My intellectual development was really strange. I was above grade level briefly in elementary school due to the video games I was playing containing slightly advanced vocabulary for my age.
By age 8 I was average verbally, but gifted non-verbally, particularly in Math.
I read grade-level-appropriate books (Goosebumps, Animorphs), but was always far more interested in TV, movies, and video games, so this type of information didn’t seem to be translating well to cognitive testing.
I lost all interest in school by sixth grade and was put into a special program because they thought I was a slow reader, but I tested out of it within a couple of weeks and was sent to a special dropout prevention program where I stayed for two years until I started high school and was put into normal classes.
At age 14 I was still average overall, yet had somehow fallen slightly behind in Math and was no longer gifted, but rather arbitrarily was in the superior range for spelling.
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Around the age of 15, I started reading more advanced literature for pleasure and my verbal ability skyrocketed to the point that I scored 95th percentile on the written essay for the ACT, and a 24 overall. A year later I also scored 99th percentile on the verbal section of the military entrance exam and 93rd in the mathematical knowledge section, but was still average in arithmetic reasoning and was 87th percentile overall.
Now, as an adult, my verbal IQ indicates that I’m in the top 99th percentile, my non-verbal IQ is in the top 98th percentile.
The IQ results are disputable, but my test scores should not have been attainable with the cognitive ability that my IQ tests indicated as a child.
I’ve shared all this not to brag about my intelligence, but to express my frustration with the concept of IQ testing. My self-esteem has been a roller coaster my entire life since I went from gifted, to average, to below average, to average, to gifted again.
If somebody can have this level of fluctuation in IQ testing results, the entire concept needs to be examined more thoroughly.
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Justin nizza 