# My mother had me tested... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 18, 2018, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555 "2018-09-18T21:38:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![pythonzzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9e8a1a/32.png) [@pythonzzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pythonzzz)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/1 "2018-09-18T21:38:57Z")
What standard scholastic tests have you taken? What was your score? I have taken the SATs back in '83 - my combined score was 1550/1600 (this was prior to the scoring revamp) Also had the ACT that included math, biology, and a writing test - scores were 29, 31, and 28. How did you Dopers do? ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/2 "2018-09-18T21:44:31Z")
I don’t recall if I took the SAT. On the ACT I got a 33. I’ve only gotten dumber since then. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/3 "2018-09-18T21:53:10Z")
My mother didn’t actually have me tested, but the school did an IQ test in 6th grade. Which prompted a parent-teacher conference with my mother. With my score I should have been doing things _their_ way and I was doing things _my_ way. They … just … didn’t … get … it. Don’t recall my SAT verbal but my SAT Math was 799\*. There was _one_ question about fraction + fraction / fraction + fraction with _no_ right answer. Agggh. Did quite well on GREs. In particular, did a 990 on the Advanced Math test. (Max score.) Fun fact: I was a Computer Science major but there was no CS test, so I took the Math one instead. Found _two_ Math questions on that one with no right answer. - They started rounding scores to multiples of 10 between by SATs and GREs. So if they had done that sooner … ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/4 "2018-09-18T21:54:53Z")
29 on the ACT, 1150 on the SAT. Both were in the top 10% at the time. Both our sons obliterated my score, even taking into account differences in scoring. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2018, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/5 "2018-09-18T23:24:50Z")
I don’t think the ACT existed - at least in our district - when I was in high school. I scored 1340 - 670 on both parts of the SAT. And back in those days, there were no prep classes or any of that stuff. You showed up on a Saturday morning and took the test. Did my score suggest that I’d graduate with an engineering degree? 'Cause I did! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/6 "2018-09-19T00:47:26Z")
This goes back a long way to before the SAT started rounding. I think I got 619 and 694 on the aptitudes. On three subject tests I got something like 590 on one and exactly 722 on two others. Not bad, exactly, but not outstanding. Not enough for any scholarship. ---
**Author:** ![Alpha\_Twit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alpha_twit/32/265_2.png) [@Alpha\_Twit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alpha_Twit)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/7 "2018-09-19T01:20:43Z")
I forget my actual ASVAB score but I know I was in the 93 percentile. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/8 "2018-09-19T02:05:52Z")
> [@FairyChatMom](#): > > … And back in those days, there were no prep classes or any of that stuff. You showed up on a Saturday morning and took the test. Right. We were told the time and place, and that we’d be taking some sort of test. That’s all. And I had the flu that day, so I dragged my ass to the school cafeteria, and scored: 1. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/9 "2018-09-19T02:16:17Z")
No idea what my scores were, and it hasn’t mattered one whit in my 71 years. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/10 "2018-09-19T11:30:53Z")
This reminds me when my daughter was being tested for the gifted program at her school. I think she was in 2nd grade. One of the questions they asked was “What is a heroic act?” She’d never heard the word before, so she didn’t know. Putting aside that we all think our kids are the smartest in the world, I would think testing for being gifted wouldn’t rely on what a particular child knows at a particular moment. I thought it looked at potential or aptitude or how good a brain they got! 😛 Or did I fail as a mother for not teaching her specifically about heroes when she was 7?? I have issues with standardized tests, but I have no better ideas, so there we are. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/11 "2018-09-19T14:02:15Z")
My mother insisted I was the village idiot, and kept me out of kindergarten until I was almost six. The school insisted I should be put in first grade, and gave me an IQ test. I scored 148! My mother said I must have “guessed lucky,” and raised holy hell, refusing to let me go into first grade. Of all the eidetic memories I have of my childhood, that is one of the most vivid. ---
**Author:** ![Chicken\_Fingers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/12 "2018-09-19T16:04:11Z")
I was made to take many IQ tests as a kid. They told my parents that I was being used to norm one end of the curve. All I knew was that I liked getting out of class to do fun tests. ---
