IQ tests are a very useful thing to do: they're good for getting jobs, for all sorts of things.

Cooper: a high IQ makes you less accident-prone

Interestingly, the higher the level of IQ you have the less accident prone you are.

Results are not based on individual right or wrong answers, it really depends on how the test is constructed.

We write the questions and then give them to a large sample group and the results we get is the basis of our analysis.

(Click on the video icon on the top right hand corner of this page to watch the above interview.)

Dr Cooper joined us for an interactive forum this morning.

    Click here to watch the forum.  

Anne Robinson plays bad cop....

This Saturday (May 11) BBC One will be running a series of IQ tests across Britain.

Presented by Phillip Schofield and Anne Robinson, the aim of Test the Nation will be to find out whether one part of the country really is brainier than another.

Seventy specially-designed questions will test the nation's brain power in five separate areas: language, memory, logic, numbers and perception.

Six different groups will pit their wits against the BBC's brain-teasers in the studio.

..Phillip Schofield plays good cop: Test the Nation

And viewers will be able to take part at home, via the internet and digital TV.

Anne Robinson - already famous as the queen of mean on the Weakest Link - says:

"Never mind who always claims to be the clever globs in the family or the egg-head at the office.

"This is a chance to test who truly is the smartest.

Reputations will be made. Reputations will be ruined!"

Limber up Your IQ score is supposed to remain roughly constant, but there are some things you can do to get in shape for the tests.

Marilyn Monroe is thought to have had an IQ of 160

The IQ test is nearly a century old.

The first tests were devised in Paris in 1904.

What is your IQ? Your IQ - or intelligence quotient - is NOT the same as general knowledge It measures thinking skills such as logic, mental arithmetic, memory and verbal skills Normal IQ is in the range of 85 to 115, but the average score is 100 To be recognised as a genius, your IQ should be at least 145 The German writer and poet Goethe is estimated to have the highest ever IQ at 210

They became popular during the First World War as a way of deciding which recruits should become officers and which should stay in the ranks.

Given the average life expectancy of an officer in the trenches, this is one IQ test you'd have been well advised to fail.

The IQ test is not intended to be a measure of what you know, but how well you can think.

It measures different aspects of the brain's skills, including verbal and non-verbal reasoning, visual abilities and mental arithmetic

Scientists have noticed that the average IQ is rising, at the rate of roughly three points per decade.

They're not sure whether we're really all getting brainier, or whether we're just getting better at being tested.

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