Can you increase your IQ?
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It is one of the most natural questions in this whole subject: if a test can measure intelligence, can you train the thing it measures? The honest answer is "partly, and less dramatically than the adverts suggest." Your score on an IQ test can certainly go up. Whether your underlying intelligence has gone up by the same amount is a harder question, and the two are often confused, sometimes deliberately, by people selling courses and apps.
This article separates what the evidence supports from what is oversold, so you can judge any "raise your IQ" claim for yourself.
First, separate two different questions
When people ask how to increase IQ, they usually mix together two things:
- Can I score higher on an IQ test? Yes. Practice, familiarity and better test-day conditions all lift scores.
- Can I become more intelligent, better at reasoning through new problems I have never seen? This is the genuinely difficult part, and the gains here are smaller, slower and harder won.
Almost every product in this market quietly answers question 1 and lets you assume it answered question 2. Keeping the two apart is the single best defence against hype.
Yes, your score can rise: the practice effect
Take a test, then take a similar one a few weeks later, and you will usually do better, not because you became smarter, but because the format is familiar. You know what a matrix puzzle is asking of you, you manage the clock better, and you waste less time being surprised. Psychologists call this the practice effect, and test publishers take it seriously: professional tests have rules about how soon they can be repeated for exactly this reason.
This is worth knowing in both directions. A rising score after practice does not prove an intelligence gain, but it also means a first-ever score probably understates you a little. If you want a fair reading of where you stand, take a test once, in good conditions, and resist the urge to keep retaking until the number pleases you. (And when the test is online, remember scores are estimates to begin with, see are online IQ tests accurate?)
Education: the strongest evidence we have
The best-supported route to genuinely higher cognitive ability is also the least glamorous: education itself. A large 2018 meta-analysis by Ritchie and Tucker-Drob, covering more than 600,000 participants, found that each additional year of education was associated with roughly 1 to 5 extra IQ points, and that the effect persisted across the lifespan. The authors described education as the most consistent and durable method yet identified for raising intelligence test performance.
Notice what this does and does not say. Schooling works over years, through thousands of hours of reading, mathematics, argument and problem-solving. It is not a hack. But it does show that intelligence test performance is not fixed at birth, sustained, demanding learning moves it.
Learning does not have to mean formal school. Taking up a language, working through mathematics, learning an instrument or a trade all force the same kind of effortful processing. The evidence for these specific activities is thinner than for schooling as a whole, so treat claims about any single hobby cautiously, but "keep learning hard things" is a fair summary of what research supports.
What about brain-training apps and games?
This is where honesty matters most to us, because this site has brain games. Here is the finding you need: a major 2016 review by Simons and colleagues examined the evidence behind brain-training programs and concluded that training reliably improves performance on the task you practised, improves closely related tasks somewhat, but transfers weakly to general intelligence or everyday cognition.
In plain terms: practise pattern puzzles and you get better at pattern puzzles. That is a real skill gain, and puzzles are genuinely enjoyable, our own brain games and the daily challenge in Daily Pattern are built for exactly that. But anyone who promises their game will raise your general IQ is claiming more than the evidence allows, and we will not claim it for ours.
The same logic applies to test-specific practice. Working through puzzles like those in Rule Hunter can make you faster and sharper at that style of problem, which can lift your score on a test that uses similar problems. That is question 1 again, a better score, not proof of a deeper change.
Does IQ increase with age?
People also ask: does IQ increase with age? Two things are true at once. A child's raw reasoning ability grows enormously with development, a ten-year-old can solve problems a five-year-old cannot. But IQ scores are age-normed: a child is compared with others of the same age, which is why the average is 100 at every age. A child's score can shift noticeably as they develop, because development is uneven. In adults, scores are comparatively stable, though they can drift modestly with education, occupation, health and practice, so does IQ increase with age? For adults, the honest answer is a cautious yes to small changes, not transformations.
The Flynn effect: whole generations gained points
The strongest proof that IQ scores are not set in stone comes from populations, not individuals. Across the twentieth century, average test scores rose by roughly 3 points per decade in many countries, the Flynn effect, named after researcher James Flynn. Better schooling, nutrition and more cognitively demanding everyday life are the usual explanations.
The lesson is double-edged. Scores clearly can rise across a society within a few generations. But these are slow, population-wide shifts driven by deep changes in education and environment, not something an individual can reproduce in themselves with a few weeks of an app. The American Psychological Association's intelligence overview is a good starting point if you want to read further on how researchers think about these changes.
The honest bottom line
Can you increase your IQ? Your score: yes, through familiarity, practice and taking the test in decent shape, rested, undistracted, and not rushing, because a bad day genuinely costs points. Your underlying ability: modestly, through the slow route of education and sustained learning, which is the only approach with strong evidence behind it. Anyone promising large, fast gains in intelligence itself is selling you question 1 dressed up as question 2.
Frequently asked questions
How much can practice raise my score?
It varies by test and by how similar the practice is, but gains of a few points from familiarity alone are normal, and larger jumps usually mean the first attempt understated you, nerves, confusion about the format, or a bad day.
Do any supplements or "genius pills" work?
There is no good evidence that supplements raise IQ in healthy, adequately nourished adults, and we would not recommend spending money on them for that purpose. If you have a genuine deficiency or a health concern, that is a question for a doctor, not a test site.
Is it easier to raise IQ as a child than as an adult?
Children's scores are less settled, and education has its largest effects during the school years, so childhood is when ability is most malleable. Adults can still improve skills and scores, but expectations should be smaller.
If I retake your test and score higher, did my IQ go up?
Your performance went up, partly familiarity, possibly partly a better day. Treat both numbers as estimates around a range rather than exact readings, and take the improvement as a sign you are getting comfortable with the puzzles.
A useful starting point is to take the free test in a quiet setting, using either the 15-question version in 10 minutes or the full 40-question version in 30 minutes. Review your answers and explanations, note where you struggled, and use those insights to guide your future practice.
Find your starting point.
Take the free test, 15 puzzles in 10 minutes or 40 in 30, and see your estimated IQ, your breakdown across five areas of reasoning, and a free certificate with your name. No sign-up, nothing to pay.