Hi, everyone. I'm very excited to have found this thread. I only read the first two pages of this thread and already have a burning question (please forgive me if someone has already asked/addressed this question!). Is there a correlation between high IQ and high remembering/verbal ability?
My background: Non-native speaker (came to the U.S. when I was 9). I took some sort of an IQ test many years ago (in the U.S.). Since it's been such a long time, I don't recall the exact number - somewhere above 130, I think. I'll need to retake the test again. Furthermore, I seem to have high musical and creative abilities, as shown by my past involvement in artistic activities and my scores on the Highlands Ability Battery.
When I was still living in my native country, memorizing texts came easily to me, and I was in a class with other "honors" students. After moving to this country, I struggled with learning English and had a tough time with processing the humongous amount of course materials thrown at me during college.
I'm in my thirties now. During the years after graduation, I gravitated toward tasks that involved organizing, writing, and research. I also routinely received high marks and praises on my academic papers from recent course instructors. I enjoy writing (not first drafts though), but it does take time and effort for me. Reading takes time also (could be problematic for grad school). Since I'm a visual-kinesthetic learner, I sometimes read aloud or take notes.
What frustrates me is my inability to remember things in great detail. It's easy for me to make connections ("_____ reminds me of _____ in a different field"). But if you need me to expound upon my assertion, I'd need to stop and try to remember the details, or, more often then not, I'd need to go back and review my notes. I seem to be better at applying methodologies or theories, then at remembering words.
So is there any hope for me? (I did manage to read a few chapters of the book,
Your Memory. Some of the memory systems seemed rather tedious.)
More observations: My SAT scores were in the low 1200's (due to my understandably lackluster verbal skills at the time). My recent GRE scores were in the 1500's. Shocking, isn't it? I had always thought that I was a poor standarized test taker. Someone once told me that the GRE measures both left-brain and right-brain skills (logical and analytical skills, as well as pattern recognition). When I was studying for the exam, I wasn't able to memorize all 3,500 words on my vocab list, but I was able to arrive at the correct answers for reading comp and some of the other sections pretty quickly. It's hard to explain, but I feel that intuition was involved somehow. After reading posts by test takers who are "A" students but got low verbal scores, I can't help but think that perhaps the GRE measures more than just vocabulary knowledge.
I do feel smarter now than when I was a clueless college freshman. So perhaps there's hope for me yet.
I just wish that English were my native language.
Thank you for listening.