<p>To a much lesser extent, I am. I have (so far) the highest SAT of anyone in my grade, but I am ranked fourth or fifth, because my grade has an abundance of hard workers who aren’t exactly very bright.</p>
<p>I do most of my homework, though, and study for all difficult tests, so I’m not as extreme as some of the people described in this thread.</p>
<p>Most of my friends are smart slackers, one particularly comes to mind. He’s extremely smart, as smart as me, if not smarter, and he got the same PSAT’s as me (190/191). He can do any assignment when he puts his mind to it and gets amazing test scores, but he hardly does any of his homework or essays, so he doesn’t get good grades. It’s a little dissapointing sometimes to see him not being able to apply his intelligence to school that often, ah well.</p>
<p>Mm. My entire class, quite literally, falls under this category. It’s incredibly easy to get ‘As’ at our school because all of our teachers are really predictable, so all the real competition is between kids who get 99s-100s in all their classes, b/c we rank based on actual percentage averages, instead of on the 4.0s scale. Something like 30% of my class has a 4.0 unweighted GPA, xD. </p>
<p>All they do is copy homework off of their neighbors, use amazing test-taking abilities (which again, our entire school somehow has), and slack in general.</p>
<p>There were 8 sophomores, me included, who got 230+ on the PSAT this year, all without studying.</p>
<p><em>Raises Hand</em> Ooooo…Me!!!</p>
<p>Yeah, all of the smart guys in my grade are exactly this type. The girls are the more ridiculous study type. Out of the Top 10% of our class, there are two guys (Myself and one other), but the other one has no AP’s and won’t ever take any according to him. Under our weighting system, an A in an Honors class, which are known for having the same exact curriculum as normal classes, is worth significantly more than an A- in an AP class, so he is beating my GPA with all A’s in honors while I have A/A- in mix of AP and Honors.</p>
<p>ANYWAY, all the smart guys in my grade, myself included, do the homework the period before (using the provided answers in the back of the book, especially for math), and scrape out A’s. Then, the SAT’s come around (I did fine haha, everyone else got owned though).</p>
<p>Rank 9:
Asian, low-income (though his parents have a LOT of money in their native country), cheated on every test/homework possible in high school, managed to get away with mostly A’s and a couple B’s (though he did get a bunch of detentions, he got caught several times). Somehow, he would always have the answers to Multiple choice questions printed in tiny font on his eraser…
Also he lied on his app, said he did 5 sports, varsity and captain of all, (even though he did each sport for one semester each…and ditched every practice), varsity/captain of debate 4 years (did that for 1 year), 800 hrs volunteering (bs), church stuff, prez of 4 clubs (math, science, engineering), NHS, took 4 college classes in high school, AIME qualifier, science fair 1st place (made up all his data the night before), ~120 absences his last semester of high school</p>
<p>Got deferred from Yale (really crappy essay writer), but accepted to Williams 4 years full ride + spending, books, room and board, etc.</p>
<p>^ are you actually serious?</p>
<ul>
<li>for our school, nobody really can slack off that much without having their grades slip. cheaters are getting caught more often, but there have been cheats outside of school (like the sat) our top 10%, nobody’s really a slacker. They spend time studying, and they study hard. some smart slackers are in the 25% range but not any lower than that. the less smart slackers are on the bottom half. XD</li>
</ul>
<p>^Yes, I am dead serious. Also this guy was paid $800 bucks to take the SAT for someone else.</p>
<p>How exactly do you guys do it? I mean I work my butt off but my ranking is nowhere near satisfaction</p>
<p>? Take all AP’s. Don’t take any normal classes.</p>
<p>There’s more than just taking APs. You should scout out a bit. Check with other students to see which APs are the easy ones. Then try to select classes to make sure you get the easiest weighted courses. Also, check which teachers are considered “hard”. Try to switch out courses (preferably for other easy courses), so they jostle your schedule around: landing you with the easier teachers. </p>
<p>That’s pretty much what I did. I have six weighted courses, but they’re all considered some of the easiest courses at our school, or with teachers that grade very easily. So even though I’m dumb as bricks and I put very little effort in, I’m sliding by.</p>
<p>I know I sound pretty damned slimy, but you do what you need to survive. And that’s not easy here, considering most of the kids just go into those hard classes, cheat their asses off, and drive the curve up.</p>
<p>My valedictorian (also my best friend) is a total slacker, but brilliant. She also scored the highest in the county on SATs - I believe she was 30 points off from a perfect score. My school, Northgate, is also known as “Nerdgate,” so trust me, her earning valedictorian isn’t an easy feat. She never studied. Ever, except for things like vocab tests, and then it was only ten minutes before. She DID take all APs open to her (but like I said, no studying - really not kidding) and excelled in band as well (All-State player all four years, first chair in top band since freshman year). She applied to Yale and got deferred and then rejected - she simply never did enough ECs (or leadership) to cut it; she is going to Northwestern. However, her grades and GPA of over a 4.0 were outstanding.</p>
<p>The salutatorian, also another best friend, was the complete opposite. She studies 2-3 hours a night, and had very similar grades and test scores, and excelled in band as well (though never as much). She is still very naturally gifted though, but applies herself. It goes to show the difference in approaches to high school.</p>
<p>As another side note, the valedictorian of a nearby school supposedly cheated his way to the top - never wrote a single essay himself, etc. No proof though, but interesting how ranks really aren’t the end-all.</p>
<p>One of my friends from our “stoner circle” got a 32 on the ACT. My other friend also got a 32.</p>
<p>There are quite a few. A friend of mine failed AP U.S History with a 43% in the class and got a 5 on the exam. Our teacher knew he would get a 5 because he’s just the person who always gets an A on every test and turns in no homework, or projects.</p>
<p>Oh, and another buddy of mine is a Chemistry WIZ. He aces every test, but has a C because he just doesn’t turn in his lab book or any homework. </p>
<p>Yep:P</p>
<p>~ Theos</p>