IQ and aspies

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With respect to IQ tests, I scored sort of high on certain sub-tests (Arithmetic and Matrix Reasoning) and average at-best on all others.

Regarding the question -- “What role do you think your IQ has played in your life?”...

Well, I suppose I was fortunate to gravitate towards an occupation that leverages my areas of strength. I suppose you can say that my “IQ” has enabled me to earn a living and become independent. I cannot imagine how my life would be impacted if my IQ were higher or lower. I wonder though, if I would see/interpret the world differently.

I have an officially tested IQ of 160.

I cannot run a house properly.
I am on benefits because I'm unfit to work, mosly due to autism.
I need support workers to do simple tasks like go to the post office or the shops.
I cannot leave the house on my own.
I cannot tie my shoelaces, eat without mess, etc.
I cannot do banking beyond online banking.
I cannot talk on the phone, except to people I know well and even then only for a short time.
I have almost no social skills.
I need a full-time support worker at uni, otherwise I cannot attend due to challenging behaviour induced by overload.
I have challenging behaviour frequently.
I have had over 15 admissions to psych wards and secure units, many of which involved severe challenging behaviour.

I am highly intelligent in mathematics and science. I am very good with technology. I can learn most areas of science (but not biochemistry it seems) quickly and rapidly and apply it. I got 96% average in my A-Levels at school. I took my maths GCSE at age 10 and got 90%. I went to a gifted primary school and thrived there. I was one of the top students in my high-achieving secondary school.

However I required a learning support person at secondary school due to challenging behaviour, repeated truancy and meltdowns (primary school was a much more supportive environment due to the high number of neurodiverse children).

Yes I may be able to work out the centripetal force of a wheel on a car in my head in under 30 seconds and also act as the talking textbook in some areas.

But I am disabled by autism. I cannot do the things a 15 year old would find easy, like talking to people, going food shopping and even leaving the house. I am 25 and I'm still stuck at home for days at a time, waiting for a support worker to take me out of the house (I cannot cross the road safely on my own and I also have severe sensory integration issues) and being told that I am not able to work, and will never be able to drive.

IQ is not everything.

I too was told, that my IQ has made it possible to reason my way to understanding social things to a degree.
I scored top in language, reasoning and one more, average in math and below the floor in social understanding/imagination (the cartoon bit).
People tend to ask me for advice, though, so either I understand more in real life, or it may be my logics, that speaks.

I have never been able to keep a job for longer, though no one has ever accused me of being lazy. I can´t cope with shifts, fast communication and general unpredictability. I just discovered, that even my logic may be different.
The best has been teaching my subjects, because it is my well defined room.

IQ has allways been one of the big animals in my history, as I admired my gifted older brother deeply. I was convinced, that I was stupid and panicked over the smallest test or exam.
Being told, that I´m on the safe side was a big thing.

My IQ is 181.

Beat that!

Tbh thinking about it, IQ is not a fantastic measure of intelligence in a broad sense. I am very highly intelligent at some areas (to use IQ subtest scores, which are perhaps slightly more accurate, I got 190 in the arithmetic subtest) but poor in others (I am below average in motor skills and very below average in social skills).

As I said above, despite having an IQ score of 160, I struggle in life.

I feel you on this one. I'm hyperlexic and tested out in the high 150's as a child. That did absolutely nothing for my poor motor skills. Even after four years of physical therapy when I was a child, I still have noticeable gross motor deficits. I'm doing well to walk without running into things or falling.

I still struggle with fear and anxiety. I've had three episodes of major depression. I am still socially awkward, and I prefer to communicate in writing when that option is available to me. I have a difficult time reading and sending body language, and I don't think I will ever "get" eye contact right. I need solitude like a junkie needs a fix, and I have plenty of quirks and eccentricities.

This being said, my wiring isn't all bad. I have a great sense of direction, I speed read, and most of the time I can use what I have to compensate for what I don't. I think this is the only way I survived the childhood from hell as well as various cokehead bosses, and a certifiably insane ex.

I will say though, high IQ has its benefits, but there is a downside as well. Usually when someone has an extreme talent they also have an extreme deficit. One can always claim the grass is greener on the other side, but sometimes it's easy to envy those who are just sort of average across the board.

Seriously?!? I thought beyond 180 was theoretical at best. Amazing! Good for you.

Yes the report said I hit the ceiling. Thanks. Some people call me the Human Calculator lol.

IQ is just a shorter way of saying IQ score, and my IQ score doesn't impact my life at all because I never, ever encounter IQ score puzzles in anything besides IQ tests or other tests similar to it. And it will not impact anyone else's life either.

If you think your IQ measures something else go study psychometrics then tell me that it's still representative of something besides the test itself. Wait, you mean it correlates to things like success in life, how good I am at sports, how well I do in school? You know what else correlates 100% to those things? Measurements of those individual things.

IQ isn't just a shorter way of saying IQ score, I meant IQ as it is commonly understood - as a synonym for general intelligence (g).
Many grad school admission tests are pseudo IQ tests. While that fact may not have had an impact on your life, it is silly to claim it would not have an impact on anyone's life.

All the people I know with high intelligence can apply their intelligence in most areas, although social area seems hardest, because many of these people also have poor social skills.

Some of the more severe forms of autism can stunt development to the point that it causes mental retardation, so there is definitely a correlation between social development and intelligence.

With aspergers/HF autism on the other hand there is no correlation at all. The idea that it enhances intelligence is laughable. Some are smarter than is the norm, but most are just average. Same deal with NTs.

I believe there are times when, owing to the diminished desire to socialize, that Aspergians acquire more and varied "book knowledge" than many NT's.

However, when one has a dearth of a desire to socialize, one loses the ability to gain what's (aptly) termed "common sense."

knowledge != intelligence


not really. they just have to work harder at it.

Oh, yeah. My IQ does little for me in socializing, relationships, even the occasional idle chit-chat with cashiers and other service workers ... unless I mask. Still, even then, it isn't 100-percent convincing.

Sez who? Knowledge is a form of intelligence.