Wrong. Dispelled years ago. From a NY Times article in 1984 "Those records show that, for two successive terms, when Einstein was 16, his mark in arithmetic and algebra was 1 on a scale of 6, in which 1 was the highest grade. For the next term his mark was 6, which would have been the lowest grade, except that the grading scale had been reversed by school officials."

Glad to hear that we are all so smart! (well, even Bill who tries to convince us he's not -- sort of the card shark who sits down at the table and asks "How do you play this game?)

But I remember puzzling over:
-- While studying management, I was taught: "The best managers are not necessarily the smartest ones"
and
-- While in nursing school, I was taught: "The best nurses are often those who graduated with C's rather than A's"

(Unfortunately, I was the one with the A's darn it!)

Yes, I have a high IQ. And, just like a big belly -- it keeps getting in the way!

I was just thinking how different it seemed in that era in terms of pushing, testing the boundaries of personal awareness/development/potential, beyond the respect for a variety of intellectual pursuits there was music and drugs of course, the TM and Carlos Castaneda thing, the space race, Cassius Clay/Ali, hitchhiking everywhere, amateur-athlete Olympics, on and on. For my kids it was far more about social integration, team sports, Facebook, texting. None of my kids took an IQ test, it would have been unthinkable in their schools, it's probably regarded as anti-social and polarizing these days. Social acceptance, social leadership seems to be the gold ring for their generation. ... but perhaps I'm just having a senior moment.

My 3nd grade reading test set my reading level at a collage freshman level . This set me up for the intelligence test which threw me into the Advanced student program for the remainder of my grade school years. After graduation I found out my IQ score when a new state law opened school records for those who were interested. .............I now mow lawns for a living and find it interesting to spend my time reading about bicycles and aspire to be a bike mechanic. Classic underachiever syndrome.

Deleted

My experience was a little different. In Jr. Hi we took some tests. A few months before school ended we met with our future H.S. counselors privately to set up a schedule. She did tell me my score and gave me some recommendations for classes to take in H.S. I listened but didn't follow her advice to the letter either.

Probably one of the most important lessons I learned as a young 'un was to never give up. That was taught to me by my Dad working on the car, around the house, camping, etc. I don't think he ever said it exactly that way but it was the way he lived and expected his children to grow up.

I was given the choice early on of having either a massive intellect or massive muscular pillar-like thighs of steel. I think I made the right choice.

for years i thought i was stupid for getting a low score.
folks, what it really measures is ignorance. if you never studied something how ya posta get a high score?
so, ya ain't dumb, just unknowledgeable. doesn't mean ya can't learn something.
csap is better, some. it just shows where your knowledge level is, though the 'score' is used to determine whether a school qualifies for more government money.
i had to take accu-placer tests to get into a community college. i didn't fear them 'cause i was told there was no pass/fail, only an assessment of how much i knew of various subjects.

don't get me started about mensa....

So you didn't make the smart choice?

Tested once and scored 130 but I managed to overcome it and flunk out of college after my freshman year. I think going to classes might have helped.

That was me all over.

And I often kid that if thsy'd invented ADHD back then, I'd have a permanent spot at the front of the Ritalin line.

I knew my numbers, and later took and passed the MESNA test. Meh- I have friends with much lower IQ who I consider to be 'smarter' than I am.

This is why most standardized tests don't necessarily give an accurate assessment of intelligence. They might, for some people. But they're every bit as likely not to miss the mark when it comes to others. The pool of testees doesn't have to be very large before there'll be someone the test is biased against, just because of the diversity of our experience.

BTW, since we're divulging, mine was 140 - but it was a high-school level test administered to me when I was in my 20s, so it really means nothing.

My thinking is that if you want to score high on IQ test, then you need to take many IQ test so that when you see a problem all you have to do is realize that it is just like a previous problem that you have seen. Once a person learns how to work a problem similar problems are a piece of cake. Before I memorized how to work a rubik's cube I didn't have a chance of ever working one. Now that I know the steps I can solve 3x3x3 cubes in about 5 minutes.

Memorization trumps IQ in almost every circumstance. IQ is top dog when a problem is encountered for the first time. Just my thoughts.

When I was 12 or 13 I got I Q'ed. Got some fangled high number.
My Mother promptly enrolled me at The University of South Florida, In the special classes for gifted Kids.

The teachers In the two classes I had promptly had a meeting and threw me out. Then In grade school It was best I sat right up front close to
the teacher so she could keep BOTH eyes on me XD

I had an 'ON' switch but no 'OFF' switch. I was a Hyperactive wild child but the Girls loved me

Then In the 10th grade I figured out It was all the same material mostly so I would read the text book In about two weeks then
try and sleep as much as possible in class to stay out of trouble and still drive the Teachers crazy by getting 'A's all the time.
One Teacher kept me from getting a text book and Insisted I participate in class.
I stole a text book, read it and that was that, she lost.

