In 1999, a tragic emptiness appeared in the world of the " great" tests : For various reasons, the Mega, the Titan, The Power, The TFG shorts form of Cooijmans stopped being valid as tests of qualification, and the numerical section of the TFG long form has been suppressed.
This emptiness has just been heapped : Himdemburg Melao Jr., founder of the Sigma Society (http://www.sigmasociety.org /) has created the " Sigma Test ", after a long and serious work, both in the realization of the test that in the establishment of norms. The test is available since September 2001.
Who is Hindemburg Melao Jr., the founder of the Sigma Society? Born in Sao Paulo (Brazil) on January 15th 1972, he is a personality known in the world of chess. Melao has two world records in chess:
- The longest announced checkmate in a simultaneous blindfold chess game, Sao Paulo, 1997 (mate in 12 moves, playing on 9 boards). This record is registered in the Guinness Book of Records, Brazilian Edition, 1998, pages 110 - 111.
- The longest announced checkmate in a correspondence chess game: mate in 36 moves, in Special Class Tournament CXEB, published in Pi Society Journal - 05/00.
He has written many relevant articles in the following fields: Mathematics, Physics, Astronomy, Psychology (problems concerning gifted children), and Research about the standardization of IQ tests.
The Sigma Test : This test consists of 36 questions. These, weighted in ten levels of difficulties, are, above all, completely varied.
What is particularly remarkable in this test ?
- The increasing difficulty of the questions, that goes progressively from direct reasoning problems to questions needing a high power of reasoning using lateral (or divergent) thinking.
- The questions concern a lot of various topics.
- Very little preliminary knowledge seems to be required.
- The standardization, obviously result of a long and serious work, is very clearly presented at the end of the test.
- The weighted of the questions. It is practically the first time that, in a test, the " difficult " questions have a weight that seems proportional to the work and to the level of reasoning needed to solve them.
The world of tests must thank Hindemburg Melao Jr. for having given him this test !