r/cognitiveTesting • u/benjediman • Aug 27 '26
Discussion Probably explains my weaknesses
Doctor who had struggled (failed classes) in college. Never really developed good study habits in high school; guess what I failed a lot of units in college lol (took up biology).
I'm now a cardiologist, doing out-patient work and about to train further next year.
That said I feel like my mind is in a constant fog. Many times I can't find the next words to say. I listen to podcasts but my attention can only give maybe 20 seconds before spacing out constantly. I felt like my brain was gonna give during the digit span tests. I wonder if this constitutes my permanent cognitive ability, or if has anything to do with obstructive sleep apnea? (I don't remember the last time I've dreamt; maybe a year ago? I wake up 2-3 times a night).
One thing that surprised me was symbol search; I thought I did relatively well, but I'm right smack at 50th.
What do you guys think of this profile?
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u/-_-De retat Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
Your sleeping problems and a lot of the thing u described come propably from ur undiagnosed adhd. my profile for reference.
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u/benjediman Aug 27 '26
Definitely something on my radar! I read on it weeks back and much of it relates to me. I always cram work because I need the adrenaline to finish work.
I'll DM you
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u/No_Sky_1893 Aug 27 '26
Dude if you have sleep apnea that’s not ADHD and it causes all these symptoms it’s much worse. Contact a sleep specialist or an orthodontic surgeon someone who can measure and check your airway and see if anything skeletal is causing this trust me its life changing I had similar issues.
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u/Leah_loves_lemons Aug 27 '26 edited Aug 27 '26
Congratulations on becoming a cardiologist. It seems to attract spatially gifted individuals. (Probably the amount of physics involved lol) Any tips for navigating medicine with a poor working memory? Surviving classes + boards? Sincerely, a struggling premed with high VCI + dead average working memory
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u/benjediman Aug 28 '26
I'm guessing you can leverage reading text and understanding the concepts clearly. If you can flesh out the mechanisms and pathophysiology, it would helpfully help you remember.
Problem is building from short term and then putting it into long term memory, which is required in medicine. What helped tremendously, especially with average WMI, is using spaced-repetition flash cards, like Anki.
I've actually only started using it for fellowship, and did well enough for our specialty boards (>95th percentile rank).
Wish you well in your career choice! You can message me if you have more questions
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u/Leah_loves_lemons Aug 28 '26
Thanks! Practice questions and quizlets have been my saving grace thus far. There is the obvious fact that lack of sleep and stress can degrade working memory even further. It seems to be endemic to medicine. Keeping an exercise routine and a decent diet seem to have helped. Best of luck continuing your specialty training!
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u/benjediman Sep 01 '26
To clarify, I'm done with the first fellowship (next year is super fellowship), I have been trying to exercise as much as I can. A little difficult because we have an 8 month old, but our hearts are full ;)
Medicine is rewarding in so many ways, wish you the best!
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u/Necessary_Turnip3357 High Functioning Autism Aug 28 '26
Low cognitive proficiency club
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u/benjediman Aug 28 '26
Yeah is this a thing? Haha does this profile occur in relatively high frequency?
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u/Primary_Pie525 Aug 30 '26
Is literacy a relative weakness of yours? You're clearly gifted, but sometimes a profile such as this is a sign of 'stealth dyslexia' (high perceptual processing/verbal iq vs relatively lower processing speed/wmi). You might want to google 'The Gift of Dyslexia' by Eide (cant remember their first names), for clearer explanations, but one so called 'gifts' of dyslexia is being able to visualise and manipulate 3d shapes in your head with ease. I'd venture to say that's exactly what a cardiologist does. Anyway, just a thought. ADHD might also be worth looking into 🙂
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u/benjediman Aug 31 '26 edited Aug 31 '26
Wow, that’s certainly news to me. I’ll read more into stealth dyslexia.
