[BBB2]

When I was 17 I was assessed for dyslexia. The test results showed that it was very likely that I am dyslexic. This didn't bother me much because the symptoms I have are so mild that I barely notice them. Sometimes I doubt the diagnosis and wonder if dyscalculia might be a better fit.
Anyway, what upset me more and worries me is that on one of the sub-test I scored very poorly which, to quote, "is indicative of a low fluid intelligence".
Fluid intelligence relates to our ability to problem solve. It is different from simply knowing lots of things, which is crystallized intelligence.
This is upsetting to me because compared to my three siblings I have achieved the least. And my Dad has always valued intelligence.
Please, don't tell me that this isn't important. How would you like to be told you have low intelligence, even if it is only true under exam-like conditions? Even if you know you're aren't stupid, there will be times when something like this makes you doubt yourself because it had been typed out in black and white.
Why can't I at least be as smart as my siblings?

[Pierro]

Hello BBB2, I dont think that you are one bit unintelligent. Stop measuring yourself against others. I know that it is so difficult to do especially when the people that you are measuring against is your siblings. There are different ways that intelligence is not measured. Some people with high IQ have no common sence. I am sure you know them. I went to school with this guy who was as bright as a button and went on to become a doctor. Well done him I say, but he had no communicational skills whatsoever. After all his years in medical school he left and he now works in a lab, which suits his personality better. There is always someone that will be more intelligent, more beautiful etc... but being intelligent does not mean that they are in any way better than you. Work on your self asteem, you feel inferior, but that may have nothing to do with intelligence.
Take care of yourself.

[Altered Moment]

I think problem solving is something you can learn. Sure some people are born with a much better natural ability for it, but it can be learned. Math is the best way to do it. Start where you are and do lots and lots of problems and keep advancing up the scale of mathematics doing lots and lots of problems. You may have to do this on your own.

My best friend and I both took advanced chem in high school. I naturally had much better fluid intelligence than him. He had to work twice as hard as me but he was bull headed determined. He is a successful electrical computer engineer today.

[BBB2]

Thank you both.
I will try your suggestion, Zinco.

[Altered Moment]

Originally Posted by BBB2

Thank you both.
I will try your suggestion, Zinco.

Everyone always says "Why do I need to learn algebra, I will never use it." That may be true depending on what field you are talking about. To be a real good plumber you need to know a basic level of geometry, algebra, and trigonometry. Same with and electrician or heating and air.

That is not the point. The main purpose is training your brain in problem solving. The more you do it the more you will naturally identify problems and work out solutions in all areas of life. Math is the best tool. Even if you start at arithmetic, it doesn't matter.

[Anxious Minds]

I'm a teacher of Math and Physics and I agree 100% with zinco.

The beautiful thing about intelligence is that it is not fixed. A test cannot define your intelligence unless you believe it and decide you can't become more intelligent through practice and study. One of the best things you could do for yourself is to start doing puzzles like soduku, even if you're bad at them. They have proven effects on increasing your ability to solve problems.

[ManOfConstantSorrow]

And then of course there is emotional intelligence, more important perhaps than IQ: Emotional Intelligence | What It Is and Why It Matters

[Altered Moment]

There are brain training web sites as well. I think that one they advertise you have to pay for though. Therapy for stroke victims who actually have totally dead portions of brain tissue has amazing results. They have proven that adjacent areas of the brain will remap and you regain lost function. I watched in my mother. Neuroplasticity.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Altered Moment]

Luminosity is the website I was trying to think of. It is pay. I just got an email from them and this is what it said. What they say is true and not just a sales pitch.

Brain Games & Brain Training - Lumosity

Scientists have historically believed that once a person reaches adulthood, their cognitive abilities are immutable. But beginning in the early twentieth century, that theory has been contested by evidence suggesting that the brain’s abilities are in fact malleable and plastic. According to this principle of neuroplasticity, the brain is constantly changing in response to various experiences. New behaviors, new learnings, and even environmental changes or physical injuries may all stimulate the brain to create new neural pathways or reorganize existing ones, fundamentally altering how information is processed.
Mapping changes in taxi drivers’ brains
One of the most dramatic examples of neuroplasticity at work comes from a 2000 brain scan study on London taxi drivers (Maguire et al., 2000). In order to earn a license, London taxi drivers typically spend about two years learning to navigate the city’s serpentine streets. What mark, the study’s researchers wondered, did this long, rigorous period of training leave on taxi drivers’ brains?

Under the scrutiny of fMRI scans, 16 male taxi drivers were revealed to have larger hippocampuses than a control group of 50 healthy males. And the longer the time spent as a taxi driver, the larger the hippocampus tended to be. As a brain area involved in memory and navigation, the hippocampus seemed to have changed in response to the taxi drivers’ experiences.

Most instances of neuroplasticity-based changes in the brain are much more subtle. But in recent decades, it’s cases like that of the London taxi drivers that have inspired members of the scientific community to pursue the next logical step in research: rather than passively waiting to see how the brain might respond to circumstances, is it possible to direct that capacity for change, targeting improvements in specific abilities?
The science of cognitive training
The science of cognitive training seeks to answer this question. In 2013 alone, 30 cognitive training studies were registered on the government database ClinicalTrials.gov. Lumosity scientists, with the help of outside collaborators, contribute to this research effort: so far, 7 peer reviewed studies have been published using Lumosity as a cognitive training tool for diverse populations, including healthy adults, cancer survivors, elderly people, and children with a genetic disorder.

[BBB2]

Thanks for the link, Zinco.

[BBB2]

Originally Posted by ManOfConstantSorrow

And then of course there is emotional intelligence, more important perhaps than IQ: Emotional Intelligence | What It Is and Why It Matters

Thank you. I will check it out.