<p>I'm neither exceptional at academics or athletics (no 36 ACT or sports scholarship), but I'm passionate about learning. I'm an avid reader and avid film watcher. I ask a lot of questions and curious about everything. People criticize me that I have no specialty or specific goal. I have many interests and hobbies from running, fashion design, cooking, online, reading, lifting, and a lot more.</p>
<p>My question is What do you really think "smart" is? </p>
<p>My opinion is that it isn't ACT or GPA because many times it could be how hard/studious you work at school (like me) or some people naturally have high GPA or ACT (I have one friend that plays COD 40 hours a week and got a 28 ACT with 3.7 GPA). I definitely would fail the stereotype of "Asian smart" since I'm not going to Cornell and I don't have a 4.0. But I don't even think the definition of book smarts or street smarts fits it either. Some might say IQ is smart, but IQ can't really be changed only manipulated through techniques like the Eureka or Mozart. To me smart is the eagerness to learn and improve yourself. Smart is being passionate about learning and never stop asking questions.</p>
<p>Passion and curiosity are wonderful traits to have, sure. I’d rather be with 3.0 students who care about things than 4.0 students who care only about getting an A. But neither of those things is intelligent.</p>
<p>I’m not sure why you dismissed out of hand the people who naturally have high GPA and ACT. IMO, that’s really the closest thing to an example of pure intelligence I can think of. The guy who spends 40 hours a week playing COD doesn’t get a 4.0, sure, but he doesn’t have to work hard at all to get a 28 and 3.7. So he seems much smarter to me than a guy who gets a 36 and 4.0 by doing 5 hours of homework a night.</p>
<p>Actually I think high school is often too straightforward and game-able for the 3.7 vs. 4.0 thing to really be meaningful in most cases. Game-able in the sense that often exams are multiple choice and you sort of know what they’re looking for, and since most of the class isn’t utterly brilliant, much of it is about creating a good enough impression that you get a good score in the end. I gamed my way to a 4.0 without learning almost anything for the long run in my history classes or some others, and some put in a bunch less work than I did and got closer to 3.7’s … really I’d say, big deal. We all got into college, now we do our own things.</p>
<p>Realistically, intelligence as we all see it involves several components: mastery of using language and learning of its subtleties, mastery of sorting details as in a puzzle to produce the correct conclusion – bonus if able to do this very fast, intuitive intelligence as in technical fields, intellectual appetite, memory ability (not just being able to mug a book, but having a wildly powerful memory) and creative ability. Many of these correlate to a degree with each other and feed off each other. </p>
<p>Not everyone is endowed with an equal helping of each of these, “endowed” loosely meaning how someone turns out when they’ve intellectually matured sufficiently.</p>
<p>What should do if I’m not “smart”? I tend to read a lot, ask a lot of questions, and introspect. I’m very hard working, but I tend to have a lot of interests/goals and therefore I get distracted therefore I divert my energy/attention. I’m content with some aspects of myself.</p>
<p>In my opinion, smart is being able to interpret and learn information quickly. However, someone who is not “smart,” can just as easily earn the same grade as someone who is “smart” by putting in the study hours. Everyone is genetically different and that is a fact of life. But just think of how much more productive your life will be if you study every night instead of playing “COD” (as mentioned above) all the time. Diligence is a good characteristic.</p>
<p>The ability to improvise and think on your feet. There are tons of different kinds of intelligence, but that’s what I have the most respect for.</p>
<p>To retain vast amounts of information/ideas and also to regurgitate complex ideas in a simpler way. I guess there’s a “progressive” type element too.</p>
<p>btw i used to play cod 40 hours a week (and got a 28 on my act), but they ruined cod2 with bad maps and spawns.</p>