Can you increase your IQ?
Partly, yes. Schooling has the strongest evidence. Brain-training programs have much weaker support.
What the strongest evidence shows
A 2018 meta-analysis by Ritchie and Tucker-Drob combined 142 effect sizes from 42 datasets with over 600,000 participants. Each additional year of education raised scores by about 1 to 5 IQ points, and the effects appeared to last across the lifespan.
Do brain-training programs work?
A 2016 meta-analysis by Melby-Lervåg, Redick and Hulme looked at working memory training. People got better at tasks close to what they had trained. There was no convincing evidence of improvement in other abilities, such as nonverbal ability or arithmetic, when compared with a proper active control group.
Does practising IQ tests count?
Solving similar puzzles can raise your score because you learn the types of rules. That is a real change in your score, but it does not show that your general ability has changed.
What this means for you
Learning that challenges you is the best supported route. Be careful with any product that promises a specific rise in IQ. Researchers also still debate how education raises scores and how much of the gain reflects general ability.
Sources
- Ritchie & Tucker-Drob (2018), How much does education improve intelligence? A meta-analysis. Psychological Science
- Melby-Lervåg, Redick & Hulme (2016), Working memory training does not improve performance on measures of intelligence or other measures of far transfer. Perspectives on Psychological Science
Last checked: 2026-11-03
A summary of published research, not medical, career or psychological advice. A correlation describes groups, not any one person. This text has not yet been reviewed by a psychologist.