Do Medical Students Typically have a Higher Verbal IQ Compared to Performance?

[RowaH]

IQ is subdivided into two main components on the Wechsler and Stanford-Binet intelligence tests (two widely accepted IQ tests). The first is verbal, and the second is performance. In a nutshell, verbal = thinking with words, performance = with objects/pictures. Those with high verbal tend to do better in humanities, while those with performance tend toward math-based subjects.

I've noticed from lurking these forums for a year that...

1) A large number of pre-meds dislike mathematics
2) Pre-meds have an eqsuisite vocabulary
3) Tend to be biology/life-sciences centered (having a higher verbal IQ would definitely help here)

Personally, I have an extremely high verbal IQ while my performance is average.

Thoughts? Comments?

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[Lukkie]

my best score was VR on the MCAT if that means anything??

 

[RowaH]

Oh hell yes, that means everything.

 

[shnuffles]

IQ is subdivided into two main components on the Wechsler and Stanford-Binet intelligence tests, two widely accepted IQ tests. The first is verbal, and the second is performance. In a nutshell, verball = thinking w/words, performance = with objects/pictures. Those with high verbal tend to do better in humanities, while those with performance tend toward math-based subjects.

I've noticed from lurking these forums for a year that...

1) A large number of pre-meds dislike mathematics
2) Pre-meds have an eqsuisite vocabulary
3) Tend to be biology/life-sciences centered (having a higher verbal IQ would definitely help here)

Personally, I have an extremely high verbal IQ while my performance is average.

Thoughts? Comments?

Interesting. I have no idea what my IQ is, but from what you've described I would definitely think that my verbal IQ is considerably higher than my performance IQ.

 

[Lukkie]

werd son

 

[besmart]

IQ is subdivided into two main components on the Wechsler and Stanford-Binet intelligence tests, two widely accepted IQ tests. The first is verbal, and the second is performance. In a nutshell, verball = thinking w/words, performance = with objects/pictures. Those with high verbal tend to do better in humanities, while those with performance tend toward math-based subjects.

I've noticed from lurking these forums for a year that...

1) A large number of pre-meds dislike mathematics
2) Pre-meds have an eqsuisite vocabulary
3) Tend to be biology/life-sciences centered (having a higher verbal IQ would definitely help here)

Personally, I have an extremely high verbal IQ while my performance is average.

Thoughts? Comments?

My strengths:

- I'm able to understand complex medical/science topics with ease.
- I'm able to explain complex medical/science topics with ease (three years worth of tutoring).
- I'm good at being able to tell what is important and what isn't.

My weaknesses:

- I struggle talking in complicated terms with medical/science topics with other medical professionals
- There are times when I use the wrong noun and nobody tells me.

 

[RowaH]

I may be on to something...

 

[RowaH]

My strengths:

- I'm able to understand complex medical/science topics with ease.
- I'm able to explain complex medical/science topics with ease (three years worth of tutoring).
- I'm good at being able to tell what is important and what isn't.

My weaknesses:

- I struggle talking in complicated terms with medical/science topics with other medical professionals
- There are times when I use the wrong noun and nobody tells me.

Obvious performance is obvious. What was your undergrad major?

 

[DrYoda]

I'm a math oriented person, so I would imagine my performance one would be higher.Although this is just me musing, i've never taking an official IQ test. MCAT went Bio>Physics>Verbal.

 

[besmart]

Obvious performance is obvious. What was your undergrad major?

Just biology. Most of my medical/science knowledge I have taught myself. When I'm at work I can have a deep and complicated conversation with just about any disease, but I struggle with trying to come up with the right word to say...sort of stuttering speech.

For instance, I can talk in great length about extracting an embryo, but there will be times when I'm talking about extracting the embryo but I can't think of the word embryo to say it. Make sense?

 

[RowaH]

Just biology. Most of my medical/science knowledge I have taught myself. When I'm at work I can have a deep and complicated conversation with just about any disease, but I struggle with trying to come up with the right word to say...sort of stuttering speech.

I'm guessing you're having issues with semantic memory. Might wanna talk to a family doc or neuro about that if it really troubles you.

 

[besmart]

I'm guessing you're having issues with semantic memory. Might wanna talk to a family doc or neuro about that if it really troubles you.[/quote]

Modality specific impairments is what I most likely have.

