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Ultraboy94

competition winners?

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I won a sound card for entering a contest regarding the Quake 1 addon Shrak. All you had to do was find the secret level and snap a picture for proof and you were entered into a drawing. Not many people entered so it was quite likely to win something, luckily I got one of the better prizes.

I won $250 or so at the Soaring Eagle Casino and treated the family to dinner that night, plus gave back to my grandma what she had lost because it was her birthday. I have yet to leave the casino in the green after that day, meh. :P

uh... I won some money playing Hold 'Em one night and haven't been able to find a money game since then, bah.

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Danarchy said:

Also, he has a history dating back over a decade both in the Doom Community and Something Awful. :P Let's just say he was banned here before I ever became a regular and I'm not sure why anyone let him back.


I wasn't aware of his history at SA, but I definitely have been aware of him from NewDoom for many moons.

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I placed 6th place in Kentucky in the High School Academic Team Governor's cup science test. After 4 years of training throughout high school! (Not really, it was just an extra curricular activity each week to pass the time). This was all after my 11th place score in 8th grade 4 years before, so I guess I improved 5 places in 4 years.

I also can surprisingly still run fast enough to place in my age group in the small local 5K races. I haven't seriously trained since High School.

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Maes said:

I ranked in the top 3 in several local/regional chess championships as a boy/teen, and I even made my high school team win on a regional TV quiz show -all female team except for me :-p Ah these were the times...

Did you have some sort of rating?

My chess exploits:
High School State (WA) Meet 2002: 1st place trophy
High School Team State (WA) Championship 2003: silver medal
Blindfold chess U1000: 1st place
2002-2003 Season undefeated: All-star medal
Current Rating (Retired): USCF 1860p9 (and the only thing that will drag me out of retirement is the Sicilian Dragon Yugoslav attack!)

What made my chess exploits one of my best achievements is the fact that I picked up (learned) chess exactly one year before I got my first trophy at the HS State Meet in 2002. Not only did I play chess, I used books to study it, and often analyzed Bobby Fischer's games, especially his Ruy Lopez opening.

Coincidentally, one of the books I've used briefly for my tournament preparations was Grazza's Mammoth Book of Chess.

My math exploits:
2004: $10, AMATYC 5th of college
2004 (again): $10, AMATYC 5th of college

Physical exploits:
2003: Set 2nd on my high school's push-up record: 98
2008: Won instructor's downhill race at my ski school

Miscellaneous exploits:
1998: Got 158 on the Stanford-Binet IQ Test, as applied by science teacher.
2004: Deus Vult, nine months after learning to map Doom.
2007: UW Pumpkin Carving: Awarded "Nerdiest" Pumpkin
2008: Cacoawards

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exp(x) said:

Full of yourself?

If I was so full of myself, I'd have gone on and listed all the scholarships and competitive positions I won as well!

... But since I'm so modest, I'll keep my list small and tidy!

=p

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Doom Marine said:

Coincidentally, one of the books I've used briefly for my tournament preparations was Grazza's Mammoth Book of Chess.

What about that children's chess book that Silverwyvern illustrated? Granted, I can't seem to find it anymore, and she said she hated making it, heh.

Also, are we seriously going to start posting IQ scores here? Those don't mean dick, you know. I've had very high scores on the ones I've taken, but all that means is that I'm good at taking tests (which doesn't take much brainpower, just a bit of cleverness).

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Danarchy said:

Those don't mean dick, you know. I've had very high scores on the ones I've taken, but all that means is that I'm good at taking tests (which doesn't take much brainpower, just a bit of cleverness).

What? IQ tests do mean DICK, and lots of it! Having a 150 IQ is a literal equivalent of a 150-foot penis!

And what's this about brainpower not including cleverness? You implied it yourself that the IQ test takes a bit of cleverness. How can you be clever without brainpower?

Going by your logic, I would mockingly say that the mile-run don't mean dick, you know. I've had very good times on the ones that I've ran, but all the means is that I'm good at mile runs (which doesn't take much athleticism, just a bit of endurance). See how silly and dismissive that sounds?

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IQ tests don't necessarily prove all aspects of brainpower, but it is a useful indicator of the strengths and weaknesses of the area that you're tested upon.

In any case, I got a 150-foot dick. How about yourself?

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Though the significance of IQ scores is often blown out of proportion, they do mean dick. They're practical indicators of how likely someone is to succeed at other tasks requiring intelligence. They're positively correlated with academic performance, for example, and negatively correlated with how much one believes that IQ scores are irrelevant.

