My first IQ test was as a young child, and I scored around ballpark of 130. However, I had been exposed to some similar questions beforehand, so I went into the assessment with a bit of practice. But assuming my score was real, it would suggest that I should be somewhat smarter than the average person, and learn or complete tasks with greater ease. However, there has been no indication of this in my real life performance. In fact, this score is the only shred of evidence I have against the possibility that I have sort of brain damage or intellectual disability. I struggle in almost every aspect of life, with every task, no matter how easy others may find it.

We might as well start with what this score was intended to predict: academic performance. Throughout my academic career, I was frankly not the best test taker and seemed nearly impossible to score well into 90’s range without allocating most of my time/resources towards studying. However, I always had difficulty with paying attention to lectures, completing my assignments on time, and bad habit of procrastinating.

Nowadays I struggle with practically everything I do. Aside from having no common sense or problem solving skills, my measured performance in skill-based hobbies and activities is exceptionally poor. In chess, I’m quite mediocre and ended up getting “outsmarted” by a BOT, even when dropping the difficult levels. I am hopelessly mediocre in many areas where I tried to transform my interest into a hobby: Math after pre-algebra, music, mortal kombat, etc.

It got me questioning, perhaps I have an accompanying mental disorder such as sluggish cognitive tempo or ADD? Compared to my peers in school or work, it takes time to process the information given and arrive to the appropriate conclusion. Found that changing my diet and straying away from junk/sugar foods slightly helped my mental performance, maybe only by 5% though.

The question is, how can I reconcile by IQ with my absolutely abysmal performance on any real-life application of intelligence/ability? Of course I'm hoping my IQ is accurate and everything else is wrong as I just can't stand being so incapable anymore and IQ can't be changed, but I would like the truth. I'd like to hear any insights into the information I've provided as to how an idiot could perform well on an IQ test or a smart person could perform so poorly on everything else.

Thank you

Apologies for the essay, spent majority of my day freaking out and questioning my raw intelligence. I desperately need answers for my shortcomings, therefore I could finally leave this behind and move on.

Buddy intelligence is a construct, catch up

Take it to a publisher buddy

were you administered an IQ test that was actually administered by a psychologist or psychometrician or was it some online mumbo jumbo

maybe youre just setting yourself up for failure by having these high expectations. just focus on what makes you happy and what makes you a living. take it day by day and challenge yourself to learn important skills. you dont have to be a genius u just need to be somewhat consistent

U probably give up too quick. U have to be willing to be ass at something in order to get good. Stop throwing in the towel just cause u can't magically excel at something quickly to appease your ego

it's insane to me that whenever anyone talks about how stupid they are, they never talk about actually stupid s***, the best they got is they lost to a computer at chess

• get a better hair cut
• hit the gym
• talk to some girls

iq is complete bullshit. ik a dude who supposedly got a 150 and hes like average at best

very good advice

it's a literal friggin computer

Easy breezy beautiful thugger girls

chess is definitely one of those things you get way better at with practice. i'd hate if a mf never even practiced but expects to be able to beat a computer on the first go cause they have a 130 iq

It's not bullshit, it's just that people don't know how to interpret it. Op is a specific example.

It's like if you were trying to use radio frequencies to measure the thread count on a screw.

You just are using the wrong tool for the job.

Intelligence as a concept is a construction of the collective consciousness you are a part of. It's based on something of course, and clearly something valuable, but not necessarily the best meter for overarching social competency.

And what intelligence even means will be different amongst microcultures within that conscious.

Intelligence could just be correlated with the ability inherently know how to adapt. If you want to view it from the perspective of "life" or intelligence in nature.

high iq doesn't mean you will know everything or that life will be easy for you

I hate the idea of these IQ tests / placement tests based on raw intelligence because it makes people think that they need less assistance in life, they should be able to do things with less steps, and that they don't have to struggle like people with average or below average intelligence.

like someone else said in here, you have to endure the drudgery of being terrible at the things you enjoy. Interest in something doesn't correlate to your skill level. If you're just learning something new or maybe just getting deep into a process, the goal is not to become as good as your inspirations after going at it for a month or 2. if that's how you attack it, then there's no wonder you aren't succeeding.

I would advise you in all your pursuits to start small and approach it based on a target. identify what you need to learn and build up chunks of understanding. then over time you'll be able to synthesize it into one seamless process.

hope that helped you.

yeah op pretty much this. i highly encourage you to check out something called growth mindset. it can make a looooooot of difference in your life 👍

as someone who has had similar experiences (and also ADHD-PI) I can understand the frustration though. I think a big piece of what makes me question myself is how to reconcile all my personal failings & struggles with the image people have of me as "you must be pretty smart!", "I know you do well in school", etc. comments like that always eat at me a bit bc my brain is a bit of a crapshoot. As a kid school was fairly easy but as the workload got harder in college & even as I tried to develop skills at the things i love the most, I never got nearly as far as i hoped bc of my difficulty focusing, sustaining attention, and most importantly keeping a positive mental attitude in the face of failure.

Dr. Russell Barkley a leading expert on ADHD who's spent his life discussing it has made it a point to let people know that a hallmark of ADHD is emotional disregulation.

If you relate to a lot of what he describes then maybe you have it as well. I got diagnosed as a kid but don't take meds. I think it might benefit me to start, but building the right habits and mindset will help out whether i take pills or not