Can you raise your IQ?
What research says about education, practice, brain training and test-day conditions.
4 min read
It is one of the most common questions about IQ, and the honest answer is: somewhat, in some ways, but less than most "brain training" ads suggest.
Education has a real effect
The strongest evidence concerns schooling. A 2018 meta-analysis by Stuart Ritchie and Elliot Tucker-Drob, which pooled studies using natural experiments such as changes in school-leaving age, found that each additional year of education raised IQ by roughly 1 to 5 points. The effect appeared to last into later life.
Practice raises scores — on that test
Taking the same or a similar test again usually produces a higher score, often by several points. This is a practice effect: you recognize the puzzle types, waste less time working out what is being asked, and feel calmer. It is real improvement in test performance, but it does not mean your underlying reasoning ability changed. That is why your first attempt on any test is the most informative one.
Brain-training games: limited transfer
People who play brain-training games reliably get better at those games. The question is whether the gain transfers to different tasks. Large reviews of working-memory training and commercial brain-training programmes have found little convincing evidence of transfer to broad measures of intelligence. Training is not harmful, and some people enjoy it, but it is not a shortcut to a higher IQ.
What helps on test day
Even if your ability is stable, your performance on a given day is not. These factors can easily move a score by several points:
- Sleep — a short night noticeably hurts working memory and attention.
- Distraction — notifications and noise break the chain of reasoning on multi-step puzzles.
- Stress — anxiety about the result uses up attention you need for the puzzle.
- Time management — spending five minutes on one question can cost several easier ones later.
Things that matter more over a lifetime
Good nutrition in childhood, staying in education, reading widely, learning new and demanding skills, physical exercise and good sleep are all associated with keeping the mind sharp. None of them is a quick fix, but together they matter far more than any single test score.
