<p>This thought keeps coming into my head no matter how many times I try to block it out. Is he just better then me or did I not try my hardest?</p>
<p>My high school calc teacher said, "Sometimes you'll do your absolute best and still come up short. And there will always be that kid in the class that rarely comes in. Then on test day he takes it and within 20 minutes he leaves the class. You sit there for the next 2 hours struggling just to get through. The next thing you know he gets a near perfect score while you are stuck with a freakin' C. Sometimes you are forced to ask yourself, 'What the hell is wrong with me?, Why can't I do what that kid does?'. The honest to God truth: There is nothing wrong with you; they are just "better"...." </p>
<p>Sometimes I wonder how far hard work will get you. I've seen genius kids who do nearly nothing and get excellent grades. I've seen people who must work extremely hard to get those grades.</p>
<p>Anyway, do you think its hard work or innate ability? Do you try when you know that you'll be in the B/C range no matter what? Or do you try even though you know you may never be able to set the curve? </p>
<p>What really separates the 'best' from the good/great?</p>
<p>Unfortunately, I'm one of those kids who have to work by BUTT off to get the same grades as the naturally smart kids. It really sucks that they don't have to do anything and can do as well, or better than me on the tests, when I was the one who put in the work to understand it. Some people understand things more quickly, which is uberly unfair. But that's how the cards were dealt.</p>
<p>But I know I have better work ethic, which may prove more useful in the future than just relying on natural ability. I mean, naturally smart people are amazing and cool, but it's unfair that they don't understand what it's like to NOT believe in yourself, and to doubt your abilities, to have to work your A** off to get the A. </p>
<p>That's my spiel for the day. But really. Keep working at it. Things don't come easy to everyone, but as long as you keep chugging away and try to keep a positive attitude, it WILL come. It will turn out alright and you will be a better person for the effort you put in. :)</p>
<p>It's better to be hardworking than smart. You will go farther if you have a strong work ethic as opposed to coasting along in high school because you find it so easy. When you get to college, if you have worked hard in high school, it will be easy to adjust and you will continue to get good grades because you know what you need to do to get those good grades.</p>
<p>And good grades impress a potential employer much more than being all that smart. </p>
<p>For smart kids, high school is so easy that they can avoid studying and still do well. Then they go to college and find it very hard to change and start studying in order to get good grades.</p>
<p>Work hard. It is the guaranteed way to do well in life and be well liked and respected at your future job.</p>
<p>By the way, it is not 'unfair' that some rare kids are pretty intelligent and most are not all that intelligent. The less intelligent kids got something else that sets them apart and makes them special. Great football ability, or very good looking, or naturally patient or kinder by nature, some other quality that makes them very special and attractive. </p>
<p>Brains are nice, but not essential to be happy and make others happy, and to do something worthwhile in the world. We all have value. Find out what you have going for you besides your intelligence and hard work. You are special, we all are, find where your natural talents lie and use them!</p>
<p>I actually wish I hadn't had it so easy the first few years of high school. Now, when my natural ability is pretty much not going to help with my courses anymore, I am feeling the problems of not having a better work ethic. Ugh. I still consider myself smart, and capable to do the work I could last year with ease, it's just the effort that is the problem. For reference, last year I had 3 APs and managed fine, and had the positive reinforcement of getting good grades without much effort. For example, I studied moderately for a psych test at cc and got the only A in the class, and things like that led me to study less, and it hasn't been a problem until now. I really admire those with good work ethics.</p>
<p>yes!! i always feel that way next to this kid in my school..he's brilliant, and he always blows off things..He got a near perfect SAT score, can speak spanish, is super math-smart, is really good in english, adn it just bothers the crap out of me b/c i'm like the person who has to pay attention and who does a lot of work but i still manage to feel like i came up short.