If you think IQ scores are irrelevant but understood the second part of that last sentence then you're an exception. Haha, now I actually really want to see the scatter plot for that relationship. Looks like I've found the topic for my future thesis!

I don't think I've ever written one of the standardized IQ tests, so I don't know what my score is supposed to be, and it might not actually be that special. I've found myself getting slower at those quick, clever mathematical and verbal tasks over the years. My consolation is the knowledge of how few people are capable of writing impromptu essays at the slightest provocation.

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reki107 said:

I won the pinewood derby 3 years in a row...Does that count?

Depends. What is it? :P

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I wondered this myself.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinewood_derby
The pinewood derby is a racing event for Cub Scouts in the Boy Scouts of America. Cub Scouts, with the help of parents, build their own cars from wood, usually from kits containing a block of pine, plastic wheels and metal axles.

It sounds like one of those crazy downhill boxcar races from the Simpsons and South Park but upon further investigation the cars are only half a foot long and made from solid wood.

reki, post pics of your winning creations!

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About IQ...

1). What I mean by it taking cleverness and not brainpower is that all you need to pass one is to know a few tricks that are in standardized tests. They all operate on the same basic patterns. It doesn't take exceptional smarts to pass them really.

2). Once you take one IQ test, taking another is going to be easier. The more you take, the better you get at them. You're not showing your ability to learn anymore, just your ability to memorize. I know that generally speaking, I got better and better scores each time I took them.

3). IQ isn't really a set scale so much as a percentile. They adjust the scale every so often to make 100 average. As years have gone by, more and more people have been getting higher scores, and they've had to adjust accordingly. Either the human race is getting smarter or it's an effect of point #2.

4). If it's an indicator of any kind of smarts, it must be a small selection of it indeed. For instance, I have always tested as exceptionally high on all my IQ tests, yet I've failed most of the classes I've ever taken in my history of schooling, I can't do math above basic algebra and geometry (I had to repeat Algebra 3 times), I have a terrible time in social situations, I always seem to fall behind in any discussion I get into, and I sometimes wonder if I have any kind of common sense at all. If I have any kind of intelligence, I really wonder what that is. I do, however seem to be really great at taking tests. I've aced about 95% of the ones I've done (the only way I got through high school). I just have a knack for memorizing the patterns that are in just about every test ever made.

And I'm not going to post my IQ, because I really don't give a shit and anyone who goes around telling people their IQ has self-esteem issues. Also, I've taken dozens of IQ tests in my life (both professional and internet ones), and I get scores in a fairly large range (about 20 points), so I have no idea what the right one would be.

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Danarchy said:

About IQ...

1). What I mean by it taking cleverness and not brainpower is that all you need to pass one is to know a few tricks that are in standardized tests.

2). Once you take one IQ test, taking another is going to be easier.

3). IQ isn't really a set scale so much as a percentile.

4). If it's an indicator of any kind of smarts, it must be a small selection of it indeed.


All true. But, all the same, there is a correlation between IQ score and other intellectual achievement. Now, remember to take this statement exactly at face value - a correlation is merely a correlation, and all correlations in the world are far from perfect. Some correlations are very small, and can only be demonstrated to be significant when you have a huge cache of data, but even then, there is still a correlation. With such a correlation, a prediction can correctly be made from an individual's score on one trait that a correlated score is probably within a certain range of values. Obviously nothing in such a prediction is certain.

In any case, when a school wants to know your IQ score, what they really want to be able to guess at isn't your broad intelligence, but how well you're likely to perform on similar academic tests. Luckily enough for them, this correlation is quite strong, and from your story it's clear you perform well in both of these sorts of tests. Unluckily, there will always be a minority of students who don't match this correlation, and a much larger group of students who don't match the weaker correlations between IQ and broader intelligence - two groups which the system screws.

Also you don't seem so awkward online. I've always kind of wanted to hang out.

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Danarchy said:

1). What I mean by it taking cleverness and not brainpower is that all you need to pass one is to know a few tricks that are in standardized tests. They all operate on the same basic patterns. It doesn't take exceptional smarts to pass them really.

Cleverness is one of the adjectives that describes this thing called brainpower. Unless our definition of brainpower is mismatched, I would argue that by being clever enough to recognize the few tricks that are in standardized tests, you have shown your strengths in pattern recognition.

In my Stanford-Binet taken 11 years ago, there were many questions requiring written-in answers, which meant those multiple-choice tricks used so frequently in things like the SAT were rendered ineffective. In this regard, these questions were designed to test logical problem-solving ability rather than combing through the answer patterns that so often plague multiple-choice formats.

