Cognitive test for the elderly? POTUS reports that he recently aced one.
I believe everyone on Medicare is required to respond to a little quiz when going in for annual checkups after the age of 75. This year, I was asked to tell the PA where I was and what the date was. I am a smart ass and said, “The 45th parallel north.” Thank god, he didn’t ask for the day of the week. No one has a clue about that these days. Name as many animals as I could in 15 seconds. Remember five or six things the tester said which we came back to later. Count backwards from 100 by 7’s. Oh, actually, that last might have been what the anesthesiologist asked me to do last week before a little surgery. I forget.
POTUS has managed to conceal all his report cards, which I actually think is okay. Big confession here: I once made a C in college on a required course, Texas History. I re-took that class to get that embarrassing mark expunged from my record. Interesting question which didn’t occur to me at the time: Why was Texas History a required class?
POTUS has referred to himself as a “stable genius.”
To me that sounds like a really smart horse.
He has also alluded to a having a really high IQ.
It used to be a standard procedure, for some unknown reason, to administer IQ tests at certain points during one’s educational career. When I was teaching I made it a point never to look at my students’ IQ scores. That information can really color a teacher’s expectations.
The last time I took an IQ test was in graduate school. I think at that point it was an optional freebie and I was curious. I never thought of myself as particularly clever, but for some reason, I tended to do really well on standardized tests. Let me just say, shortly after that, I was invited to join Mensa. Shocking! I declined. I mean, what’s the point in life of scoring well on a standardized test or joining a club of others who also did.
On the other hand, being “stable” seems huge to me. I think there are tests for that. I’ve never taken one. I do think “personality quizzes” are fun. You know, like Myers-Briggs.
I really wish candidates for high office were required to take some mental health tests.
So much more important than self-proclaimed genius or stability would be a diagnosis of narcissistic personality disorder.