IQ Test for Athletes
Athletes can take this IQ test in about 12 minutes: 25 visual reasoning puzzles, no sign-up to start.
What's your IQ?
25 questions · about 12 minutes
What would you score? Try question 1.
Which option completes the grid? One tap, no sign-up.
The test at a glance
- Questions
- 25 visual puzzles
- Question types
- 5 sets, each easy to hard
- Time
- 12-minute timer
- Scoring
- Same for every age, not age-adjusted
- Cost
- No sign-up to start. When you finish, you choose a report to see your result.
Scores are not age-normed, and this is not a clinical or diagnostic test.
Athletes make hundreds of fast decisions under pressure. That kind of sporting intelligence is real, but it is not quite what an IQ test measures.
The NFL and the Wonderlic
For decades the NFL gave prospects the Wonderlic, a 12-minute general ability test, at its scouting combine. The league stopped using it in 2022.
Research had long found it said little about on-field success. A 2009 study by Brian Lyons and colleagues found Wonderlic scores did not predict NFL performance for most positions.
What elite athletes are better at
In a 2013 study, Jocelyn Faubert tested professional players from the NHL, the English Premier League and French Top 14 rugby on a 3D multiple-object tracking task. The pros learned to track fast-moving objects much faster than elite amateurs or university students.
That is a perceptual-cognitive skill much closer to sport than to an IQ test.
How this test works for athletes
- It is visual and timed, but static. Nothing moves, so reaction speed matters less than reasoning.
- It is not a concussion test. If you have had a head injury, follow your team's medical protocol. This test cannot assess recovery.
- Take it rested, not straight after training.
What scores mean for athletes
Athletes cover the whole range of IQ scores, like any group. The NFL data shows that general ability and sporting success are only loosely connected.
IQ Test for Athletes: FAQ
Is there a link between IQ and sporting success?
Why did the NFL stop the Wonderlic?
Can this test measure game intelligence?
Do athletes have better spatial skills?
Is a reaction time test the same as an IQ test?
Next in IQ tests
More in IQ tests
- Mensa practice testWhat Mensa accepts and how to prepare
- IQ test for teensHow the test works at 13 to 19
- IQ test for adultsWhat an adult score means
Related tools
- IQ chartEvery band and what it means
- IQ percentile calculatorShare of people below a score
- Daily IQ puzzleOne new matrix puzzle a day
Sources
- Lyons, B. D., Hoffman, B. J., & Michel, J. W. (2009). Not much more than g? An examination of the impact of intelligence on NFL performance. Human Performance, 22(3), 225-245.
- Faubert, J. (2013). Professional athletes have extraordinary skills for rapidly learning complex and neutral dynamic visual scenes. Scientific Reports, 3, 1154.