Tickle your Brain

Though I have no recollection of actually taking an IQ test when I was little, I must have becauce starting in first grade I was admitted into the "gifted program" at school. All of the kids with an IQ score over 130 were bussed to a different facility a couple hours one day a week to expand our minds without the restrictions of a conventional classroom. There we were given puzzles, mind benders, riddles, and problems to solve in a fun and creative manner. Our reaction times were timed. We were given random materials, odds and ends really, and then were told to figure out how to make them work for us in accomplishing specific goals.

I think I would have really enjoyed it that first year except that it meant leaving my sweet, gentle and loving first grade teacher Mrs. McGrath (who was also our neighbor and family friend and had taught all 5 of my older siblings) for Miss Tahata. Miss Tahata was much younger than Mrs. McGrath and she looked it. She wore tight and bright crazy clothes, had huge hairspray caked red hair, and sported ultra long fake fingernails painted bright pink to match her lip stick. It was the 80's after all. I, not being versed in the fashion and styles of the day, found her (and her style) to be very frightening. She scared me so much that I refused to go to gifted for two years, even though it could have been a fun diversion from spelling lists and reading packets that were far below my abilities. It wasn't until fourth grade that I began to attend again because there had been a change of teachers. Mr. Evans was a nice, creative and very fun guy. He was what a gifted teacher was supposed to be in my mind.

School and studies generally came easily for me growing up. Yes concepts were generally easy for me to grasp, but I still had to memorize and learn fractions like everyone else. I genuinely enjoyed school and learning.

The other day as I was browsing the web, I saw an add by Tickle for an IQ test; I figured didn't really have anything better to do so I took it. I've still got it going on! Oh yeah. My IQ according to Tickle is 133 (not a genius, but still concidered "gifted" if I'm not mistaken). This is what it had to say about my strengths:

You are gifted with the natural fluency of a writer and the visual and spatial strengths of an artist. Those skills contribute to your creative and expressive mind.

Insightful linguists can take complex concepts and articulate them to just about anyone. You have a gift with words and insight into processes and the way people think. These talents enable you to explain things clearly to people.

You have an uncanny ability to work your way out of sticky situations using your talent with words. Crossword puzzles, debates — you're particularly well equipped to come out on top since you can read people well.

As for the crossword puzzles and debates, they couldn't be more wrong. I've always hated crossword puzzles (I'm too impatient) and I was always too emotional to really set a good argument out in debate. I'm sure if I would have had some training on how to separate myself from the issues I could have done well (I sure was opinionated enough growing up, and I never had a problem voicing those opinions).

I scored in the 90th percentile for both the math and logic sections, and I scored in the 100th percentile for the linguistic and visual-spacial sections.

Jobs it recommended I look into are:

• Publicist
• Translator
• Graphic designer
• Teacher
• Broadcaster
• Public speaker
• Attorney
• Politician

It's an interesting array. I don't know if I would have been able to compile that list from what I know of myself and my interests. I originally wanted to go into photography but wasn't admitted into BYU's program. Graphic designer would have been AWESOME. I concidered teacher and translator (I took 4-5 liguistics classes to see if I wanted to do something with that...3 of them were in Spanish--my minor). But broadcaster? And politician? I used to tell people I was going to be the first woman President. There are elections coming up...I better get on that! (Can't let Hillary beat me to it!)