i guess i shouldn't compare myself to others..it only makes me depressed! </p>
<p>anyway, to answer the question: i think that it's hardwork and natural understanding, or a natural inclination to ask someone to explain. nothing's entirely black or white in my opinion.</p>
<p>I don't think anyone is better/best... I mean, maybe someone is better than you at one given task, but overall, no one is better than anyone else. No one is going to get anywhere based on pure hard work nor pure innate intelligence (and remember there are different types of intelligence/skill, as schoolmarmABC pointed out).</p>
<p>^^^ you say that intelligence isn't everything, but in a lot of societies and families, it is. Where I live and the group I hang out with, intelligence is everything. The ability to be smart, to understand, etc. I am definitely NOT naturally smart, but I can still keep up with all these kids in AP classes. I just work harder.</p>
<p>I know that all people have things that set them apart. But these days, society emphasizes a need to be intelligent SO MUCH, that if you are not a "genius," you are a nobody. I think that is the biggest flaw of our society at this point. The over-emphasizing of making kids intelligent. It's important, but schools should HELP us be intelligent and not just expect us to be naturally so.</p>
<p>Taking challenging math courses at your young ages can actually make you a bit more intelligent.</p>
<p>I have seen this work with some girls my daughter knew. They slaved and did math problems (with the assistance of their college prof father) and improved dramatically in math in a year. Imagine going home and for a year (all of 8th grade) doing math problems. </p>
<p>But it worked. They became National Merit semi-finalists and valedictorians, and let me tell you, they were smart but not overly smart. They just worked for hours and hours every night and weekend during 8th grade on math problems. </p>
<p>If you really want to be smarter, you can become a little smarter this way.</p>
<p>Let me tell you something you don't know yet. Right now, you are all in high school classes and you can see who is 'smarter' and who has to work hard. It won't be quite so obvious in college, or in a job. Really loving what you do may motivate you to learn all you can about the subject, and then you will come off as the 'smarter', more knowledgeable, person.</p>
<p>Look far; quite honestly in the later stages of life hardworking people get further. Natural ability alone won't get them really far in life (accordingly, there are exceptions). Not to mention intelligence coming in multiple forms, social intelligence may be valued higher in some jobs than academic intelligence, some are better at art, music, etc...you know the cliche. Being a genius in physics may not matter altogether in some other practical jobs or something like that.</p>
<p>For the record, I don't think I even have a work ethic - or...I don't recall a single instance of myself studying for longer than 20 minutes ever that's independent of a school-classroom. I don't remember a single thing I learned in elementary, and middle school and freshman year I never studied, didn't do my hw, etc.</p>
<p>I'm not a genius. I'm a bit above average, and that's it. Think far...I envy those with good work ethics and studying habits; studying is something I just cannot do. I'm currently about 2 weeks into sophomore year and I already have 50% hw (F) in three of my subjects...and etc.</p>
<p>It's a fairly sketchy topic and a complex one with no definitive answers, but I'd ultimately guess that hardworkers get much further in life (I remember reading this someone in an article but meh).</p>
<p>Achievement is not always success while reputed failure often is. It is honest endeavor, persistent effort to do the best possible under any and all circumstances.
-Orison Swett Marden</p>
<p>*My high school calc teacher said, "Sometimes you'll do your absolute best and still come up short. And there will always be that kid in the class that rarely comes in. Then on test day he takes it and within 20 minutes he leaves the class. You sit there for the next 2 hours struggling just to get through. The next thing you know he gets a near perfect score while you are stuck with a freakin' C. Sometimes you are forced to ask yourself, 'What the hell is wrong with me?, Why can't I do what that kid does?'. The honest to God truth: There is nothing wrong with you; they are just "better"...." *</p>
<p>Man I wanna go to school that lets you out after you take your tests...</p>
<p>He's better at taking tests and regurtitating information that's for sure. Someone at my school is more social, smarter, more hard working, and probably more ... definetly more athletic than me. But I can think of a few things and one that will later lead into my career that I can do better than this person and that makes me feel happy :)</p>
<p>OH when my teacher was talking he was referring to his UCSD classes. And he was also referring to those 3 kids in our class that always understood everything and got near perfects on every pop test we had . </p>
<p>One thing I did learn was to have good work ethics. Being pounded with 3 hours of hw a night and getting your AP credits was worth it, b/c I still have the discipline to sit down everynight and do my hw. </p>
<p>I think a lot of times what separates good students from bad students is how they study. You can study ten hours a day and if you're not studying the right way, you won't get anything out of it. And it's not because you're dumb, it's because you're approaching the subject the wrong way or you have the wrong attitude towards it. Think of the physics student who tries to memorize every formula in the book and collapses when presented with a non-trivial problem. Or the note-taker who spends more time highlighting and organizing stuff than actually thinking about the material.</p>
<p>Back when I was in Algebra 1 I used to put all word problems into different categories and memorize ways to solve each one. I'd solve "mixture" problems with box diagrams, "motion" problems with tables, and "area" problems by drawing rectangles. Which meant I was alright on the homework, and even on some of the tests, but as soon as I moved to another book or tried solving harder problems, I was completely screwed. Mind you, I was pretty damn smart. And I did all the problems in the book. But I wasn't actually learning math, I was memorizing formulas. If I'd known to look at math the right way I'd have understood it better, and I definitely wouldn't have had to work as hard.</p>
<p>(I ended up retaking the class, which was good because the fourth time around I understood everything and got really good at it.)</p>