Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Is this IQ really accurate?

Hello, I am new on this board. I just received my results from a psychologist after psychoeducational testing. My full scale IQ score was only 127, significantly lower than I expected. However, my verbal IQ was 136 (which seemed about right). I was diagnosed with a visual memory learning disability. My question is, how accurate is my IQ score. I hit at least 5 test ceilings, 4 of which fell into the verbal category. However, one of my verbal subscores was low, at around the 74%ile thus causing my overall verbal IQ to drop significantly. My perceptual IQ was 121 and my quantitative IQ was 124. Unfortunately, my lowest subscores were very sporadic and were not all clustered into one subsection so no one of my subscores is substantially higher than the others.

I feel like my IQ is not truly reflective of my abilities. My standardized test scores are always in the 99%ile, yet my full scale IQ does not even fall into the gifted range despite hitting the ceiling on 5 tests. This is frustrating to me and I'm wondering what other people's experiences are regarding twice-exceptional children.

Hi,and welcome. I am not qualified to say whether this score is accurate or not, but wanted to say that a FSIQ 127 with a VIQ of 136 is actually a relatively high score that many people would love to have. This board just gives a very skewed vision of what is "normal." I hope someone else can give you some more useful feedback and if you decide to retest, I hope it turns out to be an accurate picture.

Hi,
I am a young adult female who hangs out on this board as a reader and posts just occasionally. I am also not gifted in the traditional sense as I have a very severe LD caused by pre/perinatal brain damage (associated with my premature birth). I have super extreme WAIS III subtest scatter (far greater than you have with a Full Scale IQ of around 105). I find that my IQ subtest scatter pretty much reflects my strengths and weaknesses and also explains why I always enjoyed and exceled in some school subjects and had difficulties and disliked others.

The way giftedness is conceptualized is as total ease of learning and thinking, as opposed to some nebulous innate intelligence factor. They don't want anyone in gifted classes who has to work too hard to keep up and compensate. That's why they require a very high Full Scale IQ score, ie. kids that don't have any true cognitive deficits.

Just curious, how old are you? Did you take the WISC or the WAIS?

To give you an idea of my WAIS III IQ scores:

Verbal Comprehension Index--145
Working Memory Index--109
Perceptual Organization Index--71 (but Matrix Reasoning was much higher than the other 2 subtests, which were abysmal)
Processing Speed--79

At the end of 11th grade on the SAT without extra time, I got Verbal 680, Math 670.

Just wanted to update that my GAI is also a 136 so I suppose that would identify me as gifted, right?

So I would assume that your full-scale IQ is certainly not indicative of your actual intellectual abilities. I go to a private school so I'm not too familiar with specific gifted program criteria, but my question for you is if you qualify for gifted programs. Does admission depend only on fullscale IQ score?

My problem with the verbal test was that I had trouble on the word comparisons, if you omitted that score, I could have had a verbal IQ of 160 or something ridiculous like that. I wish my scatter was a bit more consistent to one area so I could at least identify as very gifted in one area and not in another. Instead, the visual/memory scores are a component of each of the subscores which makes it seem like I'm not in need of many gifted accomodations at all when in reality, I hit the ceiling on at least 5 tests (scores of 19). This whole twice-exceptional thing is really confusing for me and I imagine really confusing for administrators who run gifted programs as well.

May I say that that SAT score is pretty impressive without extra time considering your huge discrepencies. My SAT score without extra time was 700 CR and 720 M (which is a little odd considering that my verbal IQ score was pretty high). My psychologist suggested 50% extra time now for every test and I am wondering if that will have any real impact for the next time I take the SAT.

Wow! You sound like me! On my verbal IQ, I was tested to be at around 120 or 130, maybe even 140, but my visual processing/spacial orientation/non-verbal IQ was at a pitiful 80. It rounded my IQ to 97, which is in the average range, and I thought that was innacurate. My achievement scores, however, were in the 99th percentile in reading (linguistic genius-chaaaaaa!), with my reading level being 3 grades higher, and my writing 5. And by the way, you seem pretty smart! Even though I cried over my IQ scores, I questioned its validity like you just did! ^^ I, too, am a twice-exceptional person (I have anxiety and probably a visual processing disorder or something else that interferes with the spacial organization, "what shape goes on number five billion?" kind of thing.) ,and you are a highly gifted person, in my opinion. (I was diagnosed with Asperger's, thanks to my ice-queen fifth grade teacher and my habit of reading instead of talking to others and playing with people.) I have had that same experience, only my teachers started talking to me like I was stupid, and the kids I knew said, "Don't say that! She can't help it if she's mentally challenged!" Hang in there! ^^