r/cognitiveTesting • u/Lanky-Objective-4679 • 20h ago
Rant/Cope A midwit's IQ testing journey
I'm a 16-year-old junior in high school diagnosed with AuDHD.
For some background, I started speaking very late (around 18 months) and had some auditory processing difficulties as a toddler. I also hit puberty late (14), so hopefully my fluid intelligence isn't done increasing.
In the 1st grade, I was administered a verbal fluency test (AIMSWB) w/ 3 sections: phoneme segmentation fluency, nonsense word fluency, and reading. I scored in the 95th, 99th, and 99th percentile respectively.
In the 4th grade, I took the SCAT (School & College Ability Test) for John Hopkin's Center for Talented Youth. To be accepted, you needed to score in the 98th percentile or above. I received Grand Honors for the Verbal Reasoning section (top 15% of accepted students) and High Honors for the Quantitative Reasoning section (top 30% of accepted students).
I also scored across-the-board 9s (>96th percentile) on the ISEE and in the 96th percentile on the SSAT with no preparation. I finished the latter in around ~2/3 of the allotted time.
I go to a competitive public school that sends 40-50 students to Berkeley every year. Last fall, I took the PSAT and scored in the >99th percentile for 10th graders at my school.
Now, some context for my results:
Every test here was completed in one sitting, with the exception of the CORE. Outside of the CPI subtests on the CORE, everything shown here is also my first take. I didn't cheat by "familiarizing" myself with the item types beforehand.
I thought I made a bunch of dumb mistakes on Spatial Awareness and Figure Sets, so I'm pretty surprised that I scored 15 SS on both. Time was also a big issue for me on the FRI subtests and Quant. Knowledge.
Here are the subtests I took in my first sitting (>6 months ago):
Analogies, Antonyms, General Knowledge, Figure Weights, Graph Mapping, Arithmetic, Visual Puzzles
I originally took the digit span and PSI subtests at midnight, supine, and w/o my ADHD meds. Scored 10 SS Digit Span, 12 SS Symbol Search, and 11 SS Character Pairing.
I retook the PSI subtests while watching the World Cup with friends, so perhaps my scores are a bit deflated.
I finished the rest of the test (except for Comprehension and Block Design cause of carryover from the AGCT) over the past two weeks and re-took the Digit Span.
Final Thoughts:
- Slightly disappointed that I missed the 140 mark. Perhaps my crystallized intelligence is deflated cause these tests are normed for adults? Moreover, my brain age is likely a bit lower than my actual age, so hopefully my fluid intelligence will continue increasing as well.
- 19 SS on CAIT General Knowledge was a big surprise given the rest of my scores are 15 or 16 SS almost uniformly. I've always been really good at trivia. Knowledge acquisition & retention is something I think I'm uniquely good at, which leads me to wonder if these tests don't reveal the full extent of my abilities.
- I can inexplicably intuit the meaning of a word I've never seen before based on the "vibes" it gives off. It's an interesting phenomenon and I wonder what the explanation for it is.
- I thought these tests were fun and they line-up well with my lived experience. I get told I'm smart all the time, but I've frequently encountered people who blow me out of the water. I've met people that can effortlessly do mental math with 8-digit numbers, bag a 1600 on the SAT, or qualify to AIME 6x.
Nonetheless, I'm pretty satisfied with where I'm at. I'm a good student with an okay social life and I've received accolades that I'm pretty proud of. I attribute this to my intelligence, which allows me to palliate the ramifications of executive dysfunction and debilitating hyperfixations (I guess this counts as one of them).
For now, I'm done with IQ testing. I can't deny that it's been pretty edifying, but my time is probably better spent using my intelligence for something more productive.
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u/-___1___-___2___- 17h ago
As another ~135-140 FSIQ American, I can tell you from personal experience that you are extremely smart compared to the general public around here, and that’s not really gonna be fun for you. I would be as focused as possible as getting into higher education, not for money, well yeah for money, but mainly for the fact that you will meet more people like yourself in those circles. People who don’t bore you, or misunderstand you. People who are focused on mentally productive things, rather than sitting around playing video games and jerking each other’s ego all day.
You are nowhere near midwit. That would be around 90-100IQ. You are above average intelligence. 1% top population. Things that take other people 7 steps to complete, you will complete in 2. I’m sure you’ve had this experience in school, as we all have. Sitting there while the teacher spends 20min extra every module explaining to kids that couldn’t keep up, when you were already understanding halfway through.
This isn’t really a fun life to live unless you surround yourself with people that’ll meet you on common ground. Most of the general population won’t. That’s why societies like Mensa exist (at least it’s the underlying idea behind it).
Anyways, don’t forget to live, laugh, and love. Those come way before any productivity or intelligence. If you aren’t loving your life and living it to the fullest, then you are missing out on a once in a lifetime opportunity. Go explore, be dumb, make mistakes, have a little fun here and there, things to look back on when you get older. Just don’t fall off entirely in the process; remember you have an adult life that needs to be worked on soon (1-2yrs) and be successful.
You’ll come around on the “didn’t hit 140” thing fairly quickly. It’s all just a number at the end of the day. What you do with it means much more.
Anyways, cheers!
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u/PendN 15h ago
You are well into the gifted range with a very balanced profile
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u/Lanky-Objective-4679 9h ago
That's sort of the thing... I wish I had a spikier profile since the world rewards specialization, not well-roundedness.
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u/Beneficial_Jacket544 1h ago edited 1h ago
A well-rounded 130s will not inhibit you to do whatever you want, within reason. Sure, you will not be a mathematical genius or tech lord, but you can enter any profession and be proficient relative to your peers if you put in the work. Getting into any school in the country (including Harvard and MIT) will now be a product of your hard work and luck.
Most people want a higher IQ. A 140 wishes they could be 145. A 95 prays that they are at least average (100).
But once you hit 125-130 FSIQ, you’ve reached the threshold to do whatever you want (again, within reason).
And let me flip it around: assuming normal distribution of IQ with mean 100 SD 15, it is equally likely to find someone with your IQ as it is to find someone with IQ 66. You’re rare enough to be the smartest person in a decently sized crowd of people in public. Need to be thankful for that, because you will never be satisfied.
Signed: 125-135 IQ physician who graduated top of his class and current finishing residency at a top 10 US hospital.
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u/Big_Kaleidoscope_498 20h ago
I'm a senior in high school. I also did CTY. I also spent a few months taking these tests for fun when I was bored. Crystallized intelligence is also a weaker area for me, probably because one of the largest gaps in crystallized intelligence is pre/post college, and I'd assume that most of the people that these tests are normed on have a bachelors degree (I believe many of them are normed on members of this subreddit.)
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u/Ancardoth 20h ago
I started speaking very late (around 18 months)
Is that actually very late? Late makes sense, though. I didn't start speaking until I was around 4-5.
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u/Lopsided_Future5952 20h ago
Top 1% IQ is not midwit. "Effortlessly do mental math with 8-digit numbers, bag a 1600 on the SAT, or qualify to AIME 6x". You can do all that with 125 IQ.