So, today I went for my test...I HAVE IT!!! Not that I wish for a defect in my brain, but now I can tell all those people to go #$%^&* off that didnt believe me. HA!
I had to pay $500 bucks out of pocket, but I was so lucky to find a Neurophysicologist that would work out payments with me. I couldnt thank her enough, and she told me that she didnt start her Masters until she was 50 and her PhD until almost 55 (although, she didnt look a day older than 50ish), and that she is trying to pass the karma around from those that helped her.
The testing was pretty painless, except for...the MATH portion, go figure. I read on another post about the "missing" pictures, I did the same with the barn pic if your reading this. I had a hella time counting the numbers backwards to the Dr., and had to draw/calculate on the table for the portion I couldnt have paper, which, when she saw that was forgiving enough not to torment me with all the questions.
Her recommendations to my college are to have me not to have applied Math (International Business is my major), and believe it or not, I told her I didnt mind the math, I just need more time to learn it. I think I lost my mind there...
But my major only requires the Algebra class I am in (5th time I am taking it), Business Math, and Stats.
/rant just had to tell someone, even if anon people I have never met, but you all now my pain.
Oh, and I have to brag a lil...IQ without Math 115...I know its not Mensa quality, but sure did boost my self esteem a bit.
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6101 Joined: 2008-05-25
9/18/08
Dear Tammyk1,
Thanks for giving us this very informative and personal account of your test. That was me, Tammy, who didn't notice that the door on the barn was missing. I have the kind of memory that allows me to think about the things that have happened during the day, things that I didn't understand at the time. I guess it sort of compensates me for not being a fast thinker,... though it's amusing that I figure things out after everybody has left for the day, or after the other person has won the argument,... even though he/she was wrong. Anyway, when I had first looked at that barn, I knew that there was some sort of box or debris at an incovenient spot within the barnyard, and I think that subconciously, I had intended to go back to looking at that debris and the area that surrounded it, but the "eye travel pattern" of the picture carried our interest away from that "congested" area of the picture. It was carefully calculated to distract us and confuse that area of the picture. In effect, the pile of debris was a placebo for the door. Thanks for making me feel better about missing the 'barn door'.
I'm so glad that you got a nice PhD who cared about you. I have a very sad experience in the case of my test. Almost everything that I said was written down in such a way as to make it seem that my problems were not physical. The diagnosis given was that I don't have dyscalculia. Eventually, when I can get enough money together, I'll pay to be retested. If I could get a 'scan' done, I believe that it would show abnomalities in my brain function.
I'm so proud of you for your IQ of 115. That IQ is what has allowed you to do math in spite of your dyscalculia. On intelligence, a fatherly lawyer once told me, lawyers who make "A's" make good teachers; lawyers who make "B's" make good lawyers; and lawyers who make "C's" make good money! And it does seem that he's right about that.
Take care,
- justfoundout
AH HA!!! The "debris" in front of the barn was a huge pile of snow...now I remember, and as you stated I think the same way; I know the answer, I can see it, hear it, smell it, but yet, its not quite there. Ironically, I kept telling the Dr. that...I know it...its in front of my brain...I can conceptualize it...but the actual answer escapes me. Did you see the problem with the chair? I couldnt...hmmm
I am also a 3 am thinker, meaning, I will think of the answer to that question on the quiz at 3 am, or the name of the person I know I should know but dont...at 3am. I often joke about this to many people, prior to me even knowing I had an LD, at least now I know why I do this.
Speaking of "3am" brains, anyone else have a hard time shutting your brain down at night no matter how tired you are? Your head hits the pillow and all of a sudden your brain is alive with activity and you think where the hell were you 6 hours ago?
Location: That would require me to know where I was Posts: 429 Joined: 2008-06-08
Well, I'm glad it worked out that you got the diagnosis you need to get the accomodations for your degree. I think I might have missed the barn door too or it took me a long time to figure it out. There was also a cow one which I couldn't get.
And Tammy, my brain tends to be active when I'm trying to fall asleep too. I have cds of the ocean and waterfalls I play to distract it. It gives it something repetitive and relaxing to focus on. It seems to help. You may want to try that. Really large music stores will have an "Environmental" sounds section. Usually near or part of the "New Age" section
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6101 Joined: 2008-05-25
9/18/08
This Thread is such fun for me. I'm like a fish in water here.
St. John's Wort, 2 capsules about 1/2 hour before bedtime (or even in the middle of the night, to go back to sleep) makes many of the ideas/worries drop temporarily 'out of sight'. I love this herb because it doesn't prevent you from waking up when the alarm goes off. There's no 'jet lag' as with a sleeping pill. And the 'sleep time' that you get is 'quality'. Only there's a study that says that St. John's Wort improves the liver function, which improves detoxification of toxins, which makes birth control pills less effective. I. E., careful with too much improvement to your health if you are on the pill! - justfoundout
Edited by justfoundout on September 19 2008 05:12 AM
Location: Island of Misfit Toys Posts: 620 Joined: 2007-10-25
Funny that this should be brought up. Many times, last night included, I wake in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. But when I first awoke I had the answer to a problem I had at work. And yes, it was a problem that the LDs caused.
