Do you think there's a difference between being intelligent and being a good student?

<p>I always hear people say "you don't need to get good grades to be intelligent" and vice versa.. Do you think GPA has anything to do with IQ? Do you think that kids at top colleges are intellectual or just mainly know how to make the grade? </p>

<p>It is easier for intelligent people to be good students… but plenty of (relatively) less intelligent students succeed in school.</p>

<p>It is one of the great arguments for Free Will over Determinism: effort.</p>

<p>I don’t believe we are born with strong will, the willingness to work hard, etc. I believe we are conditioned somewhat by our surroundings… but we also must find it in ourselves to try.</p>

<p>When you feel uncomfortable in putting forth additional effort, that is your genetics talking: what you are comfortable doing.</p>

<p>When you stay up a few more hours to study, or run fast even though your legs ache and are heavy… that is you using your free will to do what your body or mind would not have found easy.</p>

<p>So yes, intelligence plays a part.</p>

<p>But there are geniuses who drop out… and there are 20 ACT-scorers who succeed. Will is a huge ingredient.</p>

<p>I’m still in high school so I can’t speak for college, but I know college classes are ridiculously hard, and even people who are considered intelligent might not get good grades in them. GPA definitely has nothing to do with IQ because IQ is generally based on one factor-how you think, but GPA depends on many more including the professor/teacher and style of the class that is taken. </p>

<p>From a high school perspective, I can say that the people who get grades are indeed intelligent, especially in the higher level classes. But I know that the top-ranked students at my school (as far as I can tell, school thankfully doesn’t report rank) are just making their way through the classes with minimal effort. They skip homework assignments because they think it wastes time, and they don’t need to if they still do well on the tests. They basically put in the minimal amount of effort for an A in pretty much every class they take; they don’t seem to be very interested in learning aspect at all. Most of them are just playing the GPA game for valedictorian without being intellectually stimulated. Partly this is due to the fact that the classes just aren’t challenging enough for them, but also because they ride on minimal effort. </p>

<p>And intelligence is a multi-faceted thing. There are many different kinds of intelligences, which is why the G&T program in our district doesn’t have an entrance exam. A person can be good at math, language, music, sports, speaking, spatial perception, and the like. A different type of intelligence corresponds to each skill. So a person who you wouldn’t consider to be “book smart” might be really good at giving speeches. Each person has a different set, though society clearly considers "high scor</p>

<p>I definitely agree with this 100%! Intelligence really can be exhibited on many different levels. The gifted program in my district requires only an IQ test, which I don’t think is very fair because anyone could mess up a test (a good friend of mine is extremely bright and scored just below the cut-off) because of nerves, a different thought pattern, etc. </p>

<p>Things like composure, poise and adaptability – not considered as key factors in intelligence – actually may be.</p>

<p>Example:</p>

<p>You’ve taken practice tests and aced them consistently at home.</p>

<p>But on the day of the real thing, the air conditioning isn’t working, and you are (obviously) hot. And the proctor is staring a hole into you every time you look up. </p>

<p>Some will allow such circumstances to derail the application of their knowledge. Others will rise above them.</p>

<p>(And maybe it’s a measure of “heart” moreso than “brains”)</p>

<p>There are some people I could say are “good students” who achieve high grades but only through tons and tons of grinding. Perhaps their intelligence is just very different from those who achieve very similarly but do not grind as much.</p>

<p>In my experience, there are intelligent people who are good students, good students who aren’t <em>super</em> intelligent, and intelligent people who aren’t good students. </p>

<p>The first one is pretty self explanatory IMO. Good work ethic, care about grades, study a lot, know material. </p>

<p>There are some people who try very very hard to get good grades and do, but I honestly don’t think of them as super intelligent. Like they aren’t “dumb” by any means, but I’d just say they have an average intelligence “level”. I sort of like to think these people know stuff for tests but may not know how to relate it to real world situations etc. they know it for the test to get the grade, but can not apply it. </p>

<p>In my physics class, one student was very good at practically all the material, but NEVER did any homework. I would consider him very intelligent, but a “bad” student. </p>

