Aspie quiz score changed a lot from two years ago. Why?

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Two years ago ^^






Around a month ago ^^


I know that the quiz has been updated a little but that obviously doesn't account for all the change in score. It scares me somewhat... Like I'm subconsciously acting more aspie because I've like learned about it? I don't want that.

It's just that when I took it a month ago I felt so sure that I was unbiased. I thought about every question hard and thought of real life examples etc. I didn't really think that I was 'leaning' much.

Why would it change so much?

Mood.
Personality changes.
Changes in understanding and perception of the meaning of the question.
Changes to the algorithms used by the site.

As mentioned, mood is a large variable. Varied results are commonly reported on myers briggs tests. I either get INTJ, INTP, or ISTJ depending on my mood. I imagine a similar data would occur on an autism test.

The changes in questions may have had a bigger impact than you thought. Don't discount such evidence.

Your condition may have also improved over time, as well as your understanding of yourself.

Either way, aspie tests are intended to be aides, not guidebooks. Don't sweat.

It truly depends how well you know autism.

Before I knew about sensory issues, I put very little weight on questions like 'how sensitive are your eyes to glare?'. I had put a 2 for that question the first time I answered it, because I had so many memories of my eyes hurting as a result of glare. After learning that a score of 2 likely corresponds to severe sensory issues (i.e. strobe light effect) I changed it to a 0.

My score is now settled around 110 AS to 95/100 NT, from around 130/140 AS and 70/80 NT.

Mine changed as well, probably due to developing generalized anxiety disorder and panic disorder over the past few years

Your neurodiverse (Aspie) score: 182 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 26 of 200
You are very likely neurodiverse (Aspie)

The test has gone through some changes. My results didn't change as much as yours though, but they changed a little. Maybe your mood was different, or maybe things like presence or absence of anxiety made a difference.

Back in November 2008 I took it 3 times. There were some questions I wasn't entirely sure of the answer for, so I took it 3 times, one time being as accurate as I could, one time downplaying aspie traits, one time downplaying NT traits. In the same order, these were my results back then:

NT 52 /aspie 144
NT 58 /aspie 135
NT 41 /aspie 151

This was my result for the 41/151 test:
[img][800:1024]http://i45.tinypic.com/24b708x.jpg[/img]
Unfortunately this is the only one I kept, because it was the last one I took.

I took the test again in April 2013, only once, answering as accurately as I could, and I got this result:

Your Aspie score: 146 of 200
Your neurotypical (non-autistic) score: 50 of 200

Something I noticed the last time I took the test was that a lot of the questions involved self-reporting. Do you have difficulty with this? I have trouble understanding this: agree? disagree?

Self-reporting is going to have some influence on your scores. If you overestimate your difficulties you'll score higher on AQ. If you underestimate them you'll score closer to NT than you actually are.



I underestimated my difficulties after learning new things. What ended up happening for me is that I had some breakthroughs. For me I'm not socially blind so much as I move at a much slower pace than NTs when developing theory of mind, understanding of social rules, and nonverbal communication skills. These are things that I learned much later than NTs but when I have a breakthrough and suddenly I understand something I think I'm no longer Autistic in that way. I no longer have that difficulty. I think that I no longer have trouble with theory of mind because I just began understanding it on a basic level. I get it now. NTs understand it on a much more complex level but I don't realize it at first. I think I've caught up. In reality they understood it on my level when they were 14.

The result is that I report that I have no difficulty with theory of mind at a later date. I've learned something new and I understand theory of mind on a basic level when it was completely alien to me last time I took the test. I report no difficulty on a lot of things cause suddenly I understand things I didn't before. Due to self-reporting my AQ goes down. It's actually not because NTs are growing faster than I am but without taking them into account I see myself growing and I report less difficulties. Relative to the population of my age group I stay about the same.

In reality I'm way behind NTs even though I've grown and that is a sign of my Autism. My perception of growth makes me feel like I no longer have difficulties with this thing I used to not understand.


The main point I'm making is that self-reporting of your difficulties can be inaccurate. If you're like me any improvement you make can trick you into thinking you're difficulties are lower than they were before so you underreport your difficulties. If you have low self-esteem or you're just becoming aware of how far behind you are compared to NTs you'll over-report your difficulties. Your AQ score can change just because you're perception of yourself changes

Exactly.

My results:

A year and half ago: 169/200 AS, 32/200 NT.
- 1st test I took right after I realized I might be Aspie (after reading a single article and nothing more) and wanted to check if that really fits or it is just my imagination.

7 months ago: 172/200 AS, 24/200 NT
- Test I took when I was convincing myself I am Aspie and looking for all possible traits. As you can see AS score gone just a little bit up while NT went down some more.

Today: 178/200 AS, 32/200 NT
- I am diagnosed, aware of my traits and not pretending to be NT anymore. As you can see my AS score gone up (I allow myself to stim and cover ears now, I was not doing it since I was kid) but my NT score returned to its original state.

If you ask me I would say your "aspieness" is either slight enough for you to be able to successfully pass as NT 2 years ago (you were trying so hard to be normal that it become your personality and your aspie traits were hidden even for you) and you started to discover your autistic traits after reading about them or you are not an Aspie at all. The quiz doesn't screen people for Aspie and NT. It just says how far from the "social norm" you are. Scores between 60 and 140 on both scores are common for people with just social anxiety, OCD, ADD or sensory integration problems and even some healthy NT introverts might get in the range.

My last score was 147 ND 72 NT.

I think that is close, but higher than when I first took it, well before I was diagnosed, about a year and a half ago. I was going through a period of high anxiety and unease.

I took it again a few months prior to being diagnosed, at a time when I was much more stable and sure of myself and my score was lower. I was in denial and dismissive of the possibility of being on the spectrum, so I might have been less than accurate with my responses.

When I took it the last time, I think I understood what some of the questions meant a bit better, was not trying to be "normal", so was willing/able to answer the questions more honestly and accurately. Thus the score is a little higher.

So mood and attitude play a part.

When I first became aware of this test about seven years ago, my scores were about 132-134 AS, versus 64-66 NT (took test more than once)

Much more recently my scores were 120 AS, versus 81 NT.

Cannot really comment on the significance of this, if any.

My first scores were112 AS and 98 NT. (You seem to have both.....)

I began to think the meaning of the questions/formulations over and scored:
125 AS and 81 NT (You are very likely an.......).

The more I thought about the questions and read them closely in swedish and norwegian my scores changed to AS 136 and NT 80.

After the last correction of the test, my Aspie score rose a bit and the NT score went down a bit.
I guess, they work on more precise and more relevant questions.

The results can fluctuate, so, as grbiker said, - mood and attitude play a role.

Thanks for the replies. I guess it could be from one to all of the reasons stated above. One difference I just thought of is that when I took the test two years ago I knew practically nothing about AS. Now I know quite a bit more about it. Maybe I just started noticing inhibitions in myself and allowed myself to delve into them kind of like grbiker said.

I'd say that I was less defensive about my replies the last time I took it, knowing that I was on the spectrum. So my scores were higher.

I have noticed that I have let my guard down on other things as well, and maybe allowing myself to be a bit more Aspie since being diagnosed. There were a lot of behaviors and attitudes that I had appropriated to seem normal, but had to be conscious of, I am less inclined to exert the energy to appear normal as I did before.