<p>I think people in the top ten are more secretive about how hard they work</p>
<p>duck syndrome</p>
<p>"duck syndrome" - that's the first time i've heard of the term but I like it.</p>
<p>It's usually used to describe Stanford students :P</p>
<p>not if you poke around a bit. You can probably find someone who's willing to help you out. Like how I'm trying to set my brother up with this A+ student in my grade. She would never teach me her methods. lol.</p>
<p>ha lol, i am not secretive about anything.
Whats weird is that our top 10 are all liberals cept me and maybe another who might be more moderate. kinda weird. I wish i had the capacity to sit down and study seriously.</p>
<p>Ours are just hard-workers. Some will do brilliantly in life, some will fail as soon as they get to college and meet people who work even harder than them.</p>
<p>"I think people in the top ten are more secretive about how hard they work."</p>
<p>I agree with this. The people who are truly intelligent in our top ten tend to be the ones that most people don't realize are exceptionally smart (until they hear through the grapevine about their class ranks, SAT scores, amazing outside-of-school extracurriculars, or are in a class discussion with them, etc) because they don't brag about their smarts or pretend to know everything. These people may not get "most likely to succeed" in superlatives and such because alot of people don't realize how smart they are...but I think they probably are the most likely to succeed.</p>
<p>The highly ranked students who aren't very smart are the ones who alot of people believe to be intelligent because they preach their supposed intelligence in an extremely obnoxious fashion. It's really a mix between these two categories in my school.</p>
<p>Our #1 is a really nice girl. Most of the top ten are really smart, but shy shy shy. HOWEVER, one boy in the top ten got an 82 on the IQ test we took. And his combined SAT was 1300. And he's a jerk.</p>
<p>im also biased, but ill give my opinion anyway. lol. our val is not really that smart, but studies for hours and hours. like he doesnt go out on weekends, so he obvously gets like 98's in every class. the rest of us in the top 10, are procrastinators. we usually do most of our homework and studying in 1st period and study the night before, for a test.</p>
<p>maybe half of my school's top 10 is actually smart. The other half is either dumb or knows how to work the system.</p>
<p>oh no. our school's top 10 kids r definitely the smart ones. i'm essentially one of 'em at the end of last yr but this yr has been kickin my ass so i dunno where i'll be ranked after finishin JR yr.
tho most of 'em r not athletic. lol. however, some have exceptional SATs and EC's. </p>
<p>we just got our NHS induction letter on friday. the top 26 kids of the class. i was kinda upset (i did get inducted) b/c some of the kids, at least 3-4...are not the typical "smart" kids. some of 'em probably only have 1-2 honors and no APs whatsoever. yet they got in, i have no idea how. what got me ****ed off was that some of the ppl who we all thought DESERVED to earn a seat did NOT get in. my school changed its strategy in choosing members this year. teachers actually have to recommend ppl from now on. so i guess that made the difference. but i just it wasn't that fair. i guess some ppl just got lucky. and yes some of those 3-4 ppl are my friends</p>
<p>
<p>The highly ranked students who aren't very smart are the ones who alot of people believe to be intelligent because they preach their supposed intelligence in an extremely obnoxious fashion. It's really a mix between these two categories in my school.
</p>
<p>= My school exactly.</p>
<p>i think that it's equally commendable that someone can work the system to be in the top ten. I mean, isn't that what life is really about? Taking what you have to achieve what you want?</p>
<p>I agree, and its not a fair system.</p>
<p>In my school at least, being in the top ten is not a measure of intelligence, it is a measure of how much of a life you DON'T have. </p>
<p>In my AP US Hist class, the valedictorian of our class is in it (it is her only AP class). She beats me at the end of every quarter in grades...but when it comes to tests, and general knowledge of US history, I completely DOMINATE her. If you were to simply test knowledge of history, she would get in the 80's. But the school projects save her...</p>
<p>She has absolutely no life and spends her weekends either at her Mormon church, or working on school projects and making them look good.</p>
<p>I think a different system, where tests are just as important as assigned work and projects, would be a better system for determining what you have actually learned. Though for colleges, students who do better on assignments tend to be more motivated, the assignments do not accurately judge what knowledge you have.</p>
<p>Sorry, I highly dislike her. It is impossible to compete with her, since she has absolutely no life.</p>
<p>the smartest kids are in the top 15, but usually not the top spot. At my school it is extremely competitive so you have to be at least a little intelligent to do well. i mean the val is graduating with like 22 ap classes and 8 community college classes under his belt</p>
<p>Im in the top 10% of my school</p>
<p>Honestly, theres only two people (including me) who are actually intelligent. I have three friends who are in the top 30% who are brilliant but dont have the patience to deal with homework every night</p>
<p>
[quote]
I think a different system, where tests are just as important as assigned work and projects, would be a better system for determining what you have actually learned.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>That's the system we have :) In some classes tests are worth over 50% of our grade, and in all of them they're worth at least 30%. I don't know who our top 10 is but I don't think it's worth much... our weighting system is a bit messed up.</p>
<p>My whole school is stupid, but I would say, out of the top 10 (other than me):</p>
<p>2 girls probably "average smart" that work extremely hard
2 girls who kiss up to every teacher, generally annoying and really stupid.
6 girls who are OCD, anal-retentive, big-time procrastinators (that seems weird but it's a part of perfectionism that you don't want to do anything if it isn't perfect, or you want an excuse that it isn't perfect).</p>
<p>For an example of the last category, in a music honors class where literally EVERYONE breathing in the class gets a 100 on every test, project, midterm, and final grade, a girl continually agitates for extra credit...even though our school doesn't allow more than 100. It's just ridiculous. Every single day-"What extra credit can I get?"</p>
<p>I agree with anyone who says that the top 10 = doesn't have a life. Sadly, I do find it true. It's IMPOSSIBLE for me to go on vacation, even for 2 days, because of how many projects and stuff that gets assigned. I don't think anyone in the top 10 has taken a vacation since middle school (excluding summer). Only about 3 are involved in sports or any dominant ec-most don't do anything.</p>
<p>I know who the top 3 are. Beyond that, there's a sizeable gap and no one really cares about rank. </p>
<p>Are the top 10 stupid? Not the top three, obviously. There are probably a few fairly intelligent people in there that don't care enough about grades to try harder, but there is an equal amount of people who take the easiest honors classes possible just to puff up their ever so important GPA.</p>
<p>Half of the top ten are hyper smart, and the other half are successful grade grubbers/cheaters, much like any other competitive part of life.</p>