Where FAIQ honestly sits
Between the five-minute pattern quiz and the €1,500 clinical assessment there’s a lot of room — and a lot of dishonesty. Here’s exactly what each option gives you, including what FAIQ can’t do.
| Typical free online quiz | FAIQ | Clinical assessment | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | An entertainment quiz | An honest broad-ability screener | A diagnostic instrument, administered 1-on-1 |
| Ability domains | Usually one (matrix patterns) | Eight — reasoning, induction, logic, spatial, memory, executive control, numerical & tonal intuition | Ten-plus, including verbal & clinical observation |
| The items | A fixed set, reused for everyone — answers often circulate online | Generated parallel forms: fresh every session, each item machine-verified to have exactly one answer | Standardized proprietary forms, tightly controlled |
| Time | 5–10 minutes | About 25 minutes | 1–2 hours plus a report session |
| The score | A single number, often inflated to flatter you | 100·15 scale with a 95% confidence interval — never inflated, never a bare number | A full index profile with confidence intervals |
| The norm | Often invented — no real reference group | Provisional and labelled as such; recalibrated from real anonymized sessions (live count published) | Professionally normed on large stratified samples |
| Price model | “Free” with upsells, or a subscription trap | Free score · one-time €2.99 report · no subscription | Typically €500–€2,000+ |
| Can it diagnose? | No (whatever it implies) | No — and we say so, plainly | Yes — that is its job |
| Best for | A few minutes of fun | Genuine self-insight, and tracking change over time | Clinical, educational, or legal decisions |
To be direct about the last column: a clinical assessment is the gold standard, and nothing on the internet replaces it. FAIQ’s claim is narrower — to be the honest option among online tests: broader than a pattern quiz, transparent about its methods and its limits, and never inflating your number.
Are free online IQ tests accurate?
Mostly no. The typical free quiz uses one small set of reused pattern items, an invented norm, and a flattering score designed to be shared. That doesn't make every online test worthless — it means you should check whether a test shows a confidence interval, explains where its norm comes from, and says plainly what it can't measure. Those are exactly the standards FAIQ holds itself to.
Is FAIQ a real IQ test?
FAIQ is a real, carefully built cognitive test — but it is not a clinical or official IQ test, and it never claims to be. It reports a broad ability estimate on the familiar 100·15 scale with an honest confidence band, from eight cognitive domains rather than a single pattern section.
When should I get a professional assessment instead?
Whenever the answer matters beyond curiosity: diagnostic questions (like a learning disability or ADHD), educational placement, or anything legal or medical. Those need a licensed psychologist administering a clinical instrument in person. FAIQ is for genuine self-insight — it can inform the decision to seek an assessment, but it can never replace one.
See where you land
Free score with an honest confidence band, in about 25 minutes.