<p>I laugh at the people citing GPA or SAT scores as indicators of intelligence.</p>
<p>The SAT is a knowledge based test. Einstein would have done miserably in the math section if no one tossed him an algebra book at one point before taking it. I’m oversimplifying things here but suffice to say it’s poor as an IQ test (not that those measure true intelligence anyway).</p>
<p>GPA has even less to do with intelligence. Family values, socioeconomic status, social sphere, work-muling, grade-grubbing, gamesmanship, personal values, dumb luck, hair-brained teachers. And I had an extremely high GPA.</p>
<p>It’s hard to define intelligence. I’m not going to say the smartest guy but I’ll say one of the smarter ones: George Carlin. That was one very intelligent guy.</p>
<p>To some degree, intelligence is something one may be able to define a few different ways. I like to think of it as having the following components: raw deduction skill, intuitive ability, intellectual appetite, creative ability. The first has to do with proceeding quickly through checking all possibilities sort of like a computer and discerning the right answer once the intuition is there for instance.</p>
<p>I think a miniscule bit of the first and second are present in the SAT. The third is probably the only one that really correlates with GPA at all, and even then vaguely because it’s a lot of grubbing, and true appetite leads one to learn more freely. But we can all agree these 4 things lead to some wonderful, nontrivial intelligent accomplishment.</p>
<p>@mathboy: I think that was a really good way to put it. I agree intelligence can be defined differently, but I like the way you explained it in your first few sentences. </p>
<p>Do you guys think being able to compose and play music well is a type of intelligence? It’s not as simple as writing a song or score, it has a lot to do with understanding rhythm and movement and much of that is intuitive I guess.</p>
<p>Your amount of life experience is awe-striking. I’m sure that with your advanced age, there’s no way you could meet anyone smarter than you yourself are at this point in time.</p>
<p>Hate to break it to ya, kid, but middle school stops counting for anything after, well, middle school.</p>
<p>The smartest person I know did not speak until age 5. He came from a lower middle class family with 5 children in Staten Island. He attended Stonehill College and played basketball there, because they gave him a free ride. He was editor-in-chief of his middle of the road law school. He can play 3-4 different musical instruments (never having been trained) and can play any sport very well. He is brilliant on many levels. His SAT scores? Who knows, and in any case, surely meaningless.</p>
<p>He is also the wealthiest person I know.</p>
<p>Oh, and P.S., he really liked his pot back in the day.</p>
<p>Haha, I think there are many different types of intelligence. There are people who innately pick up on math/science concepts but can’t write an English essay to save their lives, and vice versa. So you can’t just arbitrarily say, “Who is the most intelligent person you know” because everyone has different facets of intelligence.</p>
<p>smartest person I actually KNOW (not counting stories of people I sort of know) has an IQ of 156. No need to explain his perfect memory or amazing quantitive reasoning skills - you all probably know one. </p>
<p>I can’t imagine someone with an IQ of 170+ that’s still “socially normal.” Though, the smartest guy in the world, some korean dude with an IQ of 203 or something, is said to be socially normal. He learned 6 languages by the time he was 4, lol!</p>
<p>I know a kid who has Asperger’s Syndrome but he is crazy at math, physics, psychology, and even in literature. This kid is doing linear algebra and differential equations in his senior year of high school. Calc-based physics is a breeze for him, and my goodness, I’ve never met a more brilliant programmer. Intended major? Computer Science. Writes ridiculously impossible games in his spare time, seems very fitting for him.</p>
<p>I hate to rag on an eighth grader but a 1650 out of 2400 on the SATs is nothing. I got a 1400 when I took the test in 7th grade and I’m admittedly pretty dumb/mediocre.</p>
<p>my math teacher lol
part time lawer (stanford law school), former governmental researcher (phd in astrophysics), owns multiple aircrafts, speaks 5 languages, former opera singer (sang in the carnegie hall)…etc
seriously, he knows everything</p>
<p>my brother. can do multivariable calculus witht he snap of a finger, chemistry nerd, loves math math math.</p>
<p>didn’t do **** in high school. went to a branch campus of penn state cuz he wanted to stay home, then transferred to university park. now gets a stipend and free tuition at villanova for grad school. also tutors there.</p>
<p>That’s a hard one… I don’t think I’ve met a single person who stood out above the others. I’ve heard of people around me who I want to meet who are very accomplished, but I’ve never met someone who was much smarter than everyone else around them.</p>
<p>My brother has this friend who skipped two grades and is like a math and science genius though…</p>
<p>Wisdom is not truly wisdom if derived from books alone. - Horace, written circa 65 BC. </p>
<p>I have a friend who has 2300 SATs, 4.6 GPA, attending Harvard, but isn’t the most intelligent person I know. He just plain works hard. He is constantly studying and taking notes. Intelligence is the ability to grasp concepts and patterns not only in academia but in the world around oneself as well. </p>
<p>The idea of intelligence itself is quite skewed. I can sit in an AP class and listen to a teacher lecture, never taking notes nor doing homework, and still get an A because everything just “makes sense”. Is that intelligence? </p>
<p>My high school cumulative GPA is 4.28. Does that make me intelligent, or just hard working? </p>
<p>My definition of intelligence is the ability to comprehend what goes on in the world around me, and to see things in different perceptions and dimensions; to be able to articulate and communicate, to be able to relate to everyone and everything. </p>
<p>To know that you know nothing, is true wisdom.</p>