RE: Higher IQ
June 13, 2016 at 4:41 pm
(This post was last modified: June 13, 2016 at 4:45 pm by RozKek.)
(June 13, 2016 at 3:26 pm)TheRealJoeFish Wrote: Yes, I've been tested above 120.
Like Rob, I'll hide this because it's kind of long.
1) In Kindergarten, I explained jet propulsion and caterpillar metamorphosis to my teacher in rather scientifically rigorous terms. Apparently the school district had been considering moving me up a grade at the end of the year, but my kindergarten teacher told them to do it immediately, so I skipped into 1st grade about a month into the school year. I learned later that, when I was in 4th grade, the district recommended to my parents that I move up again, but they declined, since I was already rather young and socially inept. When I got to middle school, I took part in math competitions and placed among the top few in the state at my age level. In high school, I took calculus as a freshman, and did lots of independent study/college work my junior and senior years. Although I excelled at mathematics, I was pretty advanced in every subject. As for my grades, well... they clearly lagged behind my ability. I've just never been naturally motivated to do things like schoolwork, and I would often run a 99% average on tests and a 50% on homework. I got a bunch of Cs and Ds in high school, and graduated just barely in the top half of my class (despite having the highest SAT in the school and such). In undergrad, I studied mathematics, and continued to do competitions (which were far more difficult, though I still had what I considered good success on the Putnam exam). I finished the math portion of my degree requirements in 5 semesters, at which point I realized that I *did not* want to do mathematics as a career (by my 5th semester, my GPA had dropped to about a B-, primarily because I was bored). I got minors in creative writing and philosophy, and went to law school. In my first year of law school, I convinced myself to give it one year - just one year - of actually putting in the work to try to achieve what I felt to be my maximum potential. I did quite well (just outside top 5% in my class), transferred to a much better school (leaving behind a large scholarship but getting a great degree in the geographic area I wanted to live in), and ultimately finished law school with good-not-great grades.
2) I can pick up new abstract concepts with ease.
3) Until law school, I did virtually no studying outside of school, because I found studying boring as hell and didn't care if I pulled Cs. In law school, I studied quite a bit less than my classmates. I would read the cases for the day's class on the bus on the way to school, and otherwise not do any extra work during the semester. To study for the exam, I would take about 3 days and read the entire case book front-to-back, writing out notes and outlines on every single case we covered. Essentially, for a 3 hour exam, I'd probably study about 30 hours over the course of the semester, with 20-25 of those hours being in the week before the exam.
4) It is very difficult for me to learn how to do things with my hands. I have very little dexterity or agility working with objects, and so would be helpless with, say, a car engine. For things like biological concepts, literary ideas, and, especially, mathematical concepts, I generally need to encounter them a single time to gain a fairly deep understanding of them.
5) I was always happy to help anyone who wanted it but I didn't care if other people didn't "get it." I mean, the way I saw it, a C because you understood everything immediately but didn't put in any effort (that is, what I did) is less respectable than a C because you just couldn't figure it out despite trying really really hard. I was generally aloof from all of that, because school always bored me. I was younger than all of my classmates, and already felt a little singled out because of that, so I just tried to be friendly to everyone.
6) A mathematics problem is sort of my specialty. I'm at what I'd call, essentially, a "high non-genius" level. What I mean by that is this: some people, when you ask them a complex mathematics problem, know the answer immediately. I call that person a genius. I'm not that, but I'm just extremely fast at doing the steps, and I can keep track of a lot of numbers in my head at once. For sort of a complex math problem, like a Putnam Exam problem, it's a matter of simplifying and analogizing, turning the information you have into information that's slightly more helpful, and then doing that over and over until you can massage the answer out of the numbers.
7) I would say I'm average at learning languages. I have a very good memory, and can generally remember nouns quickly. I have a lot more trouble with verbs. (Wonder if that's normal.) I only ever took formal classes in one language (other than English): French. I can generally read French at, say, an adult basic level (like what you'd get in a newspaper, say), write a bit, and would be able to stumble through some speaking if I had to (one time I was in London, wearing shorts in the snow, and an elderly woman who spoke only French asked something like "vous etes froid, non?", and I was able to respond "un peu!"). I've been cycling through languages on Duolingo (if you don't know what that is, google it) and am currently learning Swedish (I have a handful of Swedish friends). Something neat happened the other day - I was trying to think of a word for something and I thought of the Swedish word (halsduk) before the English word (scarf)! But I digress. Decent at languages.
