<p>Okay, I don't mean to sound insensitive, but our top 10 in our class (and historically, actually, nearly every year) are dumb as bricks.
It's usually the top 11-30 who are smart.
For example - the top 3 in my class may have high GPAs, but they're clueless and will probably get a 1400 on their SATs (for all 3 categories).
The valedictorian of both the class of '08 and '09 here are the thickest people I've ever met (one of them continually doesn't understand what sodomy is when we talk about it in history class, haha, but that's a different story)...</p>
<p>But what I'm asking is, at your school, does being in the top 10 guarantee brainpower?</p>
<p>Because the top 10 here just know how to do their homework and memorize well.</p>
<p>Since ranking is totally uncommon in German Schools, I can't say for certain who are the top 10, just what my guess is. A lot of them don't do anything except they know it I'll guarentee them good grades, thus a lot of them know how to get teachers to like them, but only the minority of them are the kind of person I'd consider smart.
In my opinion grades in general, don't say too much about a person and his or her intellectual capacity.</p>
<p>Well, I only know of our top two. Our valedictorian is really smart and puts a lot of time into each of her classes, very conscientious of her studies. She's just really bright and likes learning for learning's sake. Somehow she also fits in her bazillion extracurriculars, boyfriend, and friends. I'm her best friend, so it really makes me happy to see everything work out so well for her (we go to a small private school.... and I, on the other hand, am a huge procrastinator.) I should go bug her about that valedictorian speech!
I've had a couple classes with our Salutatorian. She appears really with-it and very friendly.
Neither were much of a surprise. We just didn't know what order they'd be in.</p>
<p>Our school doesn't rank, so I wouldn't know. But the top three of the senior class (valedictorian, salutatorian, and someone who reads something) have consistently been pretty bright and hard working. And for some reason, girls.</p>
<p>Well, since I am in the top ten, I am a bit biased in terms of ranking our top! ;) Anyway, I don't think our top ten is stupid at all. We all seem to work hard for our grades while balancing ECs and life!</p>
<p>Our top 10 (which includes myself), are all pretty intelligent people, some moreso than others. However, I think the thing that ultimately determined sal and val was anal retentiveness. These girls did every scrap of extra credit ever offered, studied for hours for tests they'd get maybe a 95 on otherwise, because they wanted their grades to be not only excellent, but perfect.</p>
<p>But I guess if they wanted a speech that bad, all the power to them. o.o</p>
<p>Our top 10 are pretty intelligent academically, but they definitely have their moments where they'll say something way out of left field that's completely wrong. Most of them are some of the laziest people that I know, but apparently it's a productive laziness. I'm convinced that most of them are secretly off-the-wall crazy, and only show it at certain times, like in English class.</p>
<p>I don't know if top 10 is really appropriate for my school, since we had around 700 students in my graduating class. I'd say in the top 5%, most of the ranking was due to course selection and the teachers you were assigned for classes everyone had to take. There were some people up there who were ranked really high because they had taken all of the "easy" APs and avoided the more difficult ones, while there were others who were ranked lower because they took a lot more difficult classes and just had rough luck with which teacher they were assigned.</p>
<p>our top 10 (out of 400) are all very smart, no doubt. Some are smart because they are super hard workers, and the majority of them are very intellectual. All of them have taken numerous AP classes and 5 zillion EC's etc. Many of them also have exceptional procrastinating skills. Except they are all stupid because I'm number 11 :D jk</p>
<p>I'm 99% sure I'm #1 (my school doesn't rank), and I'd consider myself decently smart, but I'm not a hard worker (haven't felt the need to yet). Of the next few top people, one of them is smart and a really hard worker, another is quite smart and a decently hard worker, and the third one is really smart and I'm not sure about his work habits.</p>
<p>All in all, the top people are the ones who are smart. I think it's because I'm from Canada, where getting into the top colleges isn't really all that tough, so people don't work as hard. Thus the ones who are naturally smart come out on top every time.</p>
<p>Our ranks aren't accurate until senior year but nonetheless, they give out awards to the top ten. I'm not in it because I got a few B's freshmen year. The current "top 10" don't seem to be all that special. More than half are getting B's and C's in the same classes as me (mainly AP Lang).
The girl right behind me is far from smart. She's only there because she got A+s in all her classes which consist of college math, CPs, and easy electives (like vid production....). </p>
<p>The most hardworking seem to be in the 10-20. They have most of the dedication, ECs (Many of the top 10s barely have anything special in terms of ecs), and so on.</p>
<p>It'll all work out in the end. The current Valec is pretty smart though.</p>
<p>our top ten is intelligent and hard working save for two people. One of those two cheats and tries to work around the system. The other one is me. I am not very smart and do so such little work for school and don't put much work in our school.
I can imagine most of the top 10 going to top colleges and doing well there.
I am kinda the odd man out of the group since i am so lazy and laid back. I am smack dab in the middle of the top 10 too.</p>