block design test - your experience?

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i had diagnostic testing done yesterday to confirm my aspieness. one of the tests was one that i had not heard of before - the Block Design Test (link).

i have no idea how i scored or how the scoring works, but the tester was floored by my strange method of solving the puzzles. she had never seen someone work the blocks quite like i did it, and she wanted me to demonstrate for the psychologist. thank goodness they forgot by the end of the day as i was a little embarrassed lol.

so my method was to visualize the design on the puzzle card as a grid, and i systematically placed the blocks down in the same pattern, one at a time. most of the time, there was no need to rearrange the blocks as i made sure to put them down confidently the first time (but it was not an indicator of success - i could have gotten the puzzles wrong for all i know).

to save time, i placed the blocks in a sequence so that i could connect each new block with the last one instead of having to reorient when i got to the next line (as opposed to reading, where you have to track your eyes across and start fresh on the left with every line).

i did it like this:



what method did you use to try to solve the puzzles if you did this test before? did you do it like me or did you have your own individual way?

I took an iq/diagnostic test and did pretty well overall, but I really struggled on the block design task.

I have never done the block design test as a part of an assessment.

But having read the link about what the task is and realised I have done similar tasks in the past for fun and not as part of an assessment ... I can honestly say my method would be similar to yours in that I would be sure the place the blocks first time and always placing the next block against one that I had already placed in a systematic manner ... it might be in rows as you suggest, or up and down columns, or outside first then inside ...

But certainly, the next block always goes down next to an existing block and the pattern builds up in a logical way.

I honestly can't see that there would be any other way to approach this. Any idea what was so unusual about the way you did it? Was it the particular "along the rows and back again" method?

I'm not sure how gridding numbers makes this a puzzle. There are 16 blocks and 16 numbers in sequential order. There doesn't seem to be any challenge presented - looking at it initially I assumed it was a sudoku kind of thing. I can see how and why you put the numbers where you did - I'm sure they expected either a random placement or a sequential left to right arrangement, like our reading system. So you put them in a more creative arrangement but still sequential - a touch of thinking outside the box.

Was there any further directions? Any goal other than filling in numbers to observe your process? I'm sorry I'm asking but this just seems incredibly simplistic for an adult test.

Why did you choose to start at the right?

hehehehe... well, if I ever face this particular test I now know how to make them say 'wut?' I may start at the right and follow the outline letting the numbers spiral inward in order. I'm fairly certain many people wouldn't even be able to see the pattern.

EDIT: rereading I realized they gave you actual blocks... ... but even then how else are you supposed to 'solve' the puzzle? I used to butt heads badly with my last boss and this was one of the tihngs that would set her off. I would think and entire problem through and then work systematically towards to complete it. She insisted that you needed to physcially reaerrange things in order to figure out the best solution - that there is no way to juggle that many variables in your head. I thought she was just purposelly wasting time and payroll on doing things over and over and over.

There is no 'right' answer. It's a test to dechiper your cognitive skills. How you 'solve' it is more important than the answer. Still, I may have placed my blocks differently than you but I would have followed the exact same process.

I do it in a similar way.

I did it in a similar way, but I went left to right. I scored very high on that test.

I remember scoring high on those tests as a kid. Also, constructing the pattern in an orderly way is kind of a soothing mental activity. I'd do it the exact way you did. I have trouble explaining to an NT exactly what it is that is soothing and pleasurable about constructing patterns. I just know I spend hours doing certain puzzles over and over again as a child.

I had an WISC IQ when I was 19 for dyslexia assessment that was easy compared to that (on that test am in the top 5%)
Thats new to me IQ tests for aspergers, I was assessed using DISCO!