By the end of the 11th grade the teachers left me alone as long as I helped the slower kids some.

Takes a lot more than a big I Q number to wind up published and even more to make your mark In the History books.

There's something a little creepy about this thread. I can't put my finger on it.

Gee, what about the rest of us? I'm quite sure I have an ordinary IQ. Crap, truth be told it's probably just in double digits. It got me through high school, college, graduate school, and 5 years of post-graduate training.

All that and a great pair of legs.

If you like to read, if you're inquisitve and open-minded and aren't threatened by ideas you don't agree with or people who think differently than you, you can go a long way in this culture, as long as you keep your heterodox views to yourself most of the time.

Anyway, gotta stop watching the Batchelor reruns (I wish my son had married Catherine Guidici. Heck, I wish I were young enough to marry her myself) and get back to work

I think my experience was pretty typical -- they tested us in second grade and never told us our scores, but used them to place us in various tracks of classes. The system worked well for me, because my (combined) 5th and 6th grade teacher was possibly the best I encountered from preschool to grad school.

Those of you who test lower now than in your younger years should also note that the scoring criteria and test calibrations have changed radically over the years. Marilyn Vos Savant reportedly would no longer score 200, because of these changes, rather than because of age.

I know it is supposed to be humor/satire, but my gut reaction to The Simpsons cartoon showing an inverse correlation between intelligence and happiness is totally negative, because I believe precisely the opposite, with, of course, the law of diminishing returns kicking in at the higher levels.

My children's middle school would put a kid in in-school suspension for revealing/discussing any standardized test scores. In the main hall they had a huge display board with all-time and current longest/fastest/highest athletic achievements by students.

Nice.

My son got a "C" in reading in 1st grade. At a parent-teacher conference, I asked how that was possible.

Turns out that every day, they were to read a passage in class, then color a picture about the passage afterwards. They got an "A" if they used 4 colors, a "B" for 3 colors, a "C" for 2 or less colors. He used two colors. I had to ask:

"Does he know that if he uses 4 colors, he gets an A"?

"Yes. He does."

Hmmm ... something is not right. I asked further:

"What do they do after they're done reading?"

"They're allowed to take any book out of the library and read quietly. Your son is coloring in 2 colors so he can finish quickly. It's his goal to read every book in the library, and he's almost done that."

"And you're giving him a 'C' in reading?"

"Well, he has to learn to follow directions."

Hmmm...my IQ was secret...got lots of the "you're an underachiever" stuff...I got more attention for being a "pretty girl"...but please don't get knocked up before your 18th birthday...

Later I needed those old "secret" records for something. I found out that my IQ score was 125...hopefully the alcohol has made me more "average". I don't think being smart is all that it's cracked up to be...

For good or bad 146. Means nada.

Mark Shuman

This is close to home. One of my sisters tested out over 180. She was absolutely miserable for years. One attempted suicide, nearly successful, and quite a bit of self-destructive behavior ensued. Finally, she knocked her IQ down to a level that allowed her to be able to suffer fools without wanting to scream. It's amazing what street drugs can do to a human brain. Now she's just a smart person who is mostly happy.

LOL bill, I remember the ASVAB. I scored really high on everything except one part(meant I couldn't be a clerk). I was hounded by all the branches, especially the Navy and Marines--was promised I could enter as an E3, possibly an E5. I was college bound and thanked them for their interests. Certain health issues developed which kind of excluded me anyway.

I'm sure I had some test dealing with IQ. In 7th grade the grade level had seven groups, 7-1 through 7-7, 7-1 to 7-3 being the high level kids. I was moved from 7-5,6, or 7 to 7-3 in the second semester right in the middle of a year of French(I ended up getting a second study hall)--even a bright kid would have issues being suddenly plunged halfway through a year into a foreign language. I never knew what my "IQ score" was.

You people want your children to be smarter you need to upgrade how they learn, what they learn and how It is taught to them.

The future of education is here.

https://www.khanacademy.org/


Contribute something, make your mark on another persons mind If you can....


Teachers should look here :
https://www.khanacademy.org/toolkit/ka-resources

I did an internship at a locked state mental hospital ...

One of the patients there had an IQ of 70 -- but somehow he managed to escape from that facility 14 times!

I wouldn't have been able to get out of there even once!
... So much for IQ tests...

There was this odd boy in a private school I went to, I Q 170 something.
He could not hold a normal conversation, he spoke the language of math fluently, was Unbeatable In Chess, he never combed his hair
and was a mess.
Got In trouble when he pulled a young Intern into a janitors closet and tickled her to tears. LOL

I think NASA got him when he finished Grade school.