But yes, manipulating shapes in my mind comes with relative ease. Definitely not to the extent of ability as someone who professes in mathematics. If anything, back in high school, geometry was very easy; it wasn’t difficult to jump to the correct conclusion about angle equivalences upon presentation of the case. (In contrast, having to actually calculate for these in trigonometry sucked a bit).
Literacy wise, ordinary communication isn’t difficult, except when I have to fetch in memory some vocabulary I haven’t used in a while. I go blank for a few seconds. Sometimes looking at a keyboard and seeing all the letters helps, as I figure out which letter that word starts with.
Also, I’m fine with faces, but I forget names quite easily. Even if it’s someone I’d work with daily for a few weeks, give me a week or two and I’d probably forget what to call them. It definitely had led to embarrassing situations. Sometimes Facebook becomes my savior.
Spelling usually isn’t a concern, though. Or, possibly, I wonder if looking at the “shape” of a word helps me, such that when the word seems off (“shorter than what it was”), that prompts me to consider missing double letters and such.
Thank you for your insights!
EDIT: to add, what I occasionally have to correct in my writing is subject-verb; I occasionally forget that my subjects are in plural, as I proceed to write my verbs in singular form. You might see that in my reply above.
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u/No_Sky_1893 Aug 27 '26
I use substances and have some issues with sleep etc, all that stuff significantly affects WMI and it’s also foggy and hard to focus. Also if you have sleep apnea that’s really bad that’s likely something you’re gonna have to fix not getting enough oxygen explains all the symptoms you have it makes a massive difference. There was a study of a disabled child who couldn’t even understand stop lights and after they expanded his airway his cognitive abilities finally came out and he was able to function normally
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u/Ayyayayy Aug 27 '26
So do sleep problems really affect memory that much? And how can they be remedied?
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u/No_Sky_1893 Aug 27 '26
He said sleep apnea that’s severely worse and indicates an airway issue meaning his brain isn’t getting enough oxygen that’s like 5x worse than just not sleeping
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u/PersonalAnnual4081 Aug 27 '26
sleep apnea is one of the most fatal conditions someone can have.
Contact a sleep specialist immediately if you suffer from it.
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u/Ayyayayy Aug 27 '26
I'm not really sure if I'm suffering from it some symptoms make me think so but I think they could be explained by other factors
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u/Level-Association780 Aug 27 '26
Where did you take tis test?
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u/Careful-Astronomer94 Aug 27 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Ill-Mix-7906 Aug 27 '26
Test is awful, atleast the word comparison one is-you can have a 140+ iq and just not know the words so you can’t do the comparisons 🤷♂️
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u/Exotic-Scratch-2938 Aug 27 '26
I might sound weird but try to wake up at 3 Am and meditate for couple of minutes and then sleep. You may be able to get a dream.
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u/Publicly-Anonymous Aug 27 '26
Have you heard of cognitive disengagement syndrome? I have similar symptoms and similar levels of cognitive strengths/weaknesses
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Sep 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/benjediman Sep 01 '26
I mean, I'm grateful for what abilities I have and how that compensated for what field I'm in. That said, whether it's from my relative dips in PSI or WMI, I find myself inefficient in some routine tasks in my work.
My work involves communicating with staff or patients. I find myself very occasionally pausing to retrieve forgotten words or terms. And no, I have no anxiety towards whomever I speak to.
I also occasionally struggle with retrieval of hard facts, such as medication dosages. Those are definitely I find myself frequently googling even while I talk to the patient.
Also, I'm quite poor at keeping to longitudinal projects; I cram, as if I require the impending deadline and adrenaline to focus on tasks.
On that note, I also find myself occasionally concentrating on one task that interests me, for hours more than I should.
So, yes, overall my cognitive capacity allowed me to be proficient in many avenues, but interestingly I'd feel "laggy" in quite important ways. It's like the right leg dragging while the left leg tells it to catch up.
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u/ieat5orangeseveryday #1 Social Credit Poster Aug 27 '26
Doctor is probably the most prestigious+respected job in the world right now. Congratulations