Name, description, both need work: You Fail The IQ Test

I found this had a banner when I added it to a page, then clicked the link. I'll delete it if you think it's really subjective...but I'm pretty sure You Fail The IQ Test isn't deserving of the subjective banner.

Everything with a You Fail title got tagged as a Subjective. This is why unrelated snowclones are discouraged. And it really should be a Useful Notes page, in its present form. It's mostly about the reality of IQ, not the way it's used in fiction and media.

Ok, how about we move this to Trope Repair and discuss splitting the page into a Useful Notes page and the actual trope page? (There is a trope here, it's just buried in a super long description.)

Edit: And here we are. Thoughts, concerns, three sizes?

edited 23rd Oct '10 5:40:49 PM by TotemicHero

IQ test scores significantly above 100 hundred are used to inform the audience that the character is supposed to be really really smart. Which is a trope. The fact that that's not IQ tests work, is a Theme Park Version of the concept. Hollywood IQ Score would make a good trope.

Amazingly Accurate IQ Score?

I was kind of leaning towards Improbable IQ myself.

Anyway, I take it from these responses no one so far is against the proposed split.

I'm completely in favor of the split. The part about how IQ tests really work is exactly the kind of thing Useful Notes is intended for, and there is at least one trope hiding in there, although I'm not sure it really fits in the "Hollywood X" family any better than it did in the "You Fail X" family. Improbable IQ is a good name.

And it lends itself to a later split along High/Low lines if we decide to do that later —Improbably High I.Q. and Improbably Low I.Q.. I suppose we could do that now, even — both of them have more than enough examples.

edited 23rd Oct '10 6:05:59 PM by Madrugada

I have no objections to a three-way split.

So, what do we call the Useful Notes page?

IQ Testing? Useful Notes usually get fairly straightforward names.

UsefulNotes.IQ Test or UsefulNotes.Intelligence Quotient would work well.

this definitely needs work done. ideally a three-way split, following the three bullets in the "you know this trope is in play when" section, but even that might be too much because, for example, how different is "people with impossibly high I Qs" from TV Genius, as a trope? likewise, if we stick to just the one trope, "writers don't do their research on how IQ testing works" or "acceptable breaks from IQ testing reality," it would be too wide, covering most examples in the aforementioned TV Genius, and possibly some other stupidity tropes. i'm thinking that would be very People Sit On Chairs.

(that said, i played Guess That Trope with this one, and assumed it was about failing a test that can't be failed. Do We Have That One?)

Hmm, I think setting numerical cut-offs in general is a bit arbitrary, which is probably part of the problem you're seeing.

From a story-telling perspective, a character having an IQ of 180 as opposed to 1800 is irrelevant; what matters is that said high IQ number is being used to emphasize the intellectual superiority of said character. Naturally, the same would apply to the opposite end of the spectrum (low IQ being used to emphasize lower intelligence).

Hollywood IQ?

As Madrugada said, that's not the most ideal name for this.

If you have something else that might be a better name than Improbable IQ or some variant thereof, tell us. I'm beginning to have a few doubts about this suggestion myself. (And I'm the one who made it!)

This trope seems to have a couple of concepts lumped in together. It's partly Did Not Do The Research because of impossibly high or low IQ's. It's partly a way of saying a character is a genius or mentally challenged by giving them an improbably high or low IQ. And there are the useful notes, which includes a point that ridiculous IQ's were possible on older tests that scaled differently.

Bumpity bump. Anyone got any other issues? If not, I'll make a sandbox page in a few days to begin sorting this out.

And here we go: You Fail The IQ Test.

Let me know what you think.

Bravo! Clear, concise, and to the point.

Alright then, I'll begin to move stuff over.

Edit:Done, done, and done. Made the original page a redirect to the useful notes page. Just got to clean up all the links, and move the discussion over (it looks like all of it will go to Improbably High I.Q.).

I'd say we're done here.

edited 8th Nov '10 4:33:40 PM by TotemicHero

Turning out the lights and locking up, then.