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Do you think it is fair to say these two questions are a bit ridiculous? What exactly are they even testing for?

enter image description here

enter image description here

From IQ-test.net, questions 21 and 23.

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  • $\begingroup$ Unless you know the answer, you cannot say what they are testing for. I presume there is a good reason why only one answer for each is valid, but I cannot see it. For the second one I can think of reasoning that leads to two possible answers. But I suppose that just means I have not found the right answer either yet. (Unless they were misprints but I know how deceptive and difficult these can be so I am guessing they are not misprints.) $\endgroup$
    – PaulD
    Commented Oct 16, 2016 at 9:46
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    $\begingroup$ Given the fact that you can get better results on IQ tests with practice, these tests are not measuring anything objectively about you, but they are measuring something. What it is exactly they are measuring is something that is harder to pin down or define. $\endgroup$
    – PaulD
    Commented Oct 16, 2016 at 9:49
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    $\begingroup$ They are measuring test taking skill. The mistake is in thinking that intelligence is a single attribute, and that it can be separated from experience. Though there is practical evidence that intelligence and wisdom may be seperable attributes; I've known my share of wise fools and unthinking geniuses. $\endgroup$
    – keshlam
    Commented Oct 16, 2016 at 18:19
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    $\begingroup$ From my experience, some tests like these assign different levels of correctness to the different answers, or even that answer 'a' suggests one type of intelligence and 'b' suggests another. So, unless you are told there is one correct answer, avoid the assumption that there is one.(At least on similar tests; school tests pretty much always have one correct answer.) $\endgroup$
    – Phlarx
    Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 15:35

8 Answers 8

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Seems to make sense for the top one:

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    $\begingroup$ The question seems only difficult because it's misleading... ._. $\endgroup$
    – greenturtle3141
    Commented Oct 16, 2016 at 23:43
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just joined to answer :)

For the second one...

Due to a large proportion of empty circles I think only non-empty are important. And a simple correlation between them seems to be a path or a labyrinth: enter image description here

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    $\begingroup$ Welcome to Puzzling. This is a great first answer ^_^ $\endgroup$
    – ABcDexter
    Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 6:30
  • $\begingroup$ Best "IQ" answer$\scriptsize\raise.1ex/$problem ever? $\endgroup$
    – humn
    Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 22:45
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    $\begingroup$ creative ans! +1 $\endgroup$
    – Shankar
    Commented Oct 18, 2016 at 7:04
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    $\begingroup$ @Shankar Thanks – but it's not only me who had this idea: greenturtle3141 in this answer mentions this possibility, too. $\endgroup$
    – CiaPan
    Commented Oct 18, 2016 at 7:30
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For the first one:

I would agree with humn.
However if this were the intent I wouldn't expect the square to be grouped (by proximity) with one of the pieces. It seems like a bad question to me.

For the second one:

I would choose the Four-pointed star.
Every other row and column has exactly one distinct glyph, so I wouldn't choose the Empty Circle. The Plus and Angle (matching the glyph already used) could be avoided because there is no clear reason to re-use one glyph and instead of the other. The X and Vertical Angle could be avoided because they're rotations of the other glyphs and likewise there is no clear reason to prefer one over the other.

I've know I've exploited testing strategy to reach an answer which feels like cheating; but given that the question essentially contains two glyphs with no immediate relationship it could be intended to test some form of Apophenia. One can probably make up a handful or reasons for either of the rotations... but in that case one is creating a pattern that isn't really present.

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  • $\begingroup$ I'm wondering why the pattern should be more complicated rather than less so. Couldn't one just "prefer" simpler patterns and therefore want to reuse symbols? $\endgroup$
    – dsaxton
    Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 1:47
  • $\begingroup$ @dsaxton, Assuming only one correct answer and that the glyphs are arbitrary, it makes no since to say reusing one is correct and reusing the other isn't. If the glyphs related clearly I'd say different. For instance if we had + then x (rotating 45 degrees) I'd probably choose + (but even then I'm choosing to read into columns-left-to-right, because if I choose to read rows-top-to-bottom the rotation would go the other way). With these symbols I don't see an order or a relationship, just two arbitrary symbols. $\endgroup$
    – Linus
    Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 5:15
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For the second one...

Evidenced by the apparently correct answer for the first question, the grid is probably just misleading. Although, usually when we see this type of 3x3 square, that means that everything in one row has something in common, and everything in a column has something in common. Since the filled in circles are on different rows and columns, the answer should be unlike the others. I'd choose the star. However, I could also argue that the answer is the top right one. The rule would be that the arrows form a path to the plus sign.
Arguably, the top left circle could be a "root", and moving down or right rotates one of the lines. Overall, I really don't think this is a very legit question.

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For second one

I think option are aligning with the question as you can see below and we can neglect one of the figure from the last one for being a closed shape.So it should be Cross one
enter image description here .enter image description here .enter image description here

And for first one
humn answer makes sense to me.

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    $\begingroup$ There’s nothing really to suggest that closed shapes must be ruled out, though, apart from the fact that the shapes given in the top two lines aren’t. $\endgroup$
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Oct 16, 2016 at 14:01
  • $\begingroup$ You could also argue the symbols on the right alternate (left, right, left) if you the put the rows back in order... but using the sites organization as part of the puzzle would seem like bad form on their part to me. $\endgroup$
    – Linus
    Commented Oct 17, 2016 at 5:29
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For the second one,

the star makes sense to me. Reason being that if you combine the shape of the upper middle element with the "directions" given by the cross, putting one of the triangular pieces appropriately rotated at each direction of the cross you end up with the star.

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For the second one I think

Star

is the answer, because

in the first row number of line segments is 2, in the second row it's 4, in the 3rd row it should be 8, and only star satisfies this.

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-2
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Star to me. The angle increases from 45 to 90 to 135 and from 1 angle to 2 angles to 4 angles.

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