Danarchy said:

2). Once you take one IQ test, taking another is going to be easier. The more you take, the better you get at them. You're not showing your ability to learn anymore, just your ability to memorize. I know that generally speaking, I got better and better scores each time I took them.

This is very true, but to put it in perspective, the phenomena of improvement via repeated test-taking also can be true of many other "tests" as well: Driver's ed, SAT, GRE, Job interviews, public speaking, etc. etc. etc... Obviously, practice leads to improvement, and improvement is a sign of learning, even if it's subconscious... wouldn't you say some degree of learning is presumptively involved in the process? Even with the case of the IQ test?

From the IQ tests that I've seen, their emphasis is on pattern recognition (analogies, complete the pattern) and logic (IF-THEN statements, math).

The ability to memorize patterns is a very powerful tool and can play an important role in the higher-ups of thinking. An elementary example is the memorization of addition pattern that eases the entry into multiplication. The memorization of multiplication pattern eases the entry into exponents, and so forth. Even memorizing patterns of other's behaviors is an important stepping stone to socialization and landing that job interview.

Keep in mind that the memorization I'm talking about goes beyond remembering the numbers of the credit card or spelling words, it is about remembering the dynamic patterns of things that allows one to correctly assess and predict a given situation, lessening the need for brute-force calculation and trial-error.

Danarchy said:

3). IQ isn't really a set scale so much as a percentile. They adjust the scale every so often to make 100 average. As years have gone by, more and more people have been getting higher scores, and they've had to adjust accordingly. Either the human race is getting smarter or it's an effect of point #2.

Or a little bit of both! Though I would clarify that "getting smarter" can be explained through the anthropological perspective:

The IQ test was originally used to bin the "intelligence" of WWI army recruits; it tested their abilities to follow directions, process information, think logically, and not be retarded. Not surprisingly, IQ tests can also be correlated with the ability to succeed academically (it's not a perfect correlation, as there are always outliers and exceptions with all large-scale population statistics).

With the advent of Western industrialization, there became an increase in specialized occupations that demanded additional schooling, which led to rising of IQ scores in the general population. As years go by, the IQ scores (when derived from the same unmodified test) became less suited for binning the population from a base mean of 100, and the tests have to be adjusted accordingly every few years to normalize the population back down to 100. In which case, the IQ tests should get "tougher" over time.

Danarchy said:

4). If it's an indicator of any kind of smarts, it must be a small selection of it indeed. For instance, I have always tested as exceptionally high on all my IQ tests, yet I've failed most of the classes I've ever taken in my history of schooling, I can't do math above basic algebra and geometry (I had to repeat Algebra 3 times), I have a terrible time in social situations, I always seem to fall behind in any discussion I get into, and I sometimes wonder if I have any kind of common sense at all. If I have any kind of intelligence, I really wonder what that is. I do, however seem to be really great at taking tests. I've aced about 95% of the ones I've done (the only way I got through high school). I just have a knack for memorizing the patterns that are in just about every test ever made.

I've had a friend who scored 800 on his math SAT but failed calculus. Apparently, being a genius is nothing without the hard work to express it.

You seem to be underestimating many of your strengths, not placing importance on memorizing patterns when you are good at it is a problem. That same ability to memorize patterns can be applied to build a foundation for many aspects of thinking as I have mentioned previously.

Confidence and a clear mind is also imperative to intelligence as well. How can one think clearly if one is emo over some chick or despairing before the work ahead of oneself? In my book, low self-esteem can be a bottleneck to being at full mental capacity.

Danarchy said:

And I'm not going to post my IQ, because I really don't give a shit and anyone who goes around telling people their IQ has self-esteem issues. Also, I've taken dozens of IQ tests in my life (both professional and internet ones), and I get scores in a fairly large range (about 20 points), so I have no idea what the right one would be.

Careful now, just as you are the exception to the IQ-academic success correlation, there are people out there who posted their IQ because they want to show their UTTERLY-SHAMELESS-EXTROVERTED-LOOK-AT-MY-HUGE-EPEEN outgoingness. There are many people on this forum who have talked with me and I'm pretty sure I don't come off as anything less than super-extroverted. A single action or gesture by a person is not indicative of much, it has to be viewed within the context of their temperaments and past behaviors, and even at that, there is no substitute for direct interaction.

Remember that your judgment on others says less about them than it does about yourself.

As for your fairly large IQ test score spread, omit the top and bottom score, and express your IQ range with respect to the remaining scores.

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Creaphis said:

My consolation is the knowledge of how few people are capable of writing impromptu essays at the slightest provocation.


Man, so Doom Marine beats me on that too? This sucks.

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