Most of the time I just lie in bed thinking about and planning what I am going to do to my car or Jeep. I get my best ideas this way.
"I used to be disgusted, now I try to be amused..."
Elvis Costello
Hmm wonder if the way our brains are wired has something to do with the brain activity at night? I also wake up in the middle of the night and cant get back to sleep, so frustrating!
St. Johns is good, I do use melatonin from time to time. I actually used to give St. Johns to a very hyperactive dog I was fostering, worked fairly well for him.
Location: New Zealand Posts: 25 Joined: 2008-09-14
I will try the St John's wort also! There is nothing worse for feeling 'incompetent' during the day at work than being off-form and overtired. This is a really wholistic site - we cover all the bases here!
phoenix wrote:
actually, I wouldn't be surprised if some of the best, most creative thinking done by 'people like us' isnt that annoying middle of the night stuff...
I am quite poetic (short verse), and have a common practice of leaving pen and pad next to the bed along with a small "book light" (so I dont blind myself or wake the other half), for those late night epiphanies. I have come up with some interesting stuff. I also like to jot down particularly vivid dreams in the morning, its amazing what your mind comes up with.
justfoundout wrote:
9/18/08
Dear Tammyk1,
Thanks for giving us this very informative and personal account of your test. That was me, Tammy, who didn't notice that the door on the barn was missing.
...Crap. I just took a test like that last week. I didn't notice that either XD
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6101 Joined: 2008-05-25
9/25/08
Dear Twistedxkiss,
We get a lot of practice at "hindsight" here on the forum. Another member, I think it was Lisa_, mentioned either a cow or a chair. I'm not sure which one it was, but after I'd 'slept on it', I'm pretty sure that one or the other of them only had three legs. So if anyone takes this test again, please get back to the rest of us on it. And yes, Tammy was probably right. It was probably a pile of snow, and not, as I had said 'debris', that was obscuring a portion of the area where the 'barn door' should have been.
I've been 'formulating' another idea about the "you're missing the big picture" explanation that we've been getting. Here's what I'm thinking -- I know that, when I looked at that picture, I immediately noticed that something was "amiss" (askew, unsettling) and that I had intended to 'come back to it' before giving an answer. So I'm beginning to think that perhaps (just perhaps) we dyscalculics DO see the "big picture" and that we see it right away, but for some reason (perhaps because we try to 'reserve judgement' until all the facts have been tallied) we get engrossed (different from the simplistic word "distracted") in other aspects of what we are observing, and (sort of) forget to go back to our original intention (i.e. which was, analyzing that original disquieting anomaly that we first saw).
On another Thread, a new member, Charlie, had been talking about how 'good' we are at analyzing situations. And I do believe that at times we ARE very good at analyzing situations AND in seeing the 'big picture', so since these 'barn door' pictures are supposed to be testing that ability, this is the reason that I've put these ideas of mine here on the forum. I don't have a 'final' opinion yet, but if you read this and would like to comment, I'll be listening. - justfoundout
Edited by justfoundout on September 25 2008 02:01 PM
justfoundout wrote:
9/25/08
Dear Twistedxkiss,
We get a lot of practice at "hindsight" here on the forum. Another member, I think it was Lisa_, mentioned either a cow or a chair. I'm not sure which one it was, but after I'd 'slept on it', I'm pretty sure that one or the other of them only had three legs. So if anyone takes this test again, please get back to the rest of us on it. And yes, Tammy was probably right. It was probably a pile of snow, and not, as I had said 'debris', that was obscuring a portion of the area where the 'barn door' should have been.
I've been 'formulating' another idea about the "you're missing the big picture" explanation that we've been getting. Here's what I'm thinking -- I know that, when I looked at that picture, I immediately noticed that something was "amiss" (askew, unsettling) and that I had intended to 'come back to it' before giving an answer. So I'm beginning to think that perhaps (just perhaps) we dyscalculics DO see the "big picture" and that we see it right away, but for some reason (perhaps because we try to 'reserve judgement' until all the facts have been tallied) we get engrossed (different from the simplistic word "distracted" in other aspects of what we are observing, and (sort of) forget to go back to our original intention (i.e. which was, analyzing that original disquieting anomaly that we first saw).
On another Thread, a new member, Charlie, had been talking about how 'good' we are at analyzing situations. And I do believe that at times we ARE very good at analyzing situations AND in seeing the 'big picture', so since these 'barn door' pictures are supposed to be testing that ability, this is the reason that I've put these ideas of mine here on the forum. I don't have a 'final' opinion yet, but if you read this and would like to comment, I'll be listening. - justfoundout
The chair was missing a leg, and one of the cows feet wasnt split... Like the other ones had clefts in them, I don't know the terminology.
I have a photographic memory for pictures, but for words I can picture them but they are too blurry to read. For numbers, or even letters in equations, I've got nothing.
