Can practice improve IQ test scores?

Yes, practice can improve IQ-style test scores, especially on similar question formats. A meta-analysis of retest effects found consistent score gains when people retake cognitive ability tests. These gains largely come from familiarity with question types, better strategies and reduced anxiety. Longer-term learning, such as years of education, is associated with gains in measured intelligence, but short practice mainly improves test-specific performance.

IQ tests are designed to be interpreted relative to people taking them under standard conditions, usually without extensive practice on the same items. Heavy practice shifts the comparison, so a practiced score may overestimate how you would perform on an unfamiliar test. By contrast, a meta-analysis by Ritchie and Tucker-Drob found that additional years of education are associated with higher measured intelligence, suggesting that broad, sustained learning affects reasoning more than short-term drilling.

Someone preparing for a job aptitude test practices for two weeks and improves by several points on similar practice tests. That preparation is reasonable, since it reduces unfamiliarity. But if they later take a completely different reasoning test, the gain may be smaller.