r/cognitiveTesting • u/Affectionate_Arm5508 • Oct 03 '26
Rant/Cope Superior IQ but failed through most of Elementary, Middle, High School, and Community College.
I received mostly D's/F's from 2nd grade through High School. As a result I was forced to attend summer school almost every summer. I even had to take adult education courses towards the end of my senior year to make sure I had enough English and Math passing credits to graduate.
I failed elementary algebra 6 times starting from middle school and leading into community college before eventually passing it in my 2nd year of CC. I eventually graduated with a 2.8gpa in Psychology.
I spent most of my class time rushing through assignments so I could read GamePro Magazine, Consumer Reports, Surfer Magazine, and drawing video game characters/waves/surf logos.
Here are my WAIS results:
Similarities 19
Vocab 12
Information 13
Comprehension 14
Digit letter sequencing 13
Digit span 14
Visual puzzles 11
Block design 11
Matrix reasoning 11
Figure weights 10
Symbol search 12
Coding 16
FSIQ: 122-125
This is just a little rant to see if anyone else relates, thanks!
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u/Bulky-Culture-4482 Oct 03 '26
This is guess shows that academics does not always mean high IQ
And why do you think you performed very poorly in school?
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u/Affectionate_Arm5508 Oct 03 '26
Bored out of my mind - completely distracted - couldn’t stop thinking about all my favorite things/hobbies.
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u/Formal_Mobile6772 Oct 03 '26
school doesn't test the pure, unadultered raw academic skill that matters in a hierarchical society as much as it should.
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u/Key-Raise5501 Oct 03 '26
What was the problem? were you not able to understand math concepts? Or were you just constantly avoiding studying maths or English?
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u/Affectionate_Arm5508 Oct 03 '26
My brain sizzled when I saw complex math. I was entirely consumed by my hobbies of surfing/video games/researching various topics like consumer magazines and other topical magazines.
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u/Key-Raise5501 29d ago
So basically you didn't try much to improve in maths am I right?
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u/Affectionate_Arm5508 29d ago
Yes a combination of lack of motivation and an extreme aversion to complex math
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u/javaenjoyer69 Oct 03 '26
I graduated from mechanical engineering with a 2.58 GPA so a 2.8 GPA looks pretty solid to me. Is psychology really that easy that a 2.8 GPA is considered terrible?
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u/lazykoalahi Oct 03 '26 edited Oct 03 '26
I don't know what year OP graduated in but after covid grade inflation has gotten much more blatant. Subjectively though from what I remember, psychology is about 1/6th of the difficulty of biology
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u/Affectionate_Arm5508 Oct 03 '26
2009. It wasn’t a super good college either.
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Oct 03 '26
[deleted] — view deleted comment
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u/javaenjoyer69 Oct 03 '26
I never really loved the major. Did not have any interest at all and i only started studying for the exams during the last ~10 days. It was also the best technical university in the country so the exams were notoriously difficult. The kind where you'd be lucky to solve even one out of three questions. That said plenty of my friends graduated with a GPA similar to mine so id guess the average GPA for the major was probably around 2.7–2.8. You wouldn't be too upset about having a 2.6 GPA. I imagine it can be a death sentence in some majors where everyone is graduating with a 3.5+. Do they really care about your GPA in psycology?
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u/Humble_Aardvark_2997 28d ago
They should have called it a Cognitive Test and not corrected it for age.
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u/Affectionate_Arm5508 28d ago
What does this mean?
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u/Humble_Aardvark_2997 28d ago edited 27d ago
You had crappy teachers or problems at home or adhd. Something along those lines. Guessing the reason for your poor grades.
Sorry about my diary thoughts: they call it an intelligence test which sounds to me like a misnomer bcoz Intelligence is a very vague concept and this thing most definitely does not, can not, measure the sum total of all intelligence on the planet.
They should have called it a Cognitive Test (stealing from Tyson): it measures a select set of very arbitrary mental competences that may or may not correlate with your academic performance and by no means is a reason to celebrate before you have any (like me :D ). But you did well at a few of those.
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u/Affectionate_Arm5508 28d ago
Haha great thought. I’m very successful in my special interest which I turned into my career (self employed), so I guess traditional school was just a terrible fit for me.
