Actually, that 800/200 split ain't far off the truth, as I dimly recall.
Crummy with figures, good with words.

Funny thing, sorta...see, according to most IQ tests, I come in just over
the edge on the so-called genius ("Come, Join Mensa, Join Us, Join Us...")
level. Around 160 or so. Which, frankly, is absolutely meaningless, except
that it helps me skate throuth stuff I have no business doing or no chance of
*really* understanding. I come in very high on intuitive scores; I can often
figure out *what* is the correct answer, but am damned if I can tell you
*why*.

As a kid, we moved around a lot for (let's just say this for now and let
it go at this) economic reasons. Literally every year from birth through
about age 17 was a different house, a different city, often a different STATE.
I learned fast that if you were too smart, and showed it...you got beat up a
lot. So at a very early stage I found I could just shave it close enough to
pass, without raising any red flags or drawing attention. The one thing I
didn't want was to be noticed, because that usually preceded getting the
stuffings knocked out of me (and being who I am, *that* was usually followed
by my mouthing off to whoever just beat the crap out of me...at which point
they pound me again...at which point this little bump on the playground mouths
off again, at which point, well, you get the idea).

I'd gotten pretty good at riding the line, but goofed one year in junior
high. I screwed up my math term (no surprise there), but usually I knew I
could ace lit classes to make up for it...except I got sick, missed several
tests and papers...and dropped beneath the line I needed to get advanced to
the next level. So I had to attend summer school to make up the difference.

This was under the Headstart Program of those days, and the sort of kids
you found in this one in New Jersey...Future Muggers of America founding
members. Anyway (and this is a hell of a lot longer and more involved than
I'd intended to get), one day they said they were going to give all of us in
summer school a series of tests/evaluations to determine just where we
stood...what grade reading level, comprehension, math, that sort of thing.
Now normally I'd always held back in this stuff, but this wasn't my regular
school, I'd be going to high school after this, so what was lost? So I just
went for it.

A few days later the test results came in, and I got suddenly called to
the office of the head of the program. He sat me down and said, honest to
god, "You'll forgive my langauge for a moment, but what the HELL are you DOING
here?" Apparently for a 9th grader my language, reading, writing, and general
intelligence figures came in at approximately that of a college graduate.
(Though my math skills were, to be charitable, considerably lower. Bargain-
basement, to be precise.) So I told him what I'd been doing all this time.
He sat there, slack jawed, the whole time, at the premeditation and all the
rest. (Though I wouldn't have gotten nailed if I'd been better at some of the
other areas.)

Later, to my chagrin, I discovered that he wrote up a memo about all this
and attached it to my transcripts, so that when I transferred to the high
school, I found myself assigned to several advanced classes in English lit and
other areas, college-prep level classes. So I instantly went back to my old
habits, and soon enough managed to get out of that one and into a regular
class.

Tests are fine, advanced classes are fine, but frankly, none of it was
worth getting stomped on a regular basis....

jms