Do you know your IQ?

[Anonymous]

I'm 100% sure it's lower now as a middle-aged adult, but when I was a child it was 135.

[Anonymous]

No. I got a 179 on the LSAT so I can guess it’s pretty high but I did prep for that. I’ve definitely met people clearly smarter though at that level there’s often some other tradeoff (neuroticism, social obliviousness).

I think I’m dumber now at 40 but happier and I think have sharper social skills.

I wouldn’t mind writing a column for parade magazine instead of reading legal documents and emails all day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I do not know ours, but we know it was high enough to be in gifted and talented education in the 70s and 80s. Neither of our parents told us ours, and we did not tell our kids theirs.

One kid was tested in preschool for private school admissions, but I don't consider that valid due to the young age. It was very high, but I think it would be for any precocious kid.

Our other kid was only tested as a teen because of suspected LDs, and the psychologist said the number is not reliable because of the LDs. Really bright kid, very low number.

It's kind of fascinating. Huge difference in their tested IQs (more than 30 pts), but they have similar GPA and SAT scores (both above 98th percentile).

As a kid I got into a GT program in Maryland in the 80s. It was somewhere in the 130s. I don’t feel particularly smart because my neighbor didn’t get in but ended up becoming a heart surgeon! I did read a lot and play many instruments. I hate math though.

One of my kids was tested for LD as well. She was diagnosed with ADHD and then a couple years later with ASD. Her global IQ averaged lots of different scores, some of which were high and some were low. I think she’s creative and strangers tell me all the time how smart she is. So I don’t really care about the number.

[Anonymous]

133. tested into GATE(?) in elementary school in the 70's.

[Anonymous]

How do you get that information if you were tested in school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How do you get that information if you were tested in school?

I was the one who said mine was 137. I went to a rural school in the 1970s. My brother who was older had stood out - he is a math / science / computer guy and very bright. The school tested him as the rural school didn’t know what to do with him and after the testing he was moved to a different school in the city for gifted kids.

Then I came along. I was bored to tears in school but did not have my brothers studious nerdy personality. I was bad…creating all kinds of problems in class and they didn’t know what to do with me! I was bored so I spent my time thinking up ways to make class fun! So they tested me too and my IQ was 137 but the gifted program rejected me because of my behavioral issues. The rural school wanted my parents to skip me 2 grades but for a number of reasons they disagreed so I stayed in my grade with my class and just spent most of my elementary years in the principals office or plotting my next adventure! My parents told me my IQ when I was in high school because I assumed I hadn’t been smart enough to get into the gifted program so they told the scores And why I didn’t go.

[Anonymous]

I was given the WISC as a kid, and my mom always said 142.

160 is unlikely.

[Anonymous]

Mine is 138. I was tested because I didn't speak at all before 4 years old. Then I fell out of the moving car in the parking lot on the way to get the test. But, it turns out that was unrelated. I have since made of for my early lack of speech in spades.

My older brother who spoke for me has an IQ of 118. I know because I found all his files in a box at my house. I had great fun making fun of all of the comments in his report cards. What a fun day!

[Anonymous]

No. I think it is probably dead average. 100 or so.

[Anonymous]

Also tested in elementary in the 80s. My parents wouldn’t tell me the score but I snooped and found it when I was in high school. 134. I wish they had told me earlier. They were brilliant scientists and I thought I was somewhere between average and dumb, so I didn’t make much of an effort. Once I knew the score my attitude and ambition changed and I excelled academically.

[Anonymous]

No idea but I am not above average in any manner

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know mine but it looks like everyone lives in Lake Wobegon where all the IQs are above average. No, not above average. They're pretty much all above 120.

My cautionary tale is Marilyn vos Savant who, reportedly, had the highest IQ ever recorded at 228. She was born in 1946 and appears to have spent her life giving motivational talks, serving on corporate boards and answering riddles in her column in Parade Magazine. I've always found that kind of sad.

Is that where the term Idiot Savant comes from?

[Anonymous]

Mine hasn't been tested since around 1996 or so.

[Anonymous]

These tests have got to be BS. if 100 is average, where are all the people who get below 100?

[Anonymous]

Mine was 138. Low for my family: my sister was 148, our mom was 156, and my father's was close to 180. I have never met anyone smarter than my father. But if you think being a super genius makes you super competent, etc., guess again. My father was brilliant, but EQ stunted. It is hard to hold a regular conversation with someone who intellectualizes everything.

That said, scores from decades ago were generally higher than they are today, aren't they?