Who doesn’t want an IQ like Albert Einstein or Sheldon Cooper? We all do. Despite popular belief that your IQ is what you come with, there are several ways to increase your IQ levels. The IQ was established to assess your intellectual intelligence. Though a high IQ is not the sole element affecting intelligence, it is a frequent metric used to characterize a person’s potential in life and identify some intellectual disorders.
The intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a metric used to evaluate an individual’s mental capacity to that of their peers. In the 1900s, Alfred Binet, a French psychologist, popularized this scale. Standardized tests are used to determine an individual’s IQ, and they are given by certified psychologists and, sometimes, mental health experts with graduate-level training. It is feasible to compare each test taker’s result to the total scores when a large number of individuals take the exam.
Tips For Increasing Your IQ
1. Play Chess
Playing chess is one of the most enjoyable ways to increase your IQ levels. Chess has been played for millennia, even by royalty, for a reason. This challenging game strengthens your corpus callosum by sharpening your problem-solving abilities, enhancing your focus, and stimulating both sides of your brain. It’s sophisticated and difficult.
The region of the brain known as the corpus callosum, which links the two hemispheres, is thought to have played a role in Einstein’s exceptional intelligence. Rather than having access to only one or the other section of his brain, he could access his complete brain at once.
Venezuelan research found that youngsters who attended chess lessons for 14 weeks had a substantial improvement in their IQ. The same finding was reached by another study from Australia’s Flinders University: chess players had higher IQs.
2. Get Proper Sleep
Getting enough sleep is a commonly ignored strategy to improve cognitive function, even if ways to raise IQ levels may appear unattainable. Try to get 7–8 hours each night to help you remain awake and mentally clear throughout the day. We’ve all experienced the grogginess that follows a restless night, but sleep deprivation may impair our capacity to focus and solve problems.
Thus, making sure you’re receiving enough sleep should be your first step in raising your IQ. Although it can seem like a straightforward fix, it might significantly impact your mental capacity. To experience the advantages of a well-rested mind, try establishing and adhering to a regular sleep pattern.
3. Do Brain Activities Like Puzzles, Sudoku, And Crosswords
Doing puzzles, crosswords, and Sudoku is an answer to how to increase IQ levels. There are things you can do to give your brain the additional push it needs if you’re seeking strategies to raise your IQ. Performing mental workouts like crosswords, Sudoku, and puzzles is one of the finest methods.
Your ability to think critically and imaginatively is required for these tasks, which enhances cognitive function. Additionally, studies have shown that engaging in these kinds of mental activities might help stave off mental decline as you age.
Therefore, the next time you have some free time, exercise your brain rather than browsing social media. You’ll be astonished at how much more alert and concentrated you feel after just a short while of brain training. See how soon you can raise your IQ by implementing these techniques into your regular practice.
4. Learn A New Language
Learning a foreign language causes your brain to grow because you’re navigating a new set of complex rules (like grammar that differs from your native tongue). To put it simply, this means that you’re forcing cortical thickening and an increase in the volume of your hippocampus.
Eventually, this helps with other language tasks like reading, problem-solving, and negotiating. But this doesn’t have to take a long time. You can start learning any foreign language in as little as ten minutes a day by downloading Duolingo, which is free to use.
5. Learn To Play Music Instrument
Another entertaining one of the best ways to increase your IQ levels is by learning to play musical instruments. Being able to play an instrument is beneficial even if you are not the next Jimi Hendrix.
The amount of time spent practicing a musical instrument and executive functioning has been demonstrated to positively correlate in adult research. Working memory and flexible thinking are two of the mental processes that make up executive functioning.
Children stand to gain as well. Preschoolers participated in 12-week research, and even 75 minutes a week of music instruction dramatically raised IQ scores. And here’s the thing: studies have shown that children’s verbal IQ scores rise just by listening to music.
6. Read Plenty Of Books
There are several strategies to raise your IQ, but reading is one of the simplest and most efficient. But you should read books that push your critical thinking skills and broaden your knowledge base, not just any old book.
You may improve your cognitive abilities and expand your intellectual abilities by reading these kinds of books. Reading may help you become more creative and proficient at solving problems, whether the book is about something you’re currently interested in or something you’d want to learn more about. So why not pick up a book right now and discover how much your IQ may rise?