I've had this happen to me in an interview before. I know it caused me the chance at two jobs. I can remember two specific examples. I was interviewing for a clinical research coordinator position. I was asked to read a patient history and try to respond back with a review of the patients history with no more than four sentences. I was able to explain the whole patient history in two sentences. After I gave the history overview, I even said I know the most common differential for this cancer. I told the interviewer I know what the cancer name is but I couldn't think of the name. She gave me this weird look. So we moved onto the next question. During the middle of the next answer, the name of the cancer came to me so I said what the cancer name was. The interviewer said I was correct with the name of the cancer. But she said she wasn't interested in that information. So I know that I got judged. Oh well. I got a rejection email the next day. Th embryo example above that I gave was for a research tech position that I was interviewing for. I explained exactly how to extract an embryo but I could not come up with the word embryo. I had to keep using that "thing." Eventually the interviewer stopped me said the word I was looking for is embryo. I said, "yes, that is exactly the word I was trying to say." Needless to say, I got rejected from that job as well. I was told I was not the right fit.

 

[AUD]

I'm exactly the opposite. I'm great at math based subjects; I love physics, mathematics, chemistry, etc. However, I despise the humanities, like history and whatnot. My vocabulary isn't anywhere near as powerful as some of the people on here either.
I'm about to take the MCAT next week, and my practice scores have been consistently higher in PS, BS than in VR. I guess those scores accurately represent how I feel about the subjects.

 

[RowaH]

Damnit my experimental hypothesis is being disproven :'(

 

[ZeusonRoids]

I am pretty dumb in all areas.

 

[Myuu]

Oh hell yes, that means everything.

And yet my VR score was the lowest. Don't remember what the breakdown on my IQ was, but that was when I was 11, so go fig.

 

[DrSno]

I took the Wechsler a few years ago and got a 138 on the Verbal IQ and a 136 on the Performance IQ.

 

[RowaH]

I took the Wechsler a few years ago and got a 138 on the Verbal IQ and a 136 on the Performance IQ.

Nice. If someone of your aptitude went to the schools I attended, you'd be quickly singled out and subsequently tortured like I was. Such is life.

Oh and by the way, Wechsler's gives percentile scores, not IQ scores. I got:

verbal reasoning: 95
working memory: 96
perceptual reasoning: 70
processing speed: 69

 

[DrSno]

Oh and by the way, Wechsler's gives percentile scores, not IQ scores. I got:

verbal reasoning: 95
working memory: 96
perceptual reasoning: 70
processing speed: 69

No, I have my score report in front of me and it reads: "DrSno obtained a Full Scale IQ of 142 (99th percentile), which places him in the Very Superior range of intellectual functioning. He achieved a Verbal IQ (VIQ) of 138 (99th percentile) and a Performance IQ (PIQ) of 136 (99th percentile). The difference between VIQ and PIQ (2 raw score points) is not significant."

 

[RowaH]

No, I have my score report in front of me and it reads: "DrSno obtained a Full Scale IQ of 142 (99th percentile), which places him in the Very Superior range of intellectual functioning. He achieved a Verbal IQ (VIQ) of 138 (99th percentile) and a Performance IQ (PIQ) of 136 (99th percentile). The difference between VIQ and PIQ (2 raw score points) is not significant."

Meh, w/e, but that's still awesome man. So is Mensa treating you ok? 😀

 

[RowaH]

Damnit, people are voting performance just to throw me results off! lol

 

[EkramVahsedi86]

143 verbal
126 performance

From the doctors I know, yes, but this also correlates to aspergers too, which we all know correlates with being doctors.

 

[Myuu]

Meh, w/e, but that's still awesome man. So is Mensa treating you ok? 😀

Don't you need 145 for Mensa?

 

[DrSno]

Don't you need 145 for Mensa?

No. Mensa requires prospective members to be in the top 2% of the population, which on most IQ tests works out to be around 130.

 

[GoSpursGo]

Math minor here... sorry to burst your bubble 😛

 

[Myuu]

No. Mensa requires prospective members to be in the top 2% of the population, which on most IQ tests works out to be around 130.

Oh, ok. Some Mensa punk told me I wasn't qualified. Have to go render my displeasure at her deceit in some physical form now.


Disclaimer: I am soooo totally kidding.

 

[gonj]

pretty sure i'm heavily lopsided towards performance

 

[surftheiop]

I always wonder about this for myself.

I've been a math/science person my whole life and am now a Chemical Engineering major which would lead me to think im more mathy or whatever, but on standardized tests my verbal is always significantly higher (like 780 V on SAT and 14 V on old MCAT off AMCAS (havent taken real one yet).

I always made very bad grades in english classes because I can't for my life remember how to spell alot of words or remember grammar rules. Until college, now I get room-mates to put commas in my papers for me and suddenly writing classes were easy A's (even when the people who helped my grammar struggled to make B's) and professor would always love my papers.

Im also absolutely terrible at memorizing formulas for physics/engineering/etc. But I am really good at remembering random facts from news articles I read years ago, etc.

So yeah it seems like I suck really bad a memorizing some things but on the other hand some things seem to stick really well.

Does make me worried about the first two years of med school but I think I will do well 2nd two years because i'll remember seeing/hearing something from an attending that I didn't even realize I bothered to learn.