**Author:** ![peedin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peedin/32/14095_2.png) [@peedin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/peedin)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/13 "2018-09-19T17:32:39Z")
I took the PSAT, the ACT, the SAT, and the GRE and cannot remember any score. They were good enough for me to get into the University of Illinois undergrad and grad programs. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/14 "2018-09-19T17:40:27Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > No idea what my scores were, and it hasn’t mattered one whit in my 71 years. Oh good. I’m not 71 yet, but other than that…ditto. I’m probably some kind of super-smart that they don’t even know how to measure yet. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/15 "2018-09-19T18:30:05Z")
I’ve taken the GRE twice, and the memory is a painful one; both times I scored 800 on the verbal section (and four- or five-something on the qualitative section). However, I’ve never done a god-damned thing with the scores, never went to grad school, and have spent the past 23 years in a job that I don’t hate but certainly don’t love. And now I’m fifty, and it may be too late to start over. Grad school is a sensitive topic for me. ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/16 "2018-09-19T19:04:33Z")
I’ve taken the CLEP exams in Biology, Management, American Government, Modern US History, and Algebra. Aced all of them with scores in the 70’s (Scored out of 80 points). Also DSST exams in Business(Scored 485/500, highest score the proctor had ever seen on _any_ DSST exam) and passed Cybersecurity, Statistics, and Organizational Behavior exams by a large margin. ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2018, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/17 "2018-09-19T21:56:06Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > My mother insisted I was the village idiot, and kept me out of kindergarten until I was almost six. The school insisted I should be put in first grade, and gave me an IQ test. I scored 148! My parents died when I was five. Before then, they’d raved constantly about how smart I was, but when my grandmother got custody I fell under her general assessment of children in general: they’re morons, try to keep them alive until 18 when they become someone else’s problem. The school system apparently contacted her several times about gifted programs but, eh, what did they know? I was in my 30s before she acknowledged that _maybe_ I wasn’t a **complete** moron. Ironically, despite her 5th-grade education, she was one of the sharpest people I knew; she just had a dim view of education. I scored a 30 or so on the ACT, iirc. As someone else mentioned, there was no prep back then - we showed up at some big classroom and took a test; I don’t think I even double-checked my answers and I was one of the first to leave. I wanted to get into University of Kentucky, which required an 18 or 19, I think, so I was pretty casual about it. ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/18 "2018-09-20T09:08:30Z")
PSAT, SAT, and GRE (I think - I went to grad school so I must have at some point). I was stunningly average as I recall. One of the few parts of my life where I landed in the center of the distribution. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/19 "2018-09-20T13:56:49Z")
I grew up in Philadelphia and graduated high school in 1980. This to provide context for which tests were popular and which part of the country I was in. I took the SATs as I was supposed to. First time I scored a 1070 the second time I scored a 1040. 😕 This was after scoring an IQ of 140… That’s okay. I went to art school and did exactly what I wanted to do with my life with a great degree of success. My parents insisted that I finished College even though I was freelancing at the same time. They informed me that one day that college degree would make the difference between getting a job and not getting a job. I turned 56 this past summer and I have never earned a single dollar because I had a bachelor’s degree. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2018, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555/20 "2018-09-20T15:25:00Z")
I took the SAT twice. The first time I spent the night before quietly studying, went to bed early, and got an 1100 (out of 1600). The second time I spend the night before drinking and partying until 400AM and got a 1400. The Navy came after me hard. After resisting their efforts all senior year, during the summer (after I had already accepted admission to college) I got bored one day and agreed to come in to the recruiting office and talk to a recruiter. I took the ASVAB and while they never actually told me my score, I distinctly remember the recruiter remarking that he’d never seen a score that high before. Maybe he was just bullshitting me to try and get me to sign up, but he sounded convincing at the time. I went to college, but I’ve always wondered about my potential Navy career. I think I would have done well in the military. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-mother-had-me-tested/821555.md?page=2)