7. Meditate
Numerous advantages of meditation exist for both our mental and physical well-being. Enhanced concentration, improved memory, and less tension and anxiety are some of these advantages. Meditation is at the top of the list of activities you can do to raise your average IQ.
They discovered that working memory, visual-spatial processing, and executive functioning—all domains linked to IQ—had all greatly improved as a result of the meditation training.
Additionally, the University of Wisconsin discovered that meditation synchronizes the human brain’s two hemispheres. Higher IQ is the result of deeper thinking, quicker problem-solving, and improved focus due to epic whole-brain synchronization. Fortunately, achieving a high IQ doesn’t require hours of meditation. You may see a noticeable increase with only a daily routine of 20 minutes.
8. Exercise
Physical exercise can be an answer to how to increase IQ levels. Beyond only lowering stress, aerobic workouts like swimming, cycling, or running have other positive effects on IQ. Frequent exercise improves mental clarity, increases vitality, and facilitates improved cardiovascular health.
Swedish research linked improved cognitive performance and higher IQ to cardiovascular fitness. Additionally, they found that it might result in a 50% improvement in verbal intelligence.
Furthermore, recent studies show that aerobic exercise increases the synthesis of BDNF, or brain-derived neurotrophic factors. The capacity of the brain to adapt and form new neural connections is known as neuroplasticity, and this protein is essential to it.
The benefits in language abilities and intellect shown in fitness studies have a biological foundation, and increased levels of BDNF may improve memory, learning, and cognitive processing speed. Intense physical activity might be the missing component in your quest for increased intellect if you want to raise your IQ.
9. Have A Healthy Lifestyle
Lastly, the significance of a healthy lifestyle and its long-term impact on IQ cannot be understated. Consuming a healthy, well-balanced diet full of nutrients (such as vitamins, antioxidants, and omega-3 fatty acids) improves memory and cognitive function while lowering stress levels, which lowers IQ. Frequent exercise generates chemicals that support neurological health and improve blood flow to the brain.
Moreover, getting enough sleep is essential for cognitive functions as it helps to strengthen memories and remove toxins from the brain that build up throughout the day. On the other hand, insufficient sleep may harm one’s ability to think, solve problems, and concentrate, all of which can affect an individual’s IQ scores.
Furthermore, abstaining from dangerous drugs like tobacco and excessive alcohol is essential since they may destroy brain cells and neurochemical processes, which over time can result in cognitive deficiencies and decreased IQ scores. Taken as a whole, these lifestyle decisions provide the groundwork for improved mental clarity and overall health, demonstrating the intimate relationship between routine behaviors and cognitive function.
Is Having A High IQ Going To Help You Succeed In Your Career?
Finding ways to increase your IQ levels is a popular motivation for individuals to advance in their employment and raise their chances of being promoted. Although many very successful individuals have high IQs, such as Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs, IQ isn’t always a predictor of success. A higher IQ may benefit you in the following ways so that you can advance in your career:
- Academic achievement and IQ are highly associated, and having more certifications may help you get a better job.
- A few of the abilities you may acquire by increasing your IQ, such as problem-solving abilities, are also beneficial in the job. It’s also important to keep in mind that intelligence isn’t the only factor in success at work. Additionally, because most IQ tests do not address emotional intelligence, it is crucial to invest time in cultivating interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence.
FAQ
Q: Who has the highest IQ?
A: A South Korean citizen, YoungHoon Kim, has an IQ of 276. It is the highest IQ ever recorded.
Q: To what extent is IQ trainable?
A: The Flynn effect states that throughout the 20th century, IQ increased by around 20–25 IQ points. Studies on IQ training reveal that training may raise IQ by as much as 8–10 degrees. The issue is that two to three years after the study’s conclusion, the majority of it disappears.
Q: What does the term “IQ” mean?
A: IQ, short for “intelligence quotient,” is a metric used to describe a person’s relative level of intellect. It’s one of several assessments of intellect. Psychological testing for human intellect is related. The first method of calculating IQ was increasing the ratio of mental age to chronological (physical) age by 100.
