At some point in time during my 21st year, Simon issued me my first on-line IQ test. He prefaced by saying that it was the best he'd found as far as being unbiased (other than the first section being biased toward math related majors), and by giving me a run down about scores, including that of the women he knew, the one with the highest IQ he was aware of came out at 145. (since then he has met a few whom have claimed higher scores, and he has bright female friends that have not been tested and seem likely to do very well on this stuff). I was in disbelief that I was reading the right number when mine turned up 153. The test claimed to be accurate within 10 pts, although Simon didn't think that it was likely very accurate for anything over 140.

He told me that he'd given it to me with the expectation that I'd do well, because I had low self-confidence about my abilities and he wanted to demonstrate to me that I was capable. Thinking back prior to that, the thought that I was exceptionally smart and saw things that others didn't had not occurred to me. I had often disagreed with people, but given them credit as probably knowing more than I did. Hence I tended to give others control in situations where I disagreed with their judgement. Over the last few years, I've gotten much more socially confident and expressive, leading to superior results in most scenarios where in the past I would have just handed over the reigns.

However, since this discovery, I've never wanted to take it for granted... could I really be smarter than all but 1/2000+ people? I immediately wanted to try taking a "professional" IQ test for comparison, (my mom didn't allow my school to test me as a kid) but have found it rather difficult to get my hands on one.

Over the past few years, I've given that test to several different people, with an array of scores which lead me to put a little more trust in that test. I personally found the test to be very easy, feeling that given enough time I could probably figure out most to all of the answers, but some others definitely do find it to be difficult. A few of my and Simon's mutual friends blow it away, which makes me suspicious... people with IQs so high are supposedly very rare. However, I personally have found those people to be exceptionally bright, and Simon, the by far most brilliant guy I know, has spent years actively filtering in order to find them.

I recently administered the test to Patri, and as I expected, he scored very close to me, at 156. One of the many great parts about being in a relationship with him was that we had excellent communication/understanding: most people do not follow my abstract logic, but Patri had no problems. However, unlike with Simon, where I felt that I had nothing to add to his understanding of the world, Patri and I had a very "tit-for-tat" way of interacting: he would give me a lot of insights, but I was also able to point many things out to him that he hadn't already thought of. And he actually listened to me and implemented many of my ideas! That was so great! Most people never take me seriously enough to listen. (Patri actually had been professionally IQ tested as a child, and ranged from the mid 140s to 150s)

I had recalled from a conversation with Simon, that he'd found stats saying that women on average score either 10pts or 10% lower on IQ tests. (I couldn't recall whether it was pts or percent, which would be rather relevant toward the high end, and thus prompted a web search) We didn't find Simon's reference, but we did find some rather annoying information: government issued IQ tests are intentionally normed so that women and men score equally! Another site explained how the Wais did its norming: they tested several different aspects of IQ, and then threw out all aspects which men averaged better on: well over half. What is this a test of now? I'm not sure what that number represents, but certainly not intelligence quotient... However, I was still curious to take it to see how I did relative to others whom had taken it, given that it is a standard, although I would strongly prefer to find a test created before the destruction of meaning.

Patri also recently turned up this article, a foreshadow of my distributions on one of the standardized tests. Although our analytic and comprehension abilities seem pretty close in my observation, I am pretty envious of Patri for his abilities to put those to use in ways that I don't seem able. Unlike me, he has an excellent memory for facts, hence, an excellent knowledge base to draw from, loves to do research, can focus for hours on end, and has a sense of purpose. Hence, he is far more competent than myself.

I'm such an anomaly. My abilities and desires point in all kinds of different directions, none of which seem terribly useful to the rest. And who wants to be with someone like that? Is it possible that there's someone out there with a complimentary set? And if so, what an anomaly they must be! ;)

For those interested in checking out the IQ test I'm referring to, here's a little info first and then a link. Its referred to as the European IQ test, and has been translated back and forth between several different languages, hence, at this point the directions are a bit garbled and need a little additional explaining in a couple of areas. There are 33 questions, in 5 sections that are each arranged from easiest to hardest, the time limit is 20 minutes, and there is nothing saying that you can't skip around. You start off with 75 points, and each correct question is worth 3 additional. On section 16 => 25, the directions are the equivalent of "fill in the next symbol for this sequence of patterns." For 26 => 29, the section with two blanks, the directions mean: "this object is to this, as that is to that." For example: Dog is to puppy as Cat is to kitten.

http://www.lodge71.freeserve.co.uk/iq/iq.htm