RAADS-R Diagnostic Scale

I find myself miserable and scared after attempting a 'faces' test. For instance, I couldn't detect what was wrong with *any* of these three faces. I can't even be sure if the fault is mine:

'Q. Can you tell at a glance what is wrong with two of the three faces below (answer below)':

('The face on the left has closer-set eyes and the face on the right has a raised mouth. The middle face is unaltered')

I scored 186.  Surprising because a) I don't consider my autistic problems to be very significant, and b) because the set questions were so unbendingly one-dimensional that my answers weren't necessarily as extreme as the proffered options. The questioners seem to assume that our behaviours, reactions, feelings and attitudes remain entirely the same at all times.

I just don't understand why my test scores are always much more concerning than I anticipate when, if anything, I often give NT-slanted answers if I feel the questions are too vague or too rigid or extreme.

PS. My assessment isn't due 'til the Summer. I feel like my advisers, as kind as they are, aren't telling me their opinions about the actual depth of my issues.

I already have a diagnosis but I hadn’t tried this test before hand, only the AQ50. I just did it, some of the questions are annoying, especially the whole strange before 16 or after. Though to be fair most of my answers were either side of that. I scored 199.

I did this RDOS test, it gives a chart of characteristics. Never liked the colour blue anyway!

Oh that's really useful actually- I recently did this one as part of my assessment and am currently waiting for my results. Thanks Debbie!

Anyway, I did RAADS-R with one of my assessors, who said I could ask for examples from him to clarify the question and also encouraged me to provide context for my answers. I felt like that helped a lot, because I was able to explain things like "I take things literally" meaning "if you tell me you'll be out for an hour I'll worry about you if you're not home an hour and fifteen minutes later" to me rather than being shocked at actors apparently wishing each other harm with "break a leg", which I know is just a saying.

Replicating my multiple choice answers to the best of my ability online gave me a score of about 145, I think. The actual assessment test resulted in them asking me to do the CAT-Q as well, presumably because I kept saying "let's put that down as true only as a kid, I stopped doing it because people got annoyed at me"

Oh wise one !  You are a guiding star.

I thought I'd bump this thread back up in case any new members, who haven't had a formal diagnosis, would like to take a test.

good!!

Thank you.

Good idea! I got 141. 70 of that was on social. :s

As another diagnostic thread has been started I thought I'd bring this one back up for the useful information contained here. 

138 and I have been diagnosed.  Problem with some of that, as someone who was diagnosed at 50, is that it doesn't account for the masking I've been doing for years.  I suspect without that, I would answer differently to many questions

185 here

126, but I could score as low as 106, perhaps a bit lower. There's always some questions I don't know how to answer, like "people tell me..." ones. I often have the issue described, but the people in my life are too polite to tell me, or similar. Seems odd to use such a vague criteria (reliant on how direct people are in one's life), so I have to decide whether to reply precisely, or imagine if I knew direct people who would tell me. 

Always some replies vary based on how much I subjectively want to score highly as I am aware which answers would give the + autism score, so it's hard not to bias things.

At any rate, this matches up to things. Awaiting my report, did get the diagnosis, but not super clear cut in my case. 

No test is ideal, they all have problems with poorly worded questions and questions based on outdated stereotypes. However, the RAADS-R seems to be better than the AQ tests on simple metrics. If I remember correctly, in the original RAADS-R paper, they claim to have identified 97% of previously diagnosed autistics, with the threshold score of 65 (and over), and to have excluded all the non-autistic 'control' people in their experimental population (scoring 64 and under). This is quite useful. 

I scored 167 on the RAADS-R test  ----   9 on AQ10 and 37 on AQ50.

The threshold sore of 65 is the result of their experimental data, not a claim that someone scoring 65 is automatically autistic, this is important to understand. What the test is claiming, is that people scoring less than 65 are probably not autistic and can be excluded, with some justification, from further diagnostic assessment.

I score 205, the questions are too black or white, things like “can you tell the emotions of others?” If they are crying then I would say they are unhappy, if laughing then the opposite.  I’m not emotionally bothered by what the person is displaying, perhaps that would be a better question. I noticed that a lot of the questions are very similar, just worded slightly differently. The answers that,” it’s only true  to me now as an adult”  are more that I’ve observed others and can give the response that they are expecting. It is often not how I’m actually feeling.

Exactly, I feel that this should not receive fewer points as it is just as autistic and even if it means the social skill has been acquired it does not mean that it no longer causes problems as it costs a lot more energy to perform.

or indicate development of masking. I had 1 question, where I ticked before 16 only and 1 with after 16

AuTriker said:

How long was your appointment?

I actually don't know but much longer than the 10 minutes normally allotted.

I did feel the GP was in a hurry though to get me out (as they always are in my experience).

I would expect someone doing that with me would soon become just as frustrated as me with the process because I would be verbalising all my thoughts and trying to get them to help me pick one and it would take ages! How long was your appointment?

I did read further down the page you linked and the author expressed many of my issues with it. Also the questions were all there at the end so I read quickly through those and even just counting up the ones I would get 3 points on without any thought easily gave me score in the autism range. I am sure going back through and spending a bit more time on the others would make my score higher. So I guess as a blunt instrument it probably does its job even if it is a frustrating process.