Apr 12, 2026·Improving IQ / PreparationHow to Prepare for an IQ Test
Can you actually study for an intelligence test? Learn the science of IQ test preparation, why sleep matters most, and how to get an accurate RIOT IQ score.
Dr. Russell T. WarneChief Scientist
Preparing for an IQ test is not quite like preparing for a school exam. There is no content to memorize, no formulas to drill, and no cramming strategy that meaningfully changes what the test measures. What matters is arriving in a mental state that allows genuine cognitive ability to show up clearly. The research on this topic is more nuanced than most people expect — and it contains a few surprises.
In this article, I cover what the evidence actually says about IQ test preparation: what helps, what hurts, and why the goal of good preparation is accuracy, not inflation.
What an IQ test is actually measuring
Before discussing preparation, it helps to understand what the test is actually trying to capture. IQ tests do not measure accumulated knowledge the way a history exam does. They measure cognitive ability, or the capacity to reason, identify patterns, hold information in working memory, process information quickly, and solve novel problems. According to a consensus statement signed by over 50 leading intelligence researchers, intelligence is "a very general mental capability that involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience." Because IQ tests measure an underlying ability rather than a body of knowledge, preparation works very differently than it does for content-based tests.
Here is a basic overview of the preparation timeline, from the days before the test through the session itself:
The single most important preparation step: sleep
If I had to give someone just one piece of preparation advice before taking an IQ test, it would be this: get enough sleep. This is not a generic wellness tip. The evidence for sleep's impact on cognitive performance is about as clear as it gets in psychology research.
Sleep deprivation impairs attention, memory, and overall cognitive performance — precisely the abilities that IQ tests draw on. Research comparing children with adequate versus inadequate sleep found that the sleep-deprived group had significantly lower verbal IQ, performance IQ, and full-scale IQ scores, along with lower scores on verbal comprehension and memory/attention factors. A particularly striking finding comes from a 2023 study in which 182 adults were tested on fluid intelligence and then randomly assigned to either a normal sleep night or a night of total sleep deprivation. Those with higher fluid intelligence were actually more — not less — impacted by sleep deprivation, showing greater declines in arithmetic ability, episodic memory, and spatial working memory.In other words, the people with the most cognitive ability to display were most penalized by poor sleep. High ability cannot protect someone from the effects of not sleeping. The practical implication is clear: prioritizing 7–9 hours of sleep in the nights leading up to an IQ test is among the highest-value preparation steps available.
Understanding practice effects and why they matter
One of the most misunderstood aspects of IQ test preparation involves practice tests. Retaking or simulating a test does raise scores — but not in the way most people assume, and not in a way that should be celebrated.
A meta-analysis by Scharfen, Peters, and Holling (2018) covering 174 samples and over 153,000 participants found that cognitive ability test scores increase measurably upon retesting, with gains plateauing around the third administration. The score increase comes not from becoming smarter, but from familiarity with test format, reduced anxiety, and memory traces of item types. In my own research and writing, I have referred to these increases as "hollow gains": the score went up, but the underlying cognitive ability did not change. Another study showed that a 15-minute instructional video on matrix reasoning rules raised IQ scores by approximately 15 points in one study. That sounds impressive until you realize the drawback: this kind of coaching only helps with that specific item type. It does not transfer across subtests, and it tells you nothing about how intelligent you actually are. The implications for preparation are important. If the goal is to obtain the highest possible number, then practicing with similar items can inflate a score. But that is not the goal — or at least it shouldn't be. The purpose of taking an IQ test is to get an accurate measurement of current cognitive ability. Extensive practice defeats that purpose entirely.
Managing test anxiety
Test anxiety is a real and measurable phenomenon that can depress IQ test scores, and it is worth taking seriously. Research published in the scholarly journal Anxiety, Stress, & Coping found that testing anxiety, particularly the cognitive components of interference from irrelevant thoughts and lack of confidence, independently predicted lower IQ test scores. There is a consistent pattern in the research: higher levels of test anxiety are associated with lower performance across various testing formats. The mechanism is not hard to understand. Anxious thought patterns compete for working memory, which is the same cognitive resource that IQ tests draw on heavily. When working memory is occupied by worry, fewer resources remain for the actual problem at hand.
The good news is that test anxiety is manageable. Therapies in which participants are taught how to manage their negative thoughts and manage their anxiety, can decrease test anxiety greatly. This can, in turn, lead to improved IQ test performance.
Several practical strategies support a calmer test-taking mindset: arriving early enough to settle in without rushing; reading the instructions carefully before each subtest; accepting that some questions are designed to be difficult; taking breaks when available; and remembering that the professional administering the test wants an accurate result just as much as the examinee does.
What to do and what not to do in the days before the test
The summary below captures the key evidence-based do's and don'ts. None of this is complicated, but it does require intentional choices in the days before the session.
During the test: how to perform well
Once the test begins, the preparation phase is over. A few session-level strategies are supported by the research on cognitive assessment.
Manage time without rushing. On most professionally developed IQ tests, including the RIOT, time limits apply at the item level rather than the overall test. Answering one item quickly does not bank time for a harder question later. The goal is a thoughtful, steady pace.
Answer every question. On most IQ tests, unanswered items are scored as incorrect. A guess at least gives a chance of earning credit. Unless instructions specifically advise against it, every item should receive an answer.
Do not over-revise initial responses. Research on answer-changing behavior consistently shows that first responses are correct more often than the replacements that follow anxious reconsideration. If an answer was carefully considered, it should stand.