<p>Any one of these is possible. From my experiences, it seems like it really matters how much you care / how hard you try. </p>

<p>Yes.</p>

<p>Intelligence comes naturally to people, but being a good student requires other things that may or may not make up for a lesser “intelligence”. </p>

<p>However, outside of very mentally rigorous careers the full range of someone’s “intelligence” is not usually taken fully advantage of. Engineers, scientists, teachers, etc. are a few examples of careers where intelligence is prized because the rewards for doing your job intelligently may be more than with other careers.</p>

<p>I have known both. One girl I knew was a very, very hard worker. She was always on top of things, great at time management, involved in leadership positions of multiple clubs an activities. During midterms and final seasons freshman year, she made study guides for everyone who wanted to use them weeks leading up to finals. She was also one of the kindest people I know and a good friend. By the time scholarship night rolled around, she happened to be the recipient of many of them. She also happened to be a student athlete ontop of everything else.</p>

<p>My other good friend was a guy. He was very intelligent. He was the type of guy who basically absorbed things without much difficulty or taking notes. This guy was the type of person who knew all the countries capitals, could tell you EXACTLY where a location was a simple picture on geoguesser, and could have discussions about complex topics in physics. He didn’t get as involved as much as my other friend or work as hard, but he did happen to be the valedictorian of our class. He was pretty chill, and honestly didn’t even try to become valedictorian, as a self-proclaimed procrastinator (I should know haha, I’ve worked with him on several projects)
,
The point is, you should be one or the other, or a combination of both if you want. Personally, I think the happy medium is a good way to go :)</p>

<p>You can not “try” to be intelligent. You are born with a certain level of intelligence, you can train yourself to think, to reason, to organize your thought … so you can work out a solution for your problem but you cannot be more intelligent than you already are.</p>

<p>You can try to work hard, that is totally under your control.</p>

<p>I think intelligence alone or hard work alone only takes you so far.</p>

<p>A very smart student who gets very good grade in H.S. without trying hard will not be successful when the work becomes harder, in college or post-grad …</p>

<p>A student with average intelligence who works 23 hrs a day can get far but still won’t be able to solve the Theory of Relativity or such …</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>Just because he did not have to try in high-school does not mean he is incapable of trying later in life. There will be necessary transitions, but I agree with your point that hard work or intelligence alone will not be enough * for most people*.</p>

<p>I do however think, strong emphasis in one or the other can make up for a severe lacking in the other. Very intelligent students may not have to try in high school, or even college. Of course that is rare, but it is certainly possible. Very hard workers who may not be so intelligent can still have successful and fulfilling lives. If you are blessed with both of them, you have good prospects ahead of you!</p>

<p>I was a good student in high school. I studied and turned in my homework on time, but I was never “as smart” as the guy that knew calculus and physics like the back of is hand without having to study a single textbook. Yes, he was intelligent, but I always felt as if he knew that fact and only floated through school with the bare minimum. I ended up becoming valedictorian, but no one let me forget that there were students smarter than me that could “beat me in a landslide”. Anyway, some of us went to the same school. Yes, college was a different kind of monster, but my study habits were well established in high school, so I didn’t miss a beat. The others that didn’t study in high school, failed a few of their courses and were barely making it by. This doesn’t mean that they weren’t capable of studying, they just weren’t motivated to study because they never really had to previously. </p>

<p>So as an answer to your question, there is a difference between having intelligence and being a hard working student, but it all depends on the person and what they are willing to put forth in establishing a path for their future no matter how smart you are :)</p>

<p>Not everyone who is intelligent tries to do well in school. I kid you not, the most intelligent man I ever had as a teacher in high school (just listening to him, he exhibited pure genius), told our class he graduated high school with a 1.6 GPA. Not because he wasn’t intelligent, but because he didn’t apply himself. He went to a community college, did very well, transferred to a big name University, did extremely well, and now holds multiple degrees in a number of fields and worked on some pretty big archeological dig teams.</p>