQ tests simply weren't designed and have had their psychometric properties tested in a way that makes them valid. They're fun to take (although some of them are extremely long), but I honestly wouldn't put much faith in their results. There are one or two online IQ tests (out of the hundreds available) that actually do have some validity, but I don't remember where they are offhand.

Since IQ tests look at a lot more than just vocabulary or general knowledge information (they require physical manipulation of blocks and other items), anything you take online is more than likely not pulling for just one aspect of IQ.

DocJohn