WAIS test online

No. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) is given one-to-one by a trained examiner, with physical materials and standardised conditions. A website cannot give you a real WAIS score, and sites that claim to are offering an imitation.

The current edition is the WAIS-5, published in 2024. It gives a Full Scale IQ (mean 100, standard deviation 15) and five index scores. A private assessment in the UK typically starts at around £450, and in the US it ranges from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars.

Current edition

WAIS-5 (2024), replacing the WAIS-IV (2008)

Age range

16 to 90 years 11 months

Scores

Full Scale IQ and five index scores, all on a scale with mean 100 and SD 15

Length

About 45 minutes for the 7-subtest Full Scale IQ; about 60 minutes for the 10 primary index subtests

Who can give it

Qualified professionals (Pearson qualification level C); in the UK, usually a chartered psychologist

Publisher

Pearson

The WAIS is an individually administered test. A psychologist reads instructions, times you, judges open-ended answers to vocabulary and similarity questions, and hands you physical blocks for the Block Design subtest. Some subtests depend on how a person answers aloud, and the examiner decides when to stop.

Pearson does offer telepractice options in which the examiner supervises you remotely, but the examiner is still in control and decides whether the situation is suitable. That is a different thing from a self-service website. Anything that gives you a "WAIS score" after a quiz is producing an estimate and, at best, borrowing the name.

Some free tests are honest about this and describe themselves as WAIS-style. Others use the WAIS name to suggest a validity they do not have. If a site calls itself the official or accredited online Wechsler test and cannot show a link to the publisher, treat it with suspicion.

The WAIS-5 groups its subtests into five areas, each of which gives an index score. Seven of the subtests combine into the Full Scale IQ.

The WAIS-IV (2008) had four indexes: Verbal Comprehension, Perceptual Reasoning, Working Memory and Processing Speed. The WAIS-5 splits perceptual reasoning into Visual Spatial and Fluid Reasoning, adds new subtests, and was standardised in 2023 to 2024 on about 2,000 people aged 16 to 90. Its Full Scale IQ reliability is reported at .97.

A comparison of the two editions in a group of adults found the WAIS-IV averaged about 101.6 and the WAIS-5 about 99.7, a gap consistent with the Flynn effect, the long-run tendency for people to score higher on older norms. Older WAIS results are still valid records, but the two editions are not interchangeable.

The WAIS-5 also changed its descriptive labels. Pearson's sample report describes a Full Scale IQ of 111 as "above average", for instance. The labels below are the WAIS-IV ones, and the WAIS-5 manual is the authority on its own.

In the UK, private cognitive assessments that use the WAIS typically start at around £450 for an assessment and report, and educational psychologist assessments are often quoted between about £670 and £795. The appointment is usually around two hours, plus time for the written report.

In the US, quotes for a WAIS or similar test range from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, depending on the clinician, whether scoring and a report are included and whether a wider neuropsychological evaluation is bundled with it. Insurance rarely covers testing done out of curiosity or for a gifted label.

Mensa's own test in the UK is much cheaper, at about £49, but it is not a WAIS. If your aim is Mensa membership, a Wechsler Full Scale IQ of 130 is accepted, but a Mensa test costs less than a full assessment.

Free online tests can give a rough sense of how you handle reasoning puzzles, particularly matrix-style questions like the Matrix Reasoning subtest. They cannot give a Wechsler IQ, because they have no comparable norm group, no supervision and no examiner.

The matrix practice below is in the style of Matrix Reasoning, one of the WAIS's fluid reasoning subtests. It is original, and it is there to show you how these questions work.

Three grid questions of increasing difficulty, in the style of the WAIS Matrix Reasoning subtest. Choose the option that completes each grid.