Can you make someone more intelligent?

If you believe in the effects of nurture over nature, you might try those methods. That would mean putting someone into new situations, showing them how to cope and then giving them independent practice in the skills needed. The question is always how closely the practice needs to reflect real life situations. For example, in Karate Kid, the boy used particular motions to wax the car as a means to practice the movements for karate. Would those skills be transferable to real karate and/or how much other training would he need? The example is physical motion, but it is pretty much the same story with other skills. The more you learn, the smarter you are.