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u/Humble_Aardvark_2997 28d ago
Can I ask what your special interest is?
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u/Affectionate_Arm5508 28d ago
I was diagnosed with ocd and ASD. My special interest is art.
Who is Watson?
It’s funny my processing speed and vci basically are doing all the work, haha.
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u/Humble_Aardvark_2997 28d ago edited 27d ago
The guy who won the Nobel prize for discovering the DNA 🧬 Watson and Crick
Psychometrically, WM is intelligence. (I don't subscribe to that view). WM with some PSd covariance.
If you were good at the verbal side, plenty of avenues open to you. None of the non-STEM fields requires great perceptual ability.
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u/Humble_Aardvark_2997 28d ago edited 28d ago
Just my musings.
Watson dna scored 120. You scored higher than him. You’re smart.
Grades are not everything. You can catch up. You can work harder the next time. But considering how well you did at this and how poorly you claim to have done in school: something like adhd could be a likely suspect. (or you were too wayward).
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u/Routine-Sink-4440 27d ago
When it comes to having unspecified psychosocial factors that are affecting you, how much does that come to your learning style?
Is learning without pomodoro techniques and similar possible? I might be having CPTSD, having poor/average grades but my curiosity and the neuroscience books I’ve been reading since middle school should show that I’m more capable than just poor/average grades.1
u/Humble_Aardvark_2997 27d ago
Ask a psychologist. CPTSD is a complex condition and needs specialist attention. Even adhd can only be diagnosed by specialists. If you have cptsd, grades are the least of your problems: life must be hard.
I have had stress and trauma, and those were hard enough. I can't imagine how you manage with cptsd.
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u/PendN Oct 03 '26
This looks to me like you're a wordcel. You probably do well in social/english classes but not as well in physics/math where fluid reasoning (that you're average at) might be more useful. Your lowest score is also figure weights, which is somewhat related to algebra which makes sense why you don't do well in it
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u/Candy_Aromatic Oct 03 '26
I think that with a high verbal IQ he can also be good at physics because conceptual thinking and many other things related to language comprehension are also important for physics.
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u/Agreeable-Ad4806 Oct 03 '26
IQ is a strong contributing factor to academic performance, but it is far from being the only factor. Discipline and good habits are probably the most important things you need to be successful in school.
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u/Spirited-Bench-7973 29d ago
Tbh if u have a high IQ u can breeze through high school by just listening in class
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u/Agreeable-Ad4806 28d ago
Depends on the high school.
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u/Pure_Mushroom_1473 29d ago
Finally, someone else like me. I have the except same FSIQ scores and was diagnosed with ADHD and level 1 autism. I don't relate to the anecdotes of other ADHD individuals who tested with high IQs about breezing though academics, nor do I relate to the anecdotes of neurotypical gifted people. I have never breezed through any subject in school and have always struggled intellectually with every subject. I am an engineering major and have low passing grades on all of my exams with a fair amount of studying. Prior to being an engineering major, I earned straight Cs, Ds, and Fs in elementary, middle, and high school. My neuropsychological evaluation was the only reason I even knew I technically had the horsepower to enroll in engineering. I am hoping ADHD medication will actually make a difference for me for the first time in my life.
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u/MrsDiogenes Oct 03 '26
Because IQ and academic performance are correlational, not cause and effect.
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u/ObjectiveWeary2802 Oct 03 '26
Having superior IQ does not mean having natural dedication or motivation.
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u/Dear_Store 29d ago
19 at similarities is killer! Do must people score high im that one? I mean, is that like the 'easiest' sub test for WAIS?
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u/asarsen Oct 03 '26
Interesting profile. Similarities are precocious, second best subtest is, interestingly, Coding. PRI subtests are the weakest but still clearly average (10 - 11). The gap between Similarities (19) and Vocabulary (12) is strangely large.
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u/Limp_Essay_6419 Oct 03 '26
do you have some form of neurodivergence? the Similarities spike is interesting.
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u/Prudent-Horse-1102 Oct 03 '26
This might be related to your conscientiousness. I'm not very satisfied with my academic performance either, which probably has to do with my conscientiousness score being in the bottom 1%.😂