<p>So I see all these posts by CCers who are obviously very intelligent and are struggling in their classes. I can honestly say that the only class I've ever had trouble in in my high school career was A.P. U.S. History, and even that was just a lot of work, it wasn't hard.</p>
<p>Most of my classes, even classically difficult ones like Calculus are somewhat low workload classes, and the conceptual stuff is simple. I haven't struggled at understanding anything in a particular class.</p>
<p>Is this because my high school's curriculum is shockingly easy and slow, or because of some other reason?</p>
<p>(Other reasons could include the fact that you all go to prep schools or high achieving schools or something like that.)</p>
<p>TLDR version: Does my school suck, or are the other CCer's schools just really good(and by good I mean difficult)?</p>
<p>It’s possible you’re just really smart, you know? :P</p>
<p>By low workload, do you mean the classes don’t have a lot of homework, or the classes don’t have any content? There’s a difference. How are you assessed? Is it mostly tests and papers or mostly projects and effort? Also, sometimes it’s the tests that are hard, and it’s possible your teachers just give easier tests.</p>
<p>I personally have high snxiety in all of my classes but if you want a true evaluation, my classes also aren’t difficult, and I can personally say it’s because my high school isn’t challenging. I think it depends on your school. As the person above me said, you could just be really smart.</p>
<p>I have homework in most classes, but in every class but advanced composition and AP physics I can usually finish it in class. And I have nothing to compare the tests to as I’ve never had a class outside my high school. I assume they’re pretty easy.</p>
<p>Mostly tests and papers by the way, with a healthy dose of feel good effort points :P. Projects are pretty rare.</p>
<p>I’d be kind of curious to see what kinds of tests others take in Calculus or some other subject to compare them to mine.</p>
<p>Pretty decent. Got a 2240 in March (800CR, 740M, 700W). The math was annoying, as my geometry and algebra 2 classes hadn’t introduced me to some of the concepts on the test. I blame my writing score on my retarted 2nd grader hand writing. I just get the feeling it devalues anything I say :(. That may be a cop out(missed like 4 multiple choice, then got an 8 on the essay, crushing my scores hopes and dreams).</p>
<p>SAT II’s were a pain, as my classes hadn’t covered most of the material on the stupid things. Luckily I have sorta skimmed my text books over the years and picked up on most of the stuff. Got 750’s on Math and Physics, and a 720 in U.S.H.</p>
<p>So yeah, I’m thinking it may just be my school’s curriculum. I don’t think I’m a super genius or anything like that.</p>
<p>Eh, those are pretty good scores, decent by CC standards, great elsewhere. I’d imagine that your current situation a mixture of both your school’s easiness and your “intelligence.”</p>
<p>What’s your class rank/school’s average SAT scores?</p>
<p>It’s very possible that it’s your curriculum. I have an unweighted 4.0, and the only class I’ve ever thought was hard was Physics. That’s mostly because the teacher had a weird grading system that places a ton of emphasis on lab review questions. Anyway, my SAT score was only 2110. On the ACT, I had a 32 the first time, and got a 33 on the retake. I’m ranked #1 in my class. So I think my school is not really as hard as other ones. Granted, I don’t have any AP classes at my school, but even the most demanding course schedule does not challenge me at all. And I know that other students probably have harder schedules, since my test scores reflect that I’m not really the best student out there.</p>
<p>In the Subject Tests, I performed horribly. I chose my best three subjects: Literature, Spanish, and Math (2). On Literature, I got a measly 600. I’m considered by my English teachers to be one of the best students at the school, and one of them wrote that in my recommendation. In Spanish, I received an award last year for the Best Spanish Student in the School (yeah, it’s really corny and doesn’t mean much, but still). I got a 640 on the Spanish Test without Listening. In Math, I’ve won numerous area math contests, and I’ve carried a high A (97+) in all my math classes since junior high. I scored a 730 on that test. I didn’t even take the science Subject Tests because I would have gotten 450s on them. I had a friend from school who took the Chemistry Subject Test, and she studied every day for six months just to get a 660 on the test. The Subject Test covered about four times as much material as my year-long Chemistry course at school.</p>
<p>My school’s average ACT score is 25, I believe. No one takes the SAT, so there really is no useful average SAT score.</p>
<p>I’d say the problem at my school is that the classes have no content. I get plenty of homework, but it never means anything. My literature classes read only two full-length works per year, with maybe five papers, plus a few other random short (SAT-length) essays. In Spanish, I very rarely have any homework at all. While I feel as though I know a great deal of Spanish, I didn’t know a lot of what was covered on the Subject Test. I probably could have studied more. I actually felt as though I was prepared for Math 2, so maybe that was just my inability to do well on standardized tests. My science classes were all disasters. I would have learned more by reading an AP test prep book. My Physics class didn’t cover anything except mechanical motion. No thermodynamics, no pressure, no magnetism, no electromagnetic waves, no theory. So taking the Physics SAT would be a disaster for me.</p>
<p>Depends on class rank. I feel the same way about my school, except all my ‘intelligent’ classmates spend 6+ hours a night on hw while i spend 0-.5 tops yet im top 1 percent lol</p>
<p>I’d say it has to do with your curriculum but that there isn’t necessarily a correlation between amount of homework and rigor of the school. I know some people (especially posters on here) who go to really good private schools but don’t get a lot of work because that’s not the nature of the teachers’ styles; I also have friends who go to pretty mediocre schools where teachers pile on the homework. </p>
<p>In addition, even within one school (and one level of course rigor), I’ve observed that some students spend a lot more time on HW than others. I don’t think that this is necessarily correlated with intelligence; I think it’s more about work ethic. I’ve witnessed the law of diminishing proportions firsthand just by looking at my friends. While we put in varying levels of effort, we all have 4.0s (or near there) in similar courses. But the ones who put in the most effort definitely aren’t the dumbest; they’re just the ones who find it necessary to be REALLY REALLY confident in the subject matter (whereas the rest of us don’t really care, as we know that an hour of studying will result in maybe a 5% increase on a test grade.) The only time intelligence/academic ability comes into play is when the results are less than satisfactory even with a lot of effort.</p>
<p>“A sneaking suspicion is beginning to dawn upon me.” </p>
<p>My god, your gay!?!</p>
<p>But honesty, i just second what everyone else is saying. Anything nationall (such as standardized testing) will give you a true indication of your “smarts”.</p>
<p>And based on what your saying, with not being prepared for some of the material on the standardized tests, I’d say your school just blows.</p>
<p>Er, by “the law of diminishing proportions” I meant “the law of diminishing returns” or “diminishing marginal utility,” btw. Shh, I didn’t take Econ. -__-</p>
<p>I don’t really know what it means to consider a course “hard” (not trying to be pompous). I mean, maybe I have considered courses hard, but I find it kind of silly to say that if I ended up getting an A. Do you get what I mean? I guess I could say math is hard for me, since I have to really work hard for an A and I rarely get them, but it seems a bit silly. I’m (obviously to me at least) the least intelligent person in my Calc BC class- why should I expect to get an A? I don’t know if it’s because the course is hard- I can do the homework in French class the day it’s due and do it well- I think it’s just because I suck.</p>
<p>Lel, I feel the same way. I guess when 10 people out of 138 have 4.0 unweighted GPAs, it sort of makes sense that your school is easier. None of them have SAT scores that are within 100 points of mine (or subject test cumulative scores.) On the other hand, I do feel my courses adequately prepared me for the subject tests, since my USH 780 was without studying, and physics 800 with only marginal (4 h ours) review. So maybe the classes are good, but the grading is too easy.</p>