<p>I was browsing through the internets ten minutes ago and found this thread on Reddit. I don't have enough time to read it now (finals being tomorrow and everything), but I'm gonna go ahead and leave this here so y'all can peruse it and discuss.</p>
<p>edit: just imported it into Word. it's 47 pages...just a heads-up.</p>
<p>Lots of good advice in that thread. Thanks for sharing!</p>
<p>I am not a genius in any sense of the word despite my 4.0 uw. I’d be lying to you if I said that I obtained it without working my ace off. Sometimes it even was because the classes were jokes. </p>
<p>I like to think I’m naturally curious about certain subjects though (I volunteered at the library this semester and it was hard for me to focus on my work because I wanted to read everything), and I realized that people tend to underestimate how much being well-read benefits your grade and your enthusiasm toward school.</p>
<p>For example, I am always awed by the people who come home from school to make flash or other computer games as if it were nothing. I’ve only recently learned that these aren’t geniuses, but dedicated hobbyists who have put long hours into learning their craft.</p>
<p>I’m prepared to be thoroughly humbled next year, but that won’t be until after I claim valedictorian this year… ;)</p>
<p>@Wis, it’s actually just hit me that AP Chem is kicking my butt for the reason that I’m lazy and feel entitled to an A. Thankfully, I still have another semester to experiment with these words of advice and report back on my findings.</p>
<p>1 reply, 354 views. I know people are looking at this. It would be helpful if you had anything insightful to add to this.</p>
<p>I wished I could start over. In my World History class I feel like I should deserve an A but I don’t work for it. Even though history isn’t my favorite class I still have to buckle down give it all I got to get the grade I hope to get.</p>
<p>It is inspiring. Letting go of your pride, and asking your roommate for help. That must have been a huge step.</p>
<p>I try my best to realize that my being 1/400 class rank does not mean I am in the top 0.25% of intelligence, or even close for that matter. I just care about my grades a lot. I got 2210 SAT, which is top 1%, but I still don’t feel like I would even make the top 1% of intelligence, perhaps top 5%. A lot of people I know like to think otherwise.</p>
<p>wow! So I’m a sophomore in hs and midterms are coming up and I’m annoyed that im getting B+'s in what are usually my strongest/favorite subjects, science and math. I feel like I worked hard on them this past semester, but not hard enough. So I set a goal for myself to get a grade next semester such that my year average will be an A. I agree with those of you who have been posting here that to be successful, you need to work for it unrelentlessly and then you will see yourself at the top of the mountain. So wish me luck these midterms and coming semester to stay motivated to reach these academic goals!</p>
<p>@elnamo good luck! straight A’s and understanding are within the realm of possibility for you.
I’m starting to study for my next-semester AP chemistry final tonight, actually (my final was today). 
I’m coming to terms that while I might not be the brightest person in the room, I still have a shot at being the most-hardworking.
My middle school principal had a metaphor of water being unable to boil at 211 degrees…the extra degree makes a huge difference.</p>
<p>If school, SAT scores, and college acceptances were really the absolute measure of intelligence and future success, there would not be people like Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates. On top of that, there are varying degrees of intelligence. Academic intelligence is one thing, but there are many different types. It is strange that it really doesn’t make any sense to think in such a way, and yet it happens to so many people.</p>
<p>I really like what the quoted article says about who succeeds at MIT despite the inherent challenges, but I think to say someone is not smart based on arbitrary factors is wrong, in my opinion. It is sad that the human mind can be affected to such an extent that you begin to doubt your own abilities; I would be surprised if that did not happen to me if I get into a top-tier school. Hopefully people will be able to overcome their difficulties in the ways described, but it would definitely be a difficult task as well.</p>
<p>Anyways, nice post.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>If this were true, Harvard would only be filled with kids from magnet schools (Stuyvesant, TJHSST, etc)!</p>
<p>The smartest kid isn’t necessarily the person you think. It’s not the grind that lives in the library or the kid with the 2400 SAT. It’s the lax bro that sits in the front row with his backwards hat and asks inquisitive questions because he has creative ways of extrapolating only the important information out of a dense and dull reading. It’s the quiet French major that doesn’t speak much in class but creates imaginative quiz shows to learn vocabulary and then blows the curve on the final because her prose is better than Baudelaire’s. It’s the sarcastic guy who’s always having a good time and doing well in school because he knows how to put every minute of his time to good use through an intricate schedule.</p>
