A school counsellor in Lucknow assessed the students of Class 5. She first gave an intelligence test to the whole class together, and the children marked written answers in a multiple-choice format. Arjun, aged 10 years, showed a mental age of 13. Meena, also aged 10, obtained an IQ of 85. Kabir, aged 9, had shown a long attention span and early language skills since infancy. He now solves puzzles quickly and keeps asking searching questions. A week later, the counsellor tested Kabir again. This time he answered her questions orally and arranged blocks as she instructed.
The counsellor's two sessions differ on one of the bases on which intelligence tests are classified into types. On how many such bases are intelligence tests classified?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Three
Option (1) Two — Incorrect. Administration procedure and nature of items are two of the bases. The extent to which a test favours one culture is a third, so two is too few.
Option (2) Three — Correct. Intelligence tests are classified on three bases: administration procedure (individual or group), nature of items (verbal or performance) and the extent a test favours one culture (culture-fair or culture-biased). The first session was a group test with written multiple-choice answers. In the second, Kabir was tested alone, answered orally and arranged blocks. So the sessions differ on administration procedure (group vs individual) and also on the nature of items (written answers vs handling objects).
Option (3) Four — Incorrect. Four would treat the purpose of use as a basis. Purpose only decides which test one chooses; it does not sort tests into types.
Option (4) Five — Incorrect. Five would add two more bases to the three. Tests are sorted only by administration procedure, nature of items and culture.
NCERT (2026-27): “Types of Intelligence Tests |