Inevitable?

<p>I DON'T take notes in class. In my opinion, when kids do this, they miss important points and explanations that the teacher is trying to make. I take mine (if any... sometimes I just naturally absorb it and don't have to go over the material) out of class, perhaps before that particular lecture or after.</p>

<p>i usually don't either unless it's one of those "memorization" classes or one where the material isn't in the textbook. Reading the textbook > taking notes</p>

<p>Yeah- with the exception of calc,i never take notes in class.I hate having to use two books to study for exams. Especially when everything mentioned in class is in the textbook.</p>

<p>Just thought I'd share an interesting tid-bit about the correlation between grades and SAT scores (because someone was saying how they did great on the SATs and are getting nailed at Berkeley). One of my math profs had done studies within the department about the correlation between SAT scores and eventual grade in a class, and it was 24%. I do not know the exact number of classes that he looked at, but it was at least Calc 2, 3 and LinAlg (the classes he had taught over the past few years). </p>

<p>It just goes to show that the SATs are a terrible predictor of how well you can learn advanced concepts such as mathematical/physical proofs, the stuff that fills engineering classes.</p>

<p>Back to the original point of this thread. My school offers a "how to learn" class at the beginning of each year. I went to it and the moral of the story was that there are several ways in which people have done very well. There were a few useful pointers such as re-reading notes just after class or before bed, but the bottom line seemed to be do what you feel comforatable with.</p>

<p>For me, I dislike taking notes in class. I find that I am too concerned with actually getting it all done on paper, even when I try to only focus on the major points, that I don't learn the concepts at all. I just pay attention to what the teacher is saying, and follow the work/proofs that are going on as best I can. I usually take my own notes on the subject about a week before an exam and work from that to study if I use notes at all, I rely heavily on the books when it comes to studying. I tend to show up to class with no books/pens/anything really. Its work out so far and I can't imagine changing much.</p>

<p>spe07, I'd reckon that is because SATs are poor indicators of intelligence. Now, if the professor gave everyone an IQ test the first day of class, and then based his studies off of that, I'm sure there would be a better correlation.</p>

<p>Mr Payne, </p>

<p>Actually he has given several forms of various test prior to each class that he taught (both general and math intelligence type question) none of which have given a correlation higher than 40%. </p>

<p>You are probably right though, a true, professionally done IQ test on the first day would probably be a pretty good indicator</p>

<p>IQ is overrated. progress in humanity occurs when people make connections that no one has made before, NOT making some "brilliant" connections that have been made before. </p>

<p>i hate puzzles and strategy games. i hate word puzzles. i had a bad experience with these sorts of things early on and i just detest them. you can say that i have a low intelligence for not having the patience for voluntary problem solving... but don't judge until you know what is going on inside my head. tests are bull-feces as ingenuity is impossible to judge.</p>

<p>
[quote]
progress in humanity occurs when people make connections that no one has made before, NOT making some "brilliant" connections that have been made before.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>But who make these connections that no one has made before? By and large it is by people with very high IQs, history has proven this over and over again. </p>

<p>I agree that IQ tests (or any other test for that matter) are not a perfect measure of ones intelligence and ingenuity, but they are relatively good predictators to ones abilities.</p>

<p>Well, the SAT only really tests crystallized intelligence in respect with English and Mathematics.</p>

<p>"IQ is overrated. progress in humanity occurs when people make connections that no one has made before, NOT making some "brilliant" connections that have been made before."</p>

<p>Please tell me you are joking. What - pray tell - do you think the average IQ of the technical Noble winners?</p>

<p>^^^ That last sentence should be read as "What do you think the average IQ of the technical (bio, chem, physics) Noble winners is?</p>

<p>I dunno, but my brother graduated from our state college's engineering program with a 3.9, and said that employers kinda wonder...think you might be a little too nerdy to interact well. Obviously not true for all cases, but he always jokes that his advisor told him to "take a B...it'll be better in the long run" he also had a rather active social life, he was just insanely good at managing his time...if only I could do that.</p>

<p>Was your brother a PSU student? a 3.9 is amazing. what did he major in?</p>

<p>let's think for a minute about the concept of an IQ...</p>

<p>we are measuring a person's intelligence based on their response to a test that someone else wrote. that is, how can the IQ test test expansive reasoning if one thinks in a completely different fashion than what the test is trying to test for. i guess it comes down to the definition of "intelligence" used.</p>

<p>let me tell you a short story:
i am a student at hmc. i am pretty average there, by the books. i passed all of my classes but did not do exceptional in most of them. (i did get all A's in my engineering classes though!)
professors who don't talk to me much think that i am average. perhaps i am. i don't do too well on timed tests and i am a slow learner. however, some professors that have talked to me have declared me extremely brilliant...for my intuition of how things work and creating elegant and complete solutions to challenging problems. sometimes my fellow students flatter me by declaring me a "genius" or by saying i'm way to smart for my own good. the man i work for at jpl tells people i am a genius and is now training me to be the alternate for the msl propulsion guy.</p>

<p>i don't believe i am a genius, no matter what people say. if i had to guess, i am either relatively bright or stupid enough that i am perceived as smart. insight is how i measure intelligence... not speed or quantity.</p>

<p>let me tag something else on...</p>

<p>my writing is dicontinuous because i wrote the following post very tired.... i sorta forgot what i was trying to get at, sorry.</p>

<p>I think it's safe to say that you are probably pretty bright if you got all A's at Harvey Mudd and you now work at JPL. Anecdotal evidence has no weight in any discussion of intelligence. Most (intelligent) people put the category of genius at the 99th percentile. I'd put you at that point with a fairly high degree of certainty.</p>

<p>An intelligence test <em>can</em> test reasoning skills. If the test is purely a quantitative test it seems that performance on the test will correlate quite well to the quantitative skills of the test taker (which is what I, personally, value for intelligence).</p>

<p>It's possible that the "genius" connotation makes people think of that "1 in 10000" person. That's just stupid. It's impressively hard to discern who is a "1 in 1000" and a "1 in 10000" simply because our knowledge of intelligence isn't well defined.</p>

<p>Mr Payne, but what if let's say a genius who has a 99.5 percentile IQ never learned any Math? He'd fail the test and he'd be labled stupid or something.</p>

<p>I mean this genius could be from a third world country and could have worked all his life since the age of seven helping out his parents with the farm work and could have never gone to school to even learn basic math.</p>

<p>mr payne,
let me clarify a bit... i really didn't get straight A's. the only A's i got were in engineering classes. touch</p>

<p>HOW THE FU CK DID YOU GET A'S IN ENGINEERING COURSES?
That's really impressive. Which engineering specialization was this?</p>

<p>The best IQ tests are those that have extremely hard problems but do not rely on advanced techniques to solve.</p>

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