Perhaps also of note: my short-term memory is not particularly good but my long-term memory for facts and numbers is very good. I am very good at trivia. I am very into sports, and very interested in the numbers and advanced statistics. Interestingly enough, I can remember statistic very well, but I can't remember anyone's jersey or uniform number; I almost feel like that's because my memory works differently for quantitative numbers vs. descriptive numbers.
This was insane, I loved reading through it seriously
And I was mind blown here
TheRealJoeFish Wrote: I explained jet propulsion and caterpillar metamorphosis to my teacher in rather scientifically rigorous terms.Also, I can help out with the swedish if you need
In that case you'll have to help out with the French, I have studied it for two years now, I like it a lot but the lectures are boring as fuck, anyway I understood what the lady and you said, I'm impressed by myself.This is a bit about how I was doing/am doing intelligence wise.
And like you, I'm bad at using my hands but I'm not completely horrible (although I got an A in both woodwork and needlework), and generally I have quite an easy time understanding concepts but if in some cases I get stuck I need to encounter the problem and get it explained to me otherwise I'll be braindead for quite some time.
And for my memory I'd consider myself having a quite good long term memory, relatively speaking, I can study much much less than my classmates and still ace exams although I doubt very much who I'm comparing myself to, I don't know how I would fare relatively speaking in a better school. I usually study in total somewhere around 1,6 hours split into 2-3 days before an exam and I can ace it, I don't know if that's average or not.
And I have an easy time learning new languages, since birth I've spoken two languages, kurdish and swedish. In 4th and 5th grade, being exposed to english through video games and tv mostly I was very very good at english for my age. Now I'm daydreaming through the French lectures but I'm still decent at it, although yet again I don't know who I'm comparing myself too. No one in my school tries except very few. I've never had my IQ tested and if I'd guess I'd say I have maybe a tiny tiny bit above average? (I don't have any good comparisons, no one I know uses their full potentinal (I think), my guess probably isn't accurate).
School and such went easy for me when I started taking it seriously. in 5th grade and below I was seriously a dumbfuck, I never ever did my homework, didn't care about school, daydreamed through the lectures, I barely understood multiplication. The only thing I was good at was english and swedish, but then in 6th grade I started taking it more seriously and got C's, D's which is quite damn shit. I don't know what the flying fuck happened in 7th grade but I skyrocketed in grades, at the end of 7th grade I had many A's and B's, I had enough points to get into Gothenburgs best senior high schools. Then in 8th grade, my comprehension, problem solving, thought process and everything just became much better (again?) for some reason and I've now heightened my grades even better. So I adapted to school very easily and got great grades, took quite a big leap there. Although I definitely do not consider myself even near your intelligence or anyone else who have posted in this thread. No one really elaborated except you, and if judging by what you wrote; if someone with 120+ IQ is like this, I definitely don't think I'm near. Maybe if I get off this damn computer and stop playing 12 hours a day and try for some mental stimulation I'll really find out... probably not :<
Also please keep in mind, all this is from kindergarten to 8th grade and not above, I can't really say how I'd be doing in high school (sophomore year to senior year) and above where it's more challenging.
Anyway! Summerbreak for me is in two days and after that I'll fare off to 9th grade, then if I keep my shit up I'll go to one of Gothenburgs best high schools (sophomore year, I don't know how this american system works. In Sweden we have from 0-9 in 9th grade you're usually 15-16 years old, then gymnasiet 1-3rd grade, (första, andra och tredje ring) equilivant to your sophomore year to senior year) then on to university! Wish me luck
@All Anyway something I've always wanted to ask people with high IQ's whom are good problem solvers and like mathematics: Did you from time to time in around 7th-9th grade ever get mental blocks when doing maths? Like not understanding a problem, and just not figuring out how to solve it/why it is the way it is (<-- I probably annoy my teacher asking why something is the way it is in mathematics). And I'm not talking about problems that are usually way too advanced for the average 7th-9th grade. Did you from time to time get stuck on math problems presented to you in 7th-9th grade?
