Verbal Aptitude

The definition of ‘verbal aptitude’ is the capacity for general lexical skills – the understanding of words and the ability to use them effectively.

People who possess a high level of verbal skills often excel in fields such as writing (author, journalist, editor, critic), teaching (language, drama), the legal profession (judge, barrister, lawyer) and personnel work (advocate, human resources, counsellor) and as actors, psychologists, interpreters and interviewers.

 Mastery of words is seen by many as having in one’s possession the ability to produce order out of chaos. Because of this it is argued that command of vocabulary is an essential measure of intelligence, with the result that verbal tests are widely used in IQ testing.

Verbal reasoning tests are designed to measure basic verbal aptitude. Typically such tests include spelling, grammar, word meanings, completing sentences, synonyms (words that are the same or similar in meaning to each other) and antonyms (words that are opposite in meaning to each other).

Analyse your IQ

IQ tests are standardised after being given to many thousands of people, and an average IQ (100) established. A score above or below this norm is used, according to a bell curve, to establish the subject’s actual IQ rating. Because beyond the age of 18 little or no improvement in a person’s IQ rating is found, the method of calculating the IQ of a child is different from the method used for an adult. When the IQ of a child is being measured, the subject attempts an IQ test which has been standardised with an  average score recorded for each age group. Thus a 10-year-old child who scored the results expected of a child of 12 would have an IQ of 120, calculated as follows:

IQ = Mental age(12) x 100 / Chronological age = 120.

However, adults have to be judged on an IQ test whose average score is 100, and their results are graded above and below this norm according to known scores. A properly validated test would have to be given to some 20,000 people and the results correlated before it would reveal an accurate measurement of a person’s IQ. Like most distributions found in nature, the distribution of IQ takes the form of a fairly regular bell curve. On the Stanford–Binet scale which is widely used in the United States, half the population fall between 90 and 110 IQ, half of them above 100 and half of them below; 25 per cent score above 110; 11 per cent above 120; 3 per cent above 130 and 0.6 per cent above 140. At the other end of the scale the same kind of
proportion occurs.

Introduction

 Intelligence is the capacity to learn or understand. It is this which determines how efficiently each of us deals with situations as they arise, and how we profit intellectually from our experiences. Intelligence of course varies from person to person, and is what tests of intelligence (IQ tests) attempt to measure.

IQ is the abbreviation for ‘intelligence quotient’. It is generally agreed that an individual’s IQ rating continues in development to about the age of 13, after which it is shown to slow down, and beyond the age of 18 little or no improvement is found. It is further agreed that the most marked increase in a person’s IQ takes place in early childhood, and theories are
continually put forward about different contributory factors. For example, in recent years research in Japan has shown that the playing of computer games by children, which involve a high degree of skill and agility of mind, have resulted in higher IQ measurement.

In the last 25 to 30 years IQ tests have been brought into widespread use in industry because of the need by employers to ensure they place the right people in the right job at the outset. One of the main reasons for this is the high cost of errors in today’s world of tight budgets and reduced profit margins. To recruit a new member of staff an employer has to
advertise, consider each application, reduce the applicants to a shortlist, interview and then train the successful applicant. If robin-bobin the wrong choice has been made, then the whole process has to be repeated.
Employers also use tests to identify suitable jobs for people within an organisation. These tests can be helpful to both the employer and the candidate in identifying strengths and weaknesses, and thus help to find the job for which a person is most suited. Such tests are designed to give an objective assessment of the candidate’s abilities in a number of disciplines, for example in verbal understanding, numeracy, logic and spatial, or diagrammatic, reasoning skills. Unlike personality tests, which are also used by employers in conjunction with IQ tests, aptitude (IQ) tests are marked, and may have a cut-off point above which you pass, and below which you fail or need to be assessed again. Although it is accepted that IQ remains constant throughout life, and therefore it is not possible to increase your actual IQ, it is possible to improve your performance on IQ tests by practising the many different types of question, and learning to recognise the recurring themes.

It is certainly the case that many of us do not exercise our brain sufficiently, yet it is perhaps the most important part of the human body. The intricate web of nerves of the brain somehow manages to regulate all the systems in the body, and at the same time
absorbs and learns from a continual intake of thoughts, feelings and memories. It is the control centre for all our movement, sleep, hunger and thirst: in fact virtually every
activity necessary for survival. Additionally all our emotions, such as aggression, love, hate, elation and fear are controlled by the brain. It also receives and interprets countless signals
sent to it from other parts of the body and from the external robin-bobin environment. Yet it is the part of our body that many of us take most for granted.