Trust & methodology
Methodology, editorial standards and review policies.
See how DesperateMinds separates assessment classes, checks evidence, uses AI, handles corrections, gates clinical review and prepares future provider verification.
Public method framework
Different tools require different evidence and result rules
The revamp uses explicit product classes so an educational profile, a validated clinical screen and a professional assessment are not presented as equivalent.
Performance and cognitive profiles
These require a documented method, scoring/version control, appropriate evidence for the claims and clear population/cultural limits. Online scores are not presented as equivalent to supervised professional testing unless evidence supports that claim.
Traits, preferences and relationship patterns
Results should be dimensional, uncertain where appropriate and non-deterministic. Optional paid depth can add interpretation, charts and practical actions.
Educational wellbeing results
Stress, burnout, sleep or resilience tools require an evidence basis, practical limits and risk-aware next steps.
Screening is not diagnosis
Before launch, the instrument/version, rights, intended population, scoring, limitations, qualified review, crisis logic and youth/geographic rules must be recorded. The complete basic result and safety guidance remain free.
Navigation without diagnostic output
A care aid explains service types and eligibility while collecting only information needed for the current step.
Professional assessment stays professional
DesperateMinds can explain and locate formal evaluation. Diagnosis and treatment remain the responsibility of an eligible licensed professional.
Current IQ products
What is safe to say today
The existing online IQ products provide educational estimates. The broader revamp does not upgrade their evidence status by changing the design.
- The Free IQ Test is a 30-question, 20-minute educational online assessment with an instant estimated score band and no registration requirement to take it.
- The current Standard IQ Test is a 60-question paid educational assessment with an emailed PDF report.
- Advanced and CMIAS remain subject to further method, AI-evaluation, result and paid-access review before the revamp promotes them as priority products.
- DesperateMinds results are not described as a clinical diagnosis, official credential, Mensa eligibility decision or substitute for professional psychological testing.
Implementation direction
Registers and versioning replace unsupported trust badges
The final platform is designed around maintained records for instruments, claims, content, providers/licences, partners and consent. Those records will feed visible pages, structured data, review dates and automated QA.
Trust center
Policies you can check against the site
These pages make our editorial, evidence, clinical, AI, provider and accessibility rules public. They also state where launch work is still incomplete instead of presenting unfinished governance as a credential.
Editorial policy
How topics are chosen, researched, written, attributed, updated and kept independent from commercial pressure.
Read the policy →Evidence standards
Which sources can support factual, psychological and health claims, and how uncertainty is handled.
Read the policy →Clinical review policy
What must happen before clinical content or screening routes can claim qualified clinical review or become acquisition pages.
Read the policy →Corrections policy
How readers can report errors and how substantive factual corrections are documented.
Read the policy →AI use policy
Where AI may assist the platform, what it cannot replace, and how source verification and accountability work.
Read the policy →Provider verification policy
The checks required before a future provider profile can be labelled verified.
Read the policy →Provider ranking & sponsorship
How future provider ordering, referrals, paid relationships and sponsorship must remain transparent.
Read the policy →Accessibility statement
Our accessibility target, current testing status, known limits and how to report an access barrier.
Read the policy →Assessment literacy
How to judge an online test before trusting the score
These guides translate reliability, validity, norms and test scope into ordinary language so readers can evaluate a result before over-interpreting it.
Reliability vs Validity
Understand the difference between score consistency and justified interpretation.
Read guide →GuideAre Personality Tests Accurate?
See what makes a personality result more or less defensible.
Read guide →GuideWhat Do Cognitive Tests Measure?
Understand what a browser task can and cannot establish.
Read guide →Instrument Registry
See which products use public-domain instruments, adaptations, or original educational profiles and what still requires review before the service is offered.
Open the instrument registry →