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Evaluation yesterday

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FullmetalTriforce
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26 Aug 2016, 2:22 pm

I had my evaluation yesterday, and I'm feeling really down about it today. Not only did they not allow me to bring notes in (I had written what I wanted to discuss) so I forgot to mention a ton of things, but I also couldn't seem to articulate properly. My vocabulary and grammar skills died completely.

I was supposed to recreate patterns with colored blocks - three of them. I did okay, but he handed me six more and then I utterly failed.

I was asked to name words starting with "F", and jokingly said "f*ck?" and the guy laughed at wrote it down. Then, the letter "A". Again, jokingly, I whispered "assh*le", but he wrote it down too! For god's sake, I must look terrible now.
Besides the profanities, I was only able to name 2 F words and 3 A words. What happened to me? I forgot every word in existence.

THEN the assistant pulled out some pretzels and started crunching during a timed block puzzle. I think he did that on purpose - probably as part of the test. I didn't say anything, but kind of wanted to throw something at him.

Lastly, I was asked to explain what some words meant. Words like "generate" and "terminate". I really grasped to try to explain them, but came up with nothing.

I am feeling pretty awful now! Like I could have done better. Did anyone else's go this way?

(But at least they were nice, and didn't try to tell me "you can't be autistic because x or y".)



0regonGuy
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27 Aug 2016, 5:51 am

FullmetalTriforce wrote:
I had my evaluation yesterday, and I'm feeling really down about it today. Not only did they not allow me to bring notes in (I had written what I wanted to discuss) so I forgot to mention a ton of things, but I also couldn't seem to articulate properly. My vocabulary and grammar skills died completely.

I was supposed to recreate patterns with colored blocks - three of them. I did okay, but he handed me six more and then I utterly failed.

I was asked to name words starting with "F", and jokingly said "f*ck?" and the guy laughed at wrote it down. Then, the letter "A". Again, jokingly, I whispered "assh*le", but he wrote it down too! For god's sake, I must look terrible now.
Besides the profanities, I was only able to name 2 F words and 3 A words. What happened to me? I forgot every word in existence.

THEN the assistant pulled out some pretzels and started crunching during a timed block puzzle. I think he did that on purpose - probably as part of the test. I didn't say anything, but kind of wanted to throw something at him.

Lastly, I was asked to explain what some words meant. Words like "generate" and "terminate". I really grasped to try to explain them, but came up with nothing.

I am feeling pretty awful now! Like I could have done better. Did anyone else's go this way?

(But at least they were nice, and didn't try to tell me "you can't be autistic because x or y".)


I don't think you are necessarily supposed to do well. It's just an evaluation. The test is supposed to be hard. The fact that you had difficulty, could increase your chances of being diagnosed with ASD.

The only thing I'm kind of surprised at, is that you had some difficulty with the Block Design Test. That's supposed to be an easy part of the test for autistic people. When I did it, no matter how many blocks she gave me, I could put the patterns together almost instantly, with no effort. Only once did I have to start one pattern over again, because I misjudged the size/number of blocks in the pattern. The block designs could have been much more complicated, and I think I would still have been able to put them together almost instantly.

Anyway, I don't think you should worry about it. Other then the Block Design Test I too had a lot of difficulty with it. And even the Block design Test is supposed to be hard from most people, even though I didn't find it to be difficult personally.


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ASPartOfMe
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27 Aug 2016, 8:35 am

I think it was all part of the test to see what flustered you. Crunching pretzels during block pattern reconition, probably testing noise sensitivity,. A lot of it seems to be testing how you react to situations you are not prepared for. People on the spectrum tend to react poorly to social situations when they have to react quickly to situations that they are not prepared for. You prepared and expected to read from your notes and unexpectedly could not use them. They were probably also looking a your non verbal communication.


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Adamantium
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27 Aug 2016, 8:46 am

ASPartOfMe wrote:
I think it was all part of the test to see what flustered you. Crunching pretzels during block pattern reconition, probably testing noise sensitivity,. A lot of it seems to be testing how you react to situations you are not prepared for. People on the spectrum tend to react poorly to social situations when they have to react quickly to situations that they are not prepared for. You prepared and expected to read from your notes and unexpectedly could not use them. They were probably also looking a your non verbal communication.


That sounds right. I was surprised that things I thought had nothing to do with the evaluation were the main parts of the evaluation. They create opportunities to see the behaviors that are characteristic of autistic people and unusual in others.


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FullmetalTriforce
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28 Aug 2016, 2:28 pm

Well, I was nervous as hell, and that messed me up on the blocks. Thinking of it now, I know how to replicate the pattern. It was within my abilities, and yet I failed, so it's bothering me.
I also remembered what they asked me to redraw, exactly, line for line... after I had left the office.

Then they prodded me to talk about my special interests, but I couldn't produce anything coherent about them besides "Oh yeah, I love *insert SI here*" Usually, I have five dozen essays in me, ready to fire.

Why did they ask me to describe words, though? I don't understand how that part is supposed to be dealt with (and it made me feel utterly idiotic). I'm not a dictionary ;_;

Basically, I feel like I'll get my results and they won't be "right", because I flunked on things that I COULD have done well. I definitely don't have social anxiety, and I'd hate to be pinned with that. Or ADD.