Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Raven Progressive Matrices

My DD7 just took the Raven and came in at the 99.9 percentile.

Is there any correlation with this intelligence test to IQ? I wonder if it is possible to approximate her IQ based on her Raven score? Anyone know?

[Someone else will be along with a more precise answer in a moment :-) ]
Yes, there's a strong, although not perfect, correlation: your DD is clearly highly intelligent, and it would be a reasonable guess that her IQ is also in the 99.9th percentile (although it's not certain). The caveat is that obviously Raven only examines one kind of intelligence, e.g. not verbal intelligence at all. It is highly g-weighted, which more or less means it is highly correlated with other measures.

Anecdotal impression: we sometimes hear of children with very high IQs who do less well on Raven, and there is speculation that some high-IQ children tend to "overthink" the Raven tasks and do less well as a consequence. I don't recall cases where a child who did exceptionally well on Raven and had also been tested with a standard IQ test did not do very well on the IQ test. I'm sure it could happen, especially with 2e children with issues like dyslexia, and presumably also with others whose strengths just happened to be matched with Raven. But basically, you have an extremely bright kid there!

Sounds like my son....he did not score as gifted with the Raven but he is sharp as a tack and bored at school.

Can you explain what highly g rated means?

Some tests are said to be more "g" loaded -- as in they do a better job of hitting on those things that are truly related to innate intelligence. For instance, on the Weschler IQ tests, two of the four subtests can be dropped (working memory and processing speed) if they are significantly lower than the other two (perceptual reasoning and verbal) b/c the later two are considered to be more closely correlated with intelligence. The prior two do play a part in intelligence or they wouldn't be included at all, of course, and a child who is high in all four will likely look quite different from a child who is just high in the later two.

The Raven is most similar to the perceptual reasoning part of the Weschler children's IQ test. Like the pp said, it does not hit on the verbal parts, but it is still a good indicator that she is quite, quite bright.

Someone else might have an even more accurate or coherent response regarding "g."

Thank you for an understandable explanation!

If I want to apply for to the Davidson program, I need a new test as they don't accept Raven.

So I guess that is the next thing to look into. All unchartered territory for me, any advice is appreciated

Raven Test is most similar to the Matrix Reasoning subtest of WISC IV. I believe the two have similar formats and both test abstract reasoning (figuring out and completing visual patterns). As such, like others said, it is highly correlated with general intelligence. Your daughter is indeed very bright!

However, WISC IV Full Scale IQ may be slightly lower than the 99.9%ile (145) as it factors several different cognitive functions and just using probability when abstract reasoning is extremely high there are likely to be other functions that are a little lower.

Hi, as has been mentioned by PP, Raven's doesn't measure verbal intelligence. I guess a good question to ask is how your dd does verbally? Does she seem to do really well with language tasks, analogies, uses complex vocabulary, etc?

If she seems very strong verbally, then it is more likely that the more traditional IQ tests would be high as well. If, OTOH, it seems that she excells in math and spatial problems, then it might be lower.

The WISC-IV is said to be better for verbally gifted kids, the verbal parts have more weigh, and the SB5 is better for the kids who are stronger in non-verbal.

I would strongly recommend that you do either of those, paired with achievement testing (WJ or WIAT). Not only would that give you an easier ticket to DYS (If she qualifies), but the 2 together can paint a very good picture.

I would also look for psychologists that are familiar with gifted children.

I suppose the RAvens was given through school, will she need anything else to get into GT classes or programs? Would the school follow up with an individually administered IQ test?

Thanks for the great replies!


DD7 is quite strong verbally and she is advanced in math as well, although if I had to pick one strength it would be the language.

The Raven was administered at school, and her score is all she needs to get into the program. Others with slightly lower scores are allowed in with specific caveats....teacher recommendation, LD diagnoses etc.

All these abbreviations are going to kill me...hopefully I will catch on soon! Hahahaha!

Good! With that strength in language as well as the non-verbal one that was shown already on the Raven, makes for a good case for further testing.

I would then look for doing WISC plus one achievement test. Since part of your objective is to possibly apply to Davidson's make sure it is a test listed on the site. I would also tell the psychologist that you would also need the GAI (General abilities index) that is the score that combines the verbal and non-verbal parts of the WISC, without the memory and processing speed bits.

Awesome Mam, thank you for breaking it down for me!