Problems with the AQ test.

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I was analyzing the AQ test, the most popular self diagnostic test floating around on the internet. See the AQ test here
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.12/aqtest.html

My personal pet peeve with that particular test is that requires too much self awareness of how others perceive them on social situations Many Aspies do have this awareness but I think some may still be as clueless as I was when I was younger.

An example question when a person is asked to agree or disagree with the following statement; "I enjoy social chit-chat." I know this implies "small talk" but it can be misunderstood as "Do you like to talk to others?" and MANY Aspies (including myself) LOVE to talk nonstop about their obsessions to others whether or not their conversational partner cares. I also find many other questions on the AQ test either too loaded or too stereotypical.

Take a look at this statement: When I talk, it isn't always easy for others to get a word in edgewise. In order to assess this, the person taking the test must be self aware enough to realize this.

I believe when I was younger I would have said "I love to chit-chat" and been totally unaware that others can't get a word in because I was so busy monopolizing the conversation about my interests.

There are also autistic stereotype statements such as "I am fascinated with dates" (Rainman anyone?) What if someone with asperger's couldn't care less about calendar dates and was obsessed with something like Anime or insects? They would answer it with strongly disagree even though their own obsession may be more all consuming than someone who is obsessed with numbers and dates. I couldn't care less about what happened on what date but I do have my obsessions.

I personally find The Aspie Quiz at http://www.rdos.net/eng/Aspie-quiz.php to be a lot lot better because there is a wider range of questions and I find the wording a lot less subject to misinterpretation.

Agree or disagree with me?

I do ask that you discuss this in a civil manner and not show any hostility if you do like the AQ test.

I'll just say that before I took the Aspie Quiz (which clarified what the AQ questions meant) my autism quotient kept coming up in the mid-20s.

This was because I had no self-awareness about how I socialized. I thought because I talked to people...yeah, anyway. Then I took the Aspie Quiz and it was all "You are very likely an Aspie." Then I went back to the AQ and my answers came out in the mid-high 30s and I can't even remember how I answered it before. I am often unsure what to think about this. But I agree with your criticisms (as well as others Chronos posted recently).

I agree with a lot of what you said. Like this one "When I talk, it isn't always easy for others to get a word in edgewise. " I wasn't aware of this until very recently and I'm 38. I wasn't even aware that I interrupt other people's talking all the time until last year. All because my DH told me. If you don't have a good friend or someone close to you who's not afraid of offending you, you might never realize.

I was also annoyed by some of the questions with multiple implications. Like "When I was young, I used to enjoy playing games involving pretending with other children. " To answer yes to that you need to remember what you were like as a kid, actually played games with other children, the games were pretend games, and you enjoyed those.

The other test you linked is good, but a bit harder to interpret and takes longer to do. I doubt anyone who's not seriously interested would bother. Plus it has many "do other people think you're ..." questions, so that's probably not much better either if you don't have friends or family who would tell you stuff.

YES! The "I am fascinated with dates" one bothers me too. Too specific. I am not fascinated by dates, so can not honestly answer "yes", but I am fascinated by many other things of a similar idea.

The lowest I have ever scored was 28 and the highest I have ever scored was 42 but that was because I had listened to my ex so I took it answering what I think if myself and got a 40. So depending on my mood, my score changes and the last time it was 28 like it was the first time. I scored that low the first time because I did not understand the questions and took them literal.

I also do not like those black and white answers. It just depends. "I enjoy social chit chat" the first time I took the test I interpreted that as "I enjoy talking" and talking is social chit chat right rather you are talking about your obsessions or anything you have learned or talking about things that interest you. But it doesn't mean that apparently.


Small talk, I interpreted that as talking for a few minutes so I put strongly agree. Then sometimes I hated when I couldn't talk for a long time so I put disagree other times. Talking for a few minutes, small. Get it, small talk?

For preferring to work in groups or alone, that just depends so depending on my mood, I will answer agree or disagree. Theater or a museum, that just depends but I am not very fond of plays anyway.


I find making up stories easy, uh that depends. I have done fanfiction so yeah I did find it easy to make up a story. But if I think of it as telling it from my head than writing, hard so depending on my mood, I will answer agree or disagree.


I enjoy social chit chat, I think this means enjoy talking so I put agree and sometimes I put disagree because it all depends on my mood. Let's see, if I go to a group, I do not enjoy the chit chat if the topic doesn't interest me. But if the topic is interesting, chit chat I am enjoying and that is if everyone lets me talk and not ignore me. If I am thinking of family, I put agree since they don't ignore me. But everyone else seems to ignore me so I hate the chit chat.


I could go on but I am too lazy to write more.

I think that is why the test is not a diagnostic tool. If you score above average or in the range where most aspies score, go get tested and doctors will go over the assessment with you and ask you more questions because you could be taking them literal or how you are interpreting them. Like the doctor might ask you what social chit chat do you enjoy or what kids did you play with that involved pretending and what did you guys play and what small talk you do and see you meant you enjoy talking for a few minutes or you hate it that you could only talk about your obsessions for a few minutes.

I always wanted to tick between the boxes. I didn't like the questions like "have others told you that you are rude" because it's extremely rare that anybody tells me anything at all about myself, so I felt those questions were missing the point, because I'm sure I've been rude, etc., and I think that's what the test really needs to know. I thought the questions about remembering car number plates etc. were too specific to be of much use (we're not all trainspotters). I also suspect that the AQ test is largely unsuitable for women. Considering that Baron-Cohen believes men are from Mars and women from Venus, it seems strange that he hasn't published a women's AQ test yet.

People don't usually tells others they were rude. That is something they do to kids, not adults.