Hmm. First, both my greatest strength and weakness is that my performance is directly proportional to my confidence. As I get better at a subject, I get much better, much faster. However, this also means curveballs like an insanely difficult exam that I don't do well on can tank my grades for the rest of the semester.
I'm an extremely good writer when I have a concept to work from, but I have difficulty coming up with original concepts. I do great, as a result, at academic or argumentative papers, but poor at creative writing. On the writing front, I am also very, very, very good at winging it. I can knock out an A grade paper in 20 minutes. I wrote one once on the preferential treatment of religion in this country that my English teacher called one of the best she had ever read. It took me an hour to research and write, and finished five minutes before it was due. On the flip side of this, if it's a subject that doesn't interest me, I can stare at the screen for hours typing nothing.
I do have a very high IQ. I was tested at age ten and scored 163. Haven't been tested since, but I do know a lot more in relation to my peers than I did when I was ten.
I am extremely good at self-education. Give me a few books in a subject I want to learn about, and I can master it in a few weeks. I've since forgotten, but I achieved competence in conversational Irish in two weeks when I was 18. Of course, this also means that non-interactive classes teach me virtually nothing. So many college classes just feature the teacher droning on and on, and I end up barely conscious. Some things, like Biology, it's fine. I can absorb subjects I'm interested or confident in via virtual osmosis. However, if it's one that I'm not interested in, and it doesn't feature interaction such as discussion, then I'm totally out of it. Also, my interests change at breakneck pace.
I test poorly. My understanding of a subject is generally worth about ten - fifteen points above my test scores. I don't work well in the confines of an exam, both for the anxiety and for the artificial constraints tests put on you. (No calculators, show your work, etc.) And as far as the anxiety goes... I manage mine, along with my ADHD, with nicotine. Not healthy, but that's not the point. When I'm locked in a room for an hour or two testing, with no chance to go outside or even to the restroom to smoke (E-cigs, baby), then my anxiety begins to ruin my exam performance.
My absolute biggest weaknesses are that when I read, I tend to scan, which means I can absorb the gist of what is said pretty easily, but I miss out on details. Same thing when I do math, I'm prone to lose a sign here or there. Second, if I don't immediately apply something I've learned, I lose it with great rapidity.
Finally, when I do do well on something early in the semester, I tend to get arrogant, which negatively affects my next exam, which tanks my confidence, which ruins my grade.
As far as subjects, traditionally, my strongest subjects are politics, philosophy, language, history, English, and biology. My poorest is art (shaky hands. Always ruined my artwork), followed by any math and mathematical sciences (I can understand concepts easily, but remembering the formulas is a &!%@#.)
Socially, I tend to get by better than a lot of Aspies. I can hold small talk without much effort, but I have difficulty keeping a conversation going. I do best in a heated conversation about a specific subject, and as a result, I have a bad habit of looking for arguments. I've never understood why, but in any scenario where I deal with people on a regular basis (living situations, work, etc.) people all seem to consider me a friend, albeit a background kind of one. My theory here is that I tend to never judge, and I always look for the value in what people are saying. I don't have much empathy, so I've learned to compensate by physically mimicking people, and if I criticize, I do it very low key, trying to lead them to see the flaws in their ideas rather than pointing it out. So people like me because they seem to project themselves onto me. I've had junkies and preachers both think I was on their good buddy, when I was just chatting with them over a cigarette. So I pick up friends wherever I go, but I have no idea why any particular individual likes me. So I would say that I, for whatever reason, understand social interaction more than your average aspie. The problem for me, however, is that to me, it means far, far less to me than for other people. For me, it's a light game to kill time, and for others, they build their lives around social interaction. This leads to extremely uncomfortable scenarios. I've had a woman fall head over heels in love with me and I never picked up on it. I thought we were just coffee buddies.
23 Apr 2013, 9:14 am