<p>Colleges like HYPSM and similar schools (Rice, Georgetown, etc) aren’t culling the smart from the dumb. It seems like it, but it’s not. They’re looking for creative and adaptable students that can take an assignment that gives them a kick and… kick back. These kids reprogram their learning strategies. They tweak their approaches and most of, they never stop to say, “I can’t do this. I quit.” The minute you say that, your brain stops working and you start working for your education (imagine long, grindish hours in the dimly lit library at 2 a.m. after six packs of Red Bull; the supposed ‘good grade gospel’…). Once you can figure out how to cut study time to a minimum while scoring high grades, you make your education work for you.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates both scored 1590/1600. Also, both were accepted into Harvard.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Why do either of the first two conditions preclude the third?</p>
<p>Jimbo, lax bros aren’t typically associated with any of those things. I know a laxer who goes to ND (though he could have gotten in academic merit alone), so those types are definitely out there. At my high school, the kids who had a 2400 or a 4.0 were the ones taking ‘killer’ course loads and without a social life; certainly not the ones who were the best athletes. I was surprised in college when the kids who you wouldn’t think much of in HS were the ones blowing the curve. Then again, this may stem from the fact that the grind I always see trying to one up everyone “You studied for two hours? I studied for four! I have a 3.92, BTW, I’m god’s gift to Earth!” never has anything insightful to contribute in class.</p>
<p>How miserable it must be to have so little to contribute to conversation! I can not imagine a hole in conversation that could be filled with “You studied for two hours? I studied for four! I have a 3.92, BTW, I’m god’s gift to Earth!”</p>
<p>I must have gone to an odd school, or perhaps I did not notice the GPA-centric students. All the smart, competitive people I knew were fun to talk to and generally good guys (or girls, as the case may be). Their classroom contributions were plentiful and always appreciated, though our viewpoints often clashed. Literature is far more interesting when the discussion of it devolves into a twenty minute argument about the meaning of a scene…</p>
<p>I remember one argument where half the class (embarrassingly, I was a prominent member of this half) argued that John Donne’s “The Flea” was about abortion. We were given the poem without the title or poet and asked to interpret it… Fun debate, but I can’t believe I was so off!</p>
<p>Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates both left college because they blew everyone else out of the water, not because they “flunked out” or whatever people want to believe.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>This kid was seriously annoying.</p>
<p>(the day of registration)
Me: Hey, what courses did you get?
Girl: Astronomy, French, Arabic, etc, etc… but I’m gonna take Astronomy pass/fail; it seems so hard and I hate science. Besides, I need a 3.7 to graduate with honors, and I’m really borderline right now.
Annoying grind: (very loudly) Well, I have a 3.92 GPA AND I’m graduating with highest honors AND I’m top x%.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>There were a few exceptions to the rule: a few genuinely interesting guys and girls that did well and had interests outside of school certainly existed, but they were few and far between. What you described seems to be the case in college, definitely. For the most part in high school, people freaked if they got an 89/100 on a test. My favorites were the ones sulking in the cafeteria because, they “got a B” and are “failures.”</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Wow, I think it’s so amazing that you’re able to maintain such a balanced view of yourself despite being rank 1 and everything :). It seems so valuable to me to be able to evaluate yourself like that, a lot more valuable than extra intelligence at the cost of losing that remarkable perspective.</p>
<p>This is Cal Newport’s blog Study Hacks, if I’m not mistaken. His blog is very motivating in my eyes.</p>
<p>If I actually got to the top of my Class I would fall quickly. Which is why I wouldn’t go for Fame lol. But I feel like I’m actually smarter than I what I think just plain lazy. And people underestimate me alot: “How did you get an A?” “Very nice playing on the test (orch. cello)!” “Dude, no f- way!” Yea, they get shock whenever I do stuff like that but they get used to it lol.</p>