Genius and totally non-genius.

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I have no idea what my iq is but it is probably up there. I scored in the 99th percentile in all my standardized tests all through school despite having dysgraphia and dyscalculia. I could grasp some concepts as if I already knew them and was just being reminded--like it was already in my mind. For example, at the job I do, I had no training, the documentation for the software I was using was useless and nobody else around here knows or cares how it's done. But I figured it out in 5 minutes.

I couldn't write legibly until I was 12 I can memorize long passages from books but can't remember to shave my legs or bring my lunch to work. I can't converse intelligently because my mind goes blank in front of other people. Most people who know me think I'm a ditz

Mine was tested in the 145+ range. I don't know the exact number, as I was never told and the records no longer exist. However:



I have been able to beat calculators with my mental arithmetic as well, although I think it has to do with how quickly the person operating the calculator is working. The last time I did this, the friend who was using the calculator started calling me "Rain Woman."



And then this. I went over a cooking recipe for cookies with my therapist and I actually started to get frustrated and angry at the seemingly contradictory/incomprehensible directions.

I can change bedsheets, but I find other things a bit complex. Like cleaning anything, doing the dishes, I lose track of everything that is not within immediate viewing distance, and I also have to be reminded to do things that others would do naturally.

I have, however, opened a few bank accounts and I have done customer service work - I got fired for being too rude to the customers, however.



I think this has been answered already, but I think it's just you have some really strong cognitive skills and some really weak cognitive skills. In my case (which is admittedly not identical to yours, but seems similar in some ways) I have some fairly strong cognitive skills and some fairly weak cognitive skills as well, and I can't really use the former to compensate for the latter, although many seem to think that being able to do so is the expected pattern. I don't think it's because my strengths have claimed most of my cognitive ability so much as it's because my brain is wired so that some things are harder - sometimes much harder - than other things. That I have this huge gap between the things that are measured as IQ and the things that are described as adaptive or daily living skills. Even skills that I have managed to improve (like hygiene) still show a large discrepancy.



I used to use mental calculations to help me sleep. And I understand having times where it is very fast and nearly flawless and other times where it is still good but not nearly as good. I don't think I was ever able to divide 563 by 4591 in less than a second, though.



My answer for myself is "Possibly." This is the kind of thing that hopefully new research funded by NIMH will cover, since it is stepping away from DSM categories and trying to look beyond diagnoses and instead focus on how brains actually work.

i have learning difficulties as well as autism, but the only thing i seem clever on is catching people out or being able to suss people out. my husbands best friend even said 'we better not piss her off again'.

i remember once two men we knew were going to have a boxing match and one was big and muscly and the other one was small and boney. my husband and his friends were going to put a bet on it because they all knew they would win the bet if they betted on the big one for winning against the small one. i told everyone 'you better not do that, i wouldnt do that if i were you'. but nobody listened. then on the day they all found out that the big muscly man tried to lose the boxing match on purpose and had already put a bet on the small man, so to make all the people betting on him lose. i just said 'i told you so' and got my bet.

thats the only thing i seem ironicaly clever in. otherwise i am very intellectuly slow and just average people seem really clever to me when i compare myself to them.

That seems like a pretty good ability, i dont have anything good like that, one of my interest is psychology, specially human behavior and social psychology, and even though i read, and read, and learn a lot, i cant do those things people do by instinct, this is unfair.

I can "read" people in a manner that is often accurate, often reveals their actual motives rather than their projected motives, and is unlike how most people read people.

It seems to involve pattern recognition and behavioral comparisons, and isn't vulnerable to the "benefit of the doubt" bias in which people assume the best out of a kind of social obligation. Once I perceive something in a person, it is not easy for me to give up that perception. The times I've tried have turned out to be big mistakes.

It's not perfect or infallible, but I trust it.

Thanks everyone for the input. Sorry I can't type more but I'm obsessed about neuropharmacology right now and I cannot stop reading about it. My dinner was a cup of soup made from powder and boiling water. All I want to do until midnight tonight is read neuropharmacology.

You have all raised some very salient points.