Has anyone here, who has an official clinical ASD diagnosis, scored somewhat NT on the Aspie Quiz? My Aspie score was 112 and my NT score was 114. It said I'm both broad autism spectrum and neurotypical.
Hey, @Autistcool, I am not who you were looking for to answer but thought I would jump in anyway because I, too, have that split score thing going on: ND 114, NT 104. (Took it last week.) Thought we might have some things in common.
Some of the questions, though, were strange and vague, and I didn't know how to answer them. For instance one of them was do you prefer one-on-one with people you know or in small groups? This can't be answered with "No/never" or "Always/often" or "A Little" because it's referring to two possibilities: one-on-one, OR small groups? There's also a question about ditching friends if they don't share the same ideals. How the F am I supposed to know that when I don't have friends? Then there were some sex related questions that simply don't apply to me; several answers were "I don't know," which could've brought down my autism score. I had to say "No/Never" to the question of do you wring your hands, twirl your fingers or rub your hands. But had they asked, Do you press your fingers to your other hand and rub your nails and fingers to your skin, I would've answered "Always/Often," and this would've given me an autism point.
That interpretation thing seems to draw a lot of comment. Some of it's the language. So if you're like me, and it's new, then what in the world is a special interest? (Me thinking: Special interest = A hobby? No--I get it now--it's much more focused than a hobby, but when taking it for the first time the language does get in the way of knowing what is being meant.)
What I want to know is, what about degree? Say if I notice patterns in things all the time, and Fred here notices patterns in things all the time, also, but say Fred here is
really noticing patterns to an intense degree that I am not, then how can the test accurately gauge that what we're both doing is an aspie thing? Meaning, that since the quality of intensity is not measured, should I score X and Fred gets the same score of X, there's no way we're both at Nth degree on the aspie scale! So, I just don't get that, yet.
In fact, I was so perplexed by split scores that I retook the test--and got a closer split. Disturbingly, the second set said I had absolutely no social skills whatsoever, either on the NT or ND scale. Huh??? Of course I have social skills! I'm actually pretty proud of where I am today, as compared to my much younger self. How can it say I have no social skills? (I'm posting this on social media, aren't I?)
Finally, like you, I don't rub or twirl or wring my hands; I do this fingernail thing instead where I run the nail across the skin ridges. (I have no idea why.) I suppose a lot of the questions are like that, open to interpretation. The question is, how broadly (or narrowly) might/ought we interpret it? Since taking this test, at the very least it's sort of making me much more observant of things I actually do, like how much I do this fingernail thing.
I guess that a true NT wouldn't have racked up 112 autism points?
Specifically, I have no idea, but more generally, I'm catching on that just one test isn't going to show the whole picture. So, happy test taking!
