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    Joined: Nov 2013
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    Has anyone requested the results from an IQ test you had taken as a child? I'm wondering if I should after all these years (I'm not even sure if it's possible though.) I took one in the summer before 3rd or 4th grade, and the next school year I started going to a "gifted class" once a week. My parents never shared the test results with me, and I wasn't told that the reason why I was in the gifted program was due to my scores. I've been curious for a long time about what my scores were, and think if I knew it would validate my "giftedness." (Yes, I have issues believing I'm actually gifted since I was told throughout school that it was probably a mistake, I wasn't "that" smart, or that I probably cheated.)

    Another reason I'd like to know is to help with my son. I see myself in him all the time, and at a young age I suspected he might be gifted too. However, when he was tested in school, he just scored average. He has issues with boredom in school, and he seems to release his frustrations on us when he gets home, so I've been taking him to see a child psychologist for behavioral therapy (after his initial evaluation and a few meetings he was diagnosed with ADHD and ODD.) I've spoken to his therapist about how I think he may be gifted too, and that I was in the gifted program as a child, but when she asked if I knew my results, I felt incomplete telling her that I didn't. She said that it didn't really matter, but I can't help but think I should know this information.
    Should I try to get the results from my test if I can? I'm just wondering what everyone thinks.

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    How do you think it would actually change your life or your son's life to have your formal test results? In what way would it resolve impostor syndrome? I guess those are my questions. If it would make a difference to your life and view of yourself, then it may have some value, but I would remind you that what IQs are best at doing is predicting academic achievement in school. (Although clearly we use them for other things.) Now that you are past school (I assume), the utility of the IQ test would mainly be in understanding yourself--for which a single score may not be that helpful. If you have received mixed messages regarding your giftedness throughout your life, it may be that you have a 2e of your own, in which case the more valuable resolution of that would actually be a comprehensive evaluation now, rather than an IQ score from decades ago.

    On a practical note, you may or may not be able to recover those records at this late date, depending on how long ago you graduated from high school. School districts are not required to keep cumulative and special services (including IEP and gifted records) files indefinitely. Depending on the state and the era, it is/has been usually somewhere between two and seven years post projected date of graduation. They are supposed to send you a notice that they are about to destroy your files, and give you an opportunity to come get them, or have them mailed to you, but they don't have to hunt you down, just send one notice to your last known address. (This is how I obtained my records.) And if you moved districts during your childhood, those records may or may not have followed you.

    Even if the expected destroy date has passed, it may be worthwhile to call and ask for all existing records (you may do so as soon as you exit the system), just on the off chance that they are still lying about somewhere. Expect them to need some turnaround time to find them, though.


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    I actually tried a couple of years ago. I too got interested in my childhood IQ when I found out my son was gifted. I am a researcher anyway, so I like going on treasure hunts.

    Here's what I found. My high school and middle school did not have the actual test- just a note on my file that I was eligible for the gifted program. In their case there was some turnaround time because the records were on microfiche. I was tested in sixth grade when I was still in elementary (30+ years ago). When I called the district that my elementary was in, I was told that my records should have followed me to middle/high school.

    I have since spoken to the parent of a friend of mine (who also tested gifted around the same time I did) that the district did not share the actual test or results with parents at that time, you were simply gifted or you weren't. In her case, they didn't ever tell her her daughter's IQ, only that she was off the charts.

    In my case, my elementary school was in a small district and I actually got a hold of someone who could look through old records, and he very kindly did, but he told me that there had been a fire at one point and he thought perhaps my records could have been destroyed since he could not find them.

    If you are truly curious, it's worth a try. I'm not sure what I wanted out of my results, maybe to know what I was like at the same age and see if there were any similarities. Maybe to learn a little about myself at that age, period. Maybe just because I like treasure hunts.

    That said, I'm not sure if you would get ahold of the actual test scores, maybe you would get a percentile. I finally had to settle for the fact that because I was in MGM I had to have had at least an IQ of 132 since that was the IQ you had to have to be accepted.

    Some of my friends's children tested highly gifted this year, and they were not told anything by the district except that their children had qualified for highly gifted schools in the district. They had to request the percentile/raw scores in writing if they wanted more than that (and they had to know to ask for them).

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    Well, I have a number that my mother gave me as well as other things she tells me about the results. You know, it's very hard to swallow what she tells me, because I simply do not feel 'that smart'. I know I'm a smart person, and I identify with being gifted.. I don't doubt that part. But per the score that she's told me (granted, I don't even know what test it was, but it would have been in the late 80s or right around 1990 I believe?) I feel like I should be something really special or I should be doing something extraordinary with my life.

    So... does knowing my supposed score change my impostor syndrome problems? Not at all. In fact, I think it makes it worse. That's why I don't really care to share it with people because I'm afraid they'd laugh at me.


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    Funny, I also tried to get a hold of my childhood test results. After being divorced awhile I thought maybe joining Mensa would be a good way to meet people, and I had, way back when, had a copy of some pages from my high school file that had IQ test results in it. I don't remember why I had the pages, or where they went, or what exactly the score was, except that that one time I'd stumbled across it and been surprised so I was pretty sure it would do the trick with Mensa. But those records had long since been destroyed. I couldn't even dig up a copy of my SAT scores, which would've been 10 years more recent.

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    I have a much different story. I became interested in IQ about 2 years ago, so I tried to find something in my elementary school files other than report cards that would show I took some test. It turns out that I did take a group screener (CogAT), but my scores were below the requirements.

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    For future readers of this thread, there is a related thread on this topic:
    Have the parents themselves done IQ testing?
    (Dec 2018 - Identification, Testing & Assessment)


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