IQ Test for Over 50s

The Whitehall II study followed more than 7,000 British civil servants aged 45 to 70 over ten years. Reasoning scores fell by 3.6% on average in those who started at 45 to 49, and by more in older groups. The headline finding was that some decline in reasoning is measurable from about 45, earlier than many researchers had assumed.

Vocabulary held up best, and differences between people were large. Plenty of people in their 50s outperform people in their 30s.

The test is timed and visual, which is exactly the kind of task where age shows first. That makes it a useful personal benchmark, as long as you compare yourself with yourself.

• Take it when you are rested and not rushed.
• Note your result and the date. A retake in two or three years tells you more than any single score.
• On a retake, the first few points of improvement are often familiarity, not real change.

On clinical tests the average stays 100 in your 50s, because you are compared with people your age. Our test is not age-adjusted, so a lower number than you would have scored at 30 is expected and is not a sign that anything is wrong. It is not a medical or memory test.

Brain-training apps promise a lot. A 2016 review of the evidence by Daniel Simons and colleagues found that people get better at the games they practise, but there was little good evidence that the gains carry over to everyday thinking or to IQ.

We do not claim this test, or anything else, will raise your IQ. It measures; it does not train.