I definitely think you may be on to something. I am AWESOME at planning events and writing papers because I overanalyze the absolute CRAP out of EVERYTHING, and I am able to think of every little thing. But in my spanish class for example, it's a hindrance because I CANT understand every little thing because some parts of it are beyond my level, and as a result I can't understand anything, even the simplified portion of the "big picture" we are learning in class. For example, the first thing we learn is to say my name to someone I would say, "me llamo Jill." But we don't learn until later that is because we are conjugating the verb llamarse and the me comes from I don't even know so this is a poor example. BUT, for things slightly more complicated than that, I won't remember how to do the simple thing because I can't understand the complete theory behind it, because my brain NEEDS the whole picture to see the parts.
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6101 Joined: 2008-05-25
9/25/08
Dear Twistedxkiss,
I can't tell you what a joy it was to me to read your (above) posting. Also, I laughed out loud at the sentence about your 'overanalysis' of everything. I do this too. No matter what it is that I'm trying to figure out,... no matter how mundane and uninteresting it is to other people,... my brain works on it as if it were one of those 'video moments' that the doctor has on "House",... you know, where a jolt of electricity runs inside someone's brain, down every corridor and jumping across the synapses? And then, when I get it figured out, I want to tell somebody, but nobody else is interested. And this is another reason why I so much appreciated you posting back to me.
On learning Spanish (or any other language),... I'm not making this up,... I am EXACTLY like you. I HAVE to be given the translation of what they want me to learn. Some linguists have the very misguided belief that we should hear the target language several times, along with gestures, and that we should just "come out with" the meaning. They believe that if we learn it in this way, then what we have learned will be somehow superior to what we learn from a translation. Nope, not me. For me it's like this,... just because you give me the target language along with a translation, do you think that I'm so dumb that I'm going to take it literally, word for word. Duh! It's not as though I don't know about root words, false cognates, and idiomatic expressions. When the teacher (sometimes on a video) starts repeating something without a translation, it takes all my frontal lobe self-control not to say, "Give me the translation!" After I get the translation, I'm happy. Before I can get the translation, I feel like the teacher is 'holding out on me'. Usually, I listen to many hours of CD's and maybe even read through a small book on the grammar of the language that I want to learn before I take the college class. This way, I'll enjoy the class even if the teacher has that annoying way of teaching that only the "abstract reasoners" can understand.
The "me" of Me llamo... is a reflexive pronoun, so that it means, "I call myself...". -justfoundout
P.S. So one of the cow's hoofs wasn't split like the other three? Thanks, Tammy.
Edited by justfoundout on September 25 2008 11:35 PM
Location: That would require me to know where I was Posts: 429 Joined: 2008-06-08
Ha, I just said I'm not familiar with cows so I wouldn't know!
I just realized that if we're going to talk about specific things about the IQ tests, maybe there should be some sort of spoiler warning in the threads. I'm thinking if there are people who haven't taken the test here, reading about it might skew their results? Should we e-mail the admins to see how they want that type of conversation handled?
Location: Texas USA Posts: 6101 Joined: 2008-05-25
926/08
That's true, Lisa_. Handle it however seems best to you. On the one hand, PM's won't work,... too specific. And on the other hand, and there's no way to "prevent" those who haven't taken the test from joining a "private focus group" even if one were set up. Or, I guess we could just stop talking about it. (I ran out of 'hands' for that last option.) - justfoundout
Location: That would require me to know where I was Posts: 429 Joined: 2008-06-08
I e-mailed the Contact link. I think it's up to the admin(s) (Ert or ffeoG?) to decide how they'd like the issue handled. My 2 cents is that it's ok to talk about, but there should be say, one thread or a forum section on it with a warning that it contains talk about specific IQ test questions/exercises.
This way the folks who are going to take the test, but haven't taken it yet can readily avoid it. My concern is that someone's not going to realize a thread is dealing with the specifics (there's this one & another one, which I referred to in my e-mail) and read about the specifics. And that may prevent them from getting a correct diagnosis. For example, if you or I read this thread BEFORE we took the WAIS for adults test, we might not have missed the things we did with the cow and the barn. That would in turn affect our score/results.
Given that the forums get new members daily, I think this is an issue which is going to come up again. I don't want to see someone misdiagnosed as NOT having dyscalculia because they read about the specifics here and were able to answer questions/perform exercises correctly that they would have missed otherwise. And as a community member, I do feel a responsibility to do my part to prevent that from happening.
Now, if someone wants to "cheat" on an IQ test, by looking at a thread where they've been warned there's specific discussion of IQ test questions/exercises, that's a whole other issue. We can't stop them from doing that. Nor do I consider it an ethical responsibility as a community member to stop them from doing so. Nor do I think the admins should have a responsibility to do so. But as a community, I do think we have a responsibility to do what we can to prevent people from inadvertently stumbling into discussion about specifics which may skew their results.
My suggestion would be to move the threads talking about specifics into their own Forum section and put a warning about how the threads contain specifics (maybe some caps/red/bold to make the warning stand out). If it's possible to put it right under Getting Diagnosed, that would be an intuitive place to look for it. And then direct all forum members to post about specifics there and only there.
Edited by Lostinspatial on September 26 2008 04:59 PM
in other aspects of what we are observing, and (sort of) forget to go back to our original intention (i.e. which was, analyzing that original disquieting anomaly that we first saw). 
-justfoundout