<p>So I belong to THAT group of people. You know, the nerds who take as many AP classes as they can and know random heaps of esoteric knowledge but never study for a test? Yep, that's me. I can talk your ear off about Lorentz, Machiavelli or palmistry but forget about studying. I haven't seen the inside of a math book since eighth grade. My friends and I routinely talk about how we didn't even try during this test and we aced it anyway. Hardworking grinds in our class envy us. Those people do the homedwork and outline and still do worse on tests than we., who rarely if ever outline. Yeah, we tell ourselves, we're awesome and make fun of all those obsessive studiers.</p>
<p>Note: I KNOW BELIEVE THIS IS AN IDIOTIC WAY TO GO.</p>
<p>Fine, I could breeze on by for three years in honors and AP classes. BUt when you got tons of AP classes you can't not study. You can't blow off the exam until the night before. You have to grind because, guess what, natural smartnes is b"""s""t. IN reality, working hard is everything.
Its a cultural problem, in America. People believe in natural intelligence. "smart is in genetics" No, everyone is smart,in reality the difference in brilliance depends on how hard you work. Hard work has been overlooked.</p>
<p>I think everybody has inclinations for different things, some being helpful in school. But yes, hard work does go a long way. My Dad ALWAYS tells me, “it’s not that you’re STUPID, it’s just that those smart kids work harder than you.”</p>
<p>This year has been hard for me though because my best friend is THAT person who seriously doesn’t study…and I know her. She doesn’t act smart either…it’s pretty weird. She studies for AP Chem…but nothing else really, besides for doing her homework. We have the hardest math teacher in the school and she has a 98 average without studying, and I…81% lol. She told me she liked when I asked her questions on the day of the math test because that was her method of studying haha.</p>
<p>I think it’s a bit of both. In Psychology, we learned about these things called reaction ranges, where some of your intelligence is determined by genetics, the rest by your environment. So, for example, two children are both born with a reaction range of 100-120. Child A is raised in a great, interactive environment with lots of stuff to stimulate him; his IQ would end up being closer to 120. On the other hand, Child B is born to a poor family who can’t afford to stimulate their child, and busy parents aren’t able to talk to their kid as much or read to him. As a result, his IQ ends up closer to 100. So, your “range” is determined by genetics, but where you fall in that range depends on your environment. (Obviously there are problems with it, but what theory doesn’t?)</p>
<p>Blah…I used to be ‘that kid’ that never studied but still got really high grades on tests, glad I grew out of that. Getting A’s and B’s without studying<Getting straight, high A’s while studying and actually learning. It also helped when I realized that real life doesn’t give an eff how ‘naturally’ smart you are, only how hard you are willing to work.</p>
<p>You explained the problem perfectly. I am very much still on that boat, but learning to grow out of it. Hard work will always be > no work ethic. This only feeds the problem of branding lazy, idle children who will have to learn the hard way. Obviously it’s a problem, and we must heed to the issue and find the core causes of it and learn to not fall into that group of students. If only that was plausible…</p>
<p>Getting straight A+'s without studying and actually learning > Getting straight As without studying & actually learning > any other combination of grades and level of studying and learning.</p>
<p>^^^LET ME CLARIFY
Getting straight A’s where I still don’t really study that much but pay attention in class and do required chapter readings, but doing a review sheet before a test if I don’t feel completely confident>Grade grubbing and getting A’s>any other combination
I don’t see how occasionally reinforcing things I don’t really know is ‘grade grubbing’? I still literally didn’t study once in 2 of my classes this year and got high A’s (as in, not cracking a textbook). But in the ones I didn’t 100% easily know, I occasionally did practice problems or whatever before a test. Is that that bad?</p>
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