Work & Hiring Tests
The cognitive and aptitude tests employers use, how they are scored, and what a score does and does not predict at work.
Mechanical Aptitude Test: What It Measures, How Long It Takes, What Scores Mean
The Bennett BMCT-II has 55 items in 25 minutes and the ASVAB's mechanical subtest 15 scored items in 22. None of the publisher pages we read gives a pass mark, and none reports an IQ.
IBEW Aptitude Test Score: What the Official Page Says About Passing
The Electrical Training Alliance says applicants are told only whether they qualified and that exact scores are not provided. The battery is 69 items in 97 minutes, about 84 seconds an item.
What Is the Average IQ of a Medical Doctor? What Data Exist
Pages say doctors average 120 to 130, but we found no study that tested a representative group of working doctors. What exists is two UK studies of medical students and doctors, a US survey that ranks doctors high without a number, and MCAT results, which are not IQ.
Who Are the Smartest NBA Players? What the Combine Test Shows
No NBA player's IQ is public, so no one can be named the smartest. What exists is a basketball-specific test, the AIQ, given to 356 prospects at the NBA Combine from 2014 to 2019: players who reached the NBA scored higher on 3 of its 4 factors, with small effects.
Average IQ of Software Engineers: What the Research Actually Measured
Pages say the average software engineer has an IQ of 120 or 130, but we found no study that measured it. A 2026 coding-puzzle study, a 2021 code-comprehension study and O*NET's ability ratings show what has been measured instead.
McKinsey Solve: Is It an IQ Test? What McKinsey Says and What Prep Sites Claim
McKinsey calls Solve a gamified assessment of problem-solving, says no preparation is needed, and publishes no pass mark, score scale or reliability figure. Its 2021 FAQ gave 70 minutes and a percentile range; the 2025 FAQ gives neither. Prep sites fill the gap with game names and timings McKinsey does not print.
What Is a Good Thomas GIA Score? Percentiles and IQ
Thomas International's GIA has five timed tasks and reports percentiles against a UK norm group, with no pass mark. Its report calls the overall percentile an estimate of general intelligence, yet Thomas publishes no IQ conversion, no norm size and no reliability figure.
What Is a Good Predictive Index Score? PI Scale Explained
PI scores run from 100 to 450, and its own blog says the average of 250 is about 20 of 50 questions right. PI says it is not a test you pass or fail, no longer shows percentiles, and does not measure IQ.
What Is a Good SHL Test Score? Percentiles, Norm Groups and IQ
SHL says it sets no passing score and its support team cannot give you your result. What its own reports show is a percentile against a named comparison group, with T and Sten scores derived from it.
What Is a Good Watson-Glaser Score? What the Test Measures
Pearson publishes no pass mark and says a raw score out of 40 cannot be called good without a norm group. It does publish 12, 12 and 16 items in three sections, and a .52 correlation with WAIS-IV Full Scale IQ.
What Is a Good CCAT Score? Average, Range and the IQ Question
Criteria publishes a median of 24 out of 50 and suggested minimums that run from 17 to 24 by job. The 30-plus targets and IQ tables that circulate online appear on prep sites, not in the Criteria documents we read.
What Is a Good Wonderlic Score? By Job and NFL Position
Wonderlic says its current test has no universal good score. The numbers people quote, from 20 as average to 26 for NFL tackles, come from the older number-correct test and a 1984 book.
Too Smart for the Police? The IQ Cap Court Case
In 1999, a Connecticut police department rejected an applicant for scoring too high on a hiring test. A federal appeals court sided with the department. Here is what the case actually decided, and did not.
The OnlineJobs.ph IQ Test: What Hiring Tests Measure and What They Don’t
OnlineJobs.ph’s own test pages could not be opened for this article, so this piece covers what can be checked: how the cognitive tests employers use are built and scored, why a score is not an IQ, and what research says a score predicts.
Is There an IQ Sweet Spot for Leaders? What the 120 Study Found
A 2017 study found that colleagues' ratings of leaders peak near IQ 120 and then dip. It measured how others rated mid-level managers, not how their teams performed, and larger datasets on real outcomes show no such ceiling.
Average IQ of a Quant Trader: What Jane Street and Other Firms Test
Jane Street, IMC, Optiver and SIG publish no IQ requirement. The best evidence linking IQ to trading is a Finnish study of 87,914 male investors, and it uses a nine-point army score, not a Wechsler IQ.
ASVAB Score to IQ and the Military Minimum: What AFQT Means
There is no official ASVAB-to-IQ chart and no minimum IQ for the military. The AFQT is a percentile ranked against about 6,000 young Americans tested in 1997. Defense Department policy draws the line at the 10th percentile, and the services set higher bars of their own.
The Four-Fifths Rule: How Regulators Flag a Hiring Test for Bias
A cognitive ability test can produce pass rates eight points apart across two groups and clear federal guidelines. Another test can produce an eleven-point gap and fail the same screen. The difference is a ratio, not a point spread — and it is worth calculating yourself.
Are IQ Tests Legal for Employment? Why the Ban Is a Myth
IQ and cognitive ability tests are legal in US hiring. A 1971 Supreme Court case, Griggs v. Duke Power, set a condition, not a ban: a test that screens out a protected group must be job related. The four-fifths rule is how agencies spot the problem.
Hiring Tests Assumed the Candidate Was Alone. That Assumption Is Gone
Frontier models now operate a computer well enough to sit an assessment alongside a candidate. Across 19,368 AI-led interviews, 38.5 per cent were flagged for AI assistance.
Wonderlic Score to IQ: What Converts and What Does Not
The formula circulating online multiplies a Wonderlic score by two and adds sixty. It comes from no published conversion table, and the number it produces is not an IQ in the sense any test manual uses the word.
The EU Rules for AI Hiring Tests Were Due This Month. They Now Land in 2027
Recruitment screening and candidate assessment are high-risk uses under the EU AI Act, and their obligations were set to begin on 2 August 2026. A regulation in force since late July moved that date to 2 December 2027 — while leaving one workplace ban already biting.
What Practice Actually Changes on a Cognitive Ability Test
Sitting the same test twice usually produces a higher second score. Almost none of that gain is ability — which is why employers use alternate forms, and why the second number is a worse estimate than the first.
What a Cognitive Ability Test at Work Actually Predicts
Aptitude tests are among the better-studied hiring tools, and for decades the headline validity figures were quoted with more confidence than the corrections behind them deserved. A 2022 reanalysis pulled those numbers down.
Written to be checked, not just clicked
Every number carries its scale
An IQ figure is meaningless without the scale it was measured on and the range around it. Every story here reports all three, or says plainly that the source did not.
Sources are listed, not implied
Each story ends with the studies, datasets and documents it draws on, named and attributed, so you can go and read them yourself.
We correct in public
Spotted an error? Write to corrections@iqmetrics.org. Corrections are made on the story and noted at the bottom of it — never quietly.
Read the research.
Then find your own number.
Our IIF-certified assessment reports your score with its scale, percentile and confidence range — and a breakdown of the cognitive domains behind it.
Start IQ Test →