Effort matters, but only up to a point. A pair of studies on the effort-IQ relationship confirmed that careless or disengaged responding lowers scores, but that straining for extra effort above a normal level of motivated engagement produces no further improvement. The lesson is simple: take the test seriously, but do not treat it as a feat of willpower.
Special considerations: accommodations, age, and environment
Examinees with disabilities that affect test performance may be entitled to accommodations. For individually administered tests, this conversation should happen with the administering psychologist in advance of the session. Common accommodations include extended time, more frequent breaks, or adjustments to the presentation format. Requesting accommodations is not gaming the system; it is exactly how the testing process is supposed to be used to obtain a valid measurement.
IQ tests are also designed for specific age groups, and taking a test outside its intended range produces less accurate results. Unless directed to do so by a psychologist, adults should avoid tests normed primarily for adolescents or children, and vice versa. Any professionally developed test will specify its intended population clearly. If it does not, that is a red flag.
For tests administered online, the examinee bears responsibility for creating an appropriate testing environment. A quiet room with no interruptions, notifications silenced, and sufficient lighting is the baseline. This matters more than it might seem — partial distractions compete for the same cognitive resources the test is designed to measure. Choosing a time of day when alertness is typically at its peak is also a worthwhile consideration.
Long-term factors: what actually raises intelligence
Preparing for a specific test session is about getting an accurate reading of current ability. But many people ask the broader question: Is there anything that genuinely raises intelligence over time, rather than just inflating a score?
The answer is yes, but the options are fewer than most people hope. Research published in Psychological Science found that each additional year of formal schooling raises IQ by roughly 1–2 points. This is the most robust known environmental influence on IQ. Adoption studies similarly show that moving from a deprived to a supportive environment produces IQ gains of approximately 3 points over the long term. Beyond schooling and a favorable home environment, the search for specific, actionable interventions that permanently raise intelligence has been largely disappointing. Lead avoidance, prevention of head trauma, and a lack of prenatal exposure to alcohol and drugs prevent IQ from being lowered — but they do not raise it from baseline. Brain-training programs marketed as IQ boosters have consistently failed to show that gains transfer to real-world situations outside the specific tasks being trained.
The most honest summary I can offer is this: for adults living in typical environments, long-term intelligence is reasonably stable. Short-term preparation can ensure that an accurate measurement is obtained; it cannot substitute for the cognitive development that accumulates over years of education and mental engagement.
The goal of preparation: accuracy, not inflation
The purpose of taking an IQ test is to get an accurate measure of current cognitive ability. That score has value for understanding one's own cognitive profile, clinical and educational purposes, employment contexts, and personal curiosity. An inflated score defeats all of those purposes because it no longer reflects the underlying thing it is supposed to measure.
Good preparation, then, is not about gaming the test. It is about removing the obstacles (fatigue, anxiety, environmental distractions, unfamiliarity with instructions) that would cause the test to underestimate true ability. The goal is an accurate number, not the highest possible number.
Taking a professional IQ test
The quality of the test matters as much as the quality of the preparation. Most online IQ tests are created by non-professionals with no training in psychometrics (which is the science of testing) and no adherence to the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing published by the American Educational Research Association, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education. Tests created by anonymous individuals, tests without documented norm samples, and tests without transparent technical documentation cannot produce trustworthy scores, regardless of how well the examinee prepares. The Reasoning and Intelligence Online Test (RIOT) is the first online IQ test developed to meet these professional standards. I created it after over 15 years of studying human intelligence — publishing dozens of peer-reviewed articles and a book on the topic before writing a single test item. The RIOT underwent the same rigorous development process as traditional in-person IQ tests used by psychologists, including expert content review, a representative U.S.-based norm sample, and adherence to APA, AERA, and NCME testing standards. It is built on the Cattell-Horn-Carroll (CHC) model of intelligence and provides both an overall IQ score and granular index scores across six cognitive domains. For anyone who wants a score they can actually trust, the quality of the test is the necessary first step.
References
Gottfredson, L. S. (1997). Mainstream science on intelligence. Intelligence, 24(1), 13–23. Scharfen, J., Peters, J. M., & Holling, H. (2018). Retest effects in cognitive ability tests: A meta-analysis. Intelligence, 67, 44–66. Alhola, P., & Polo-Kantola, P. (2007). Sleep deprivation: Impact on cognitive performance. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment. Killgore, W. D. S. (2010). Effects of sleep deprivation on cognition. Progress in Brain Research, 185, 105–129. Reeve, C. L., & Bonaccio, S. (2012). On the predictive validity of implicit theories of intelligence. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 81(3), 400–408. Von der Embse, N., et al. (2018). Test anxiety effects on standardized test performance. Educational Psychology Review.
Rodríguez, M. N., & Llorens, A. C. (2022). Revisiting the role of worries in test anxiety and test performance. Frontiers in Psychology. Jendryczko, D., Scharfen, J., & Holling, H. (2019). Impact of situational test anxiety on retest effects. Journal of Intelligence, 7(4), 22. Ritchie, S. J., & Tucker-Drob, E. M. (2018). How much does education improve intelligence? Psychological Science, 29(8), 1358–1369. Hausknecht, J. P., et al. (2007). Retesting in selection: A meta-analysis of practice effects. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92(2), 373–385.
Calamia, M., Markon, K., & Tranel, D. (2012). Scoring higher the second time around: Meta-analyses of practice effects in neuropsychological assessment. The Clinical Neuropsychologist, 26(4), 543–570.
Warne, R. T. (2025). Technical manual for the Reasoning and Intelligence Online Test, version 1.0. RIOT IQ.
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AuthorDr. Russell T. WarneChief Scientist
