Any of you oldsters I.Q. tested in your teens, early twenties? I remember it was the big thing, like watching the Fischer vs Spassky '72 Championship. Remember the Cattle exam?

I remember being tested in elementary school but don't recall ever being given the score. They didn't rush me off to any special programs so I assume I was not too far from average.

And I thought the legs thread was getting out of hand...

How did I miss a legs thread?

But yes, I was tested.

What does it mean when you take the test and the next day they say you will be riding on the short bus from now on?

Yeah, I remember. My test scores insured that I was identified as one of the chronic under achievers.

Don, I think that means you had high scores!

Our schools had IQ info on all students, obtained through a variety of standardized tests, but the information was never, ever shared with students, or even, I think, parents. I only found out about it as an adult, when a childhood friend went into education and got a job in our old school district.

When you think about it, sharing it with students is much more likely to cause harm than good. Score low and you get discouraged; score high and you think you can coast.

Yes, my scores outed me as a slacker. If they were tuned in to ADHD I would have been on ritalin, no question.

If you still would like to take an I.Q. test, try the Mensa test.

I didn't need IQ scores to know I was an underachiever. I knew it all through high school. And comparing my college boards to my grades proved it. I went from a congratulatory letter from the dean of Notre Dame's engineering school, suggesting I apply for early admission, to getting the dreaded "skinny envelope" containing the news I was rejected.

Oh, well.

That could definitely be true in our school district. We have a talented and gifted program but not in every building. High achievers take a short bus out of their neighborhood. I remember once, when I was working as a substitute, taking a monster 84 passenger bus across town to pick up just one girl.

I don't know about the hyper active part but I was, and still am, definitely attention deficit. I long ago realized that television weather casts were worthless to me because I couldn't stay focused while they prattled on about the highs and the lows and what the temperature was in Anchorage. By the time they got around to telling me what they thought was going to happen tomorrow, I wasn't listening anymore.

I started to take the Mensa test once, but I lost interest halfway through.

I had that happen from University of Chicago. We had a local bar that would give you a drink for any "bullet" letter, but I was too young.

I remember being tested for something individually by the school principal when I was in the fifth grade. The test was similar to aptitude tests I took later, including the military entrance exam. I was never told what the test was about. My mother seemed happy with the results.

"People said I was crazy, but my mother had me tested"

Dr. Sheldon Cooper

Applied UCLA. Accepted Cal State. It's all good.

I.Q. lately has been discredited as a metric for intelligence. It doesn't take into account the variably in spacial vs linguistic aptitudes, memory, or even that vague squishy notion of personality. Example; Ronald Reagan had personality in spades, but would have scored about average on I.Q.

My Wife administers IQ tests, and what is a high IQ in your forties, would be the IQ of a dummy if in their 20's . . .
So in my mid 50's, Hmmmmm . . . .

I've always been a bit of a math/science whiz. Back in Elementary school, I tested out high enough to be put into an advanced math path for junior High and High School - we were one year ahead of the 'normal' class.

When it came down to college entrance exams ACT and SAT, I placed in the '99 percentile' in math and sciences on both - which means it put me in the top one percent of college-bound students. That help tremendously with my nomination to the USAF academy, but didn't go there due to poor vision... My grades never reflected my abilities since I'm a lazy SOB that hates doing homework! I never handed any in! Same thing in college. If I don't 'get it', no amount of drudgery (homework) is going to change that. Either I get it, or I don't - ever. And what I do learn, I don't forget it - ever.

On standard IQ tests, I still test out to 140-145.

If you are testing those numbers into your 50's, you are doing very well

This! I was called to the office as an 8th grader and told in front of other students that my IQ score was low but, "don't worry you'll find something to do." The HS teachers I had would dress you down in front of the class using this I.Q. information, had this done to me many times. I was told that I needed to look at a manual labor job or if I was lucky a skilled trade by teachers when they did the class schedules for the next year, and not to sign up for any advanced classes, or else. Funny that the teacher that gave me the most grief was the one that always had me fixing her appliances and electrical items for her home, on my time and my dime. I have to study really hard for anything I do, I read things multiple times and I have to take time when I am writing something out. I depend on my memory to get me by. I managed to work through my engineering degree and a law degree as well as a year of my MBA by memorizing everything I read, pretty much in total. I write everything out long hand, even my mathematics, Calculus was a bear for me, Physics I loved and memorization of the formulas was easy for me.

Only test I have ever done well on was the ASVAB for the military, thankfully. I aced one when I enlisted in the Marines and got my choice of MOS, guaranteed. I chose Avionics and was meritoriously promoted to LCPL based on this. For a low Intelligence guy I do alright, I have a wonderful wife that I don't deserve, but treasure, two wonderful children and a job. What more do you need besides a bicycle?

My best IQ score on a proctored test was 148. However that was on a test with a wide standard deviation of 16. Most tests have a SD of 15 so it's possible to have a lower number but higher IQ than a test with a SD of 16. To even things out it's best to compare IQ scores with their percentiles.

My IQ percentiles are above 98 and sometimes hitting 99. Good enough to get me into Mensa.

One of my favorite plays was "La Apine Aguile" ("The Jumping Rabbit")... It was about Einstein and Picasso in a bar trying to pick up chicks...

For me, it not only humanized genius -- but also illustrated that there are different types of genius -- that tests are unlikely to measure accurately...
... (BTW, I understand that Einstein got pretty average grades in arithmetic)

This gave me a chuckle. Good thing you took their advice about getting a menial job, eh? We need to chat over a beer sometime.

I took something akin to an IQ test in elementary school. My parents later came to me and said the school wanted me to skip a grade, so I guess I did OK. As it was, I was already younger than everyone else (November birthday), so I had absolutely no interest in that. Thank God my mother insisted the decision be left up to me. I suppose I'm reasonably bright, but I honestly think any success I've had isn't so much because of intelligence as it is really liking the learning process.

As a child, my son was brilliant. He taught himself to read at 3.5 years old, and was a handful because his intellect was so ridiculously beyond his judgment. I have some great stories about that little miscreant. He tested out at 160+, and he too is an under achiever. I was just haranguing him last night about his grades in bonehead English.

Don't get me started about how poorly a lot of school districts deal with gifted kids. It's a tragedy of lost opportunity.

Oh, and remember the Lisa Simpson quandary:

I'd live to sit down with you Vic, after a ride a coke together would be super I believe, you have the right attitude

A menial job got me on to where I am. I was a laborer then an iron worker/carpenter as well as a concrete finisher while I went to college. And by worked my way through, I mean both ways, to pay the tuition for me and my wife as well as to "Learn" the stuff they required. I'm an example of regurgitation being successful in education. That ain't the way to do things either. I never fight with my low level, I work with it and make things work out for the best.

I had several IQ test while in public schools, altho they never gave me the scores. Then when I joined the Navy they gave several tests, including an IQ test that was labled GCT. Mine was quite high, and I was placed into electronics school. When I joined I wanted to be either an air controlmen or weatherman. When I was classified that is what I told the guy, but he said looking at my scores he was placing me in electronics. I told him I didnt know anything about electronics. He said---------------The Navy will teach you boy! And they did. I learned more math in about 10 weeks in the Navy than public schools had taught me in 12 years.

Kind of long winded, but it shows that everyone should try to do well on IQ tests, you never know how it may help you like it did me. Thanks to the Navy I had a 47 year career in a good paying computer job.