Is it normal to have no idea if you are smart?

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15 Comments

I have no idea if I am actually smart of if I just work hard. I am in college and I go to a pretty selective school. I have straight A's but I also work really hard for those grades and I feel as though if I were actually smart I wouldn't need to, or at least not as much. I graduated high school with honors and took plenty of AP courses but only got a 27 on my ACT. I know this is sort of a strange question and it's not like knowing whether or not I am actually smart is going to change anything but I'm just curious. Does anyone else ever feel like this?

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86% Normal
Based on 51 votes (44 yes)
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Comments ( 15 )
  • howaminotmyself
    10 years ago | pl

    I heard of a study (sorry, can't site my source) that said kids do better in school with praises of "you're a hard worker" over "you're smart." The hard workers have more perseverance on complicated tasks. Whereas the "smart" kids gave up quickly when met with a challenge.

    I found that interesting.

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    • macaroniheyo
      10 years ago

      I have to admit that im one of those "smart" kids. And I have completely horrible working habits, but im getting better at it. I think part of it is that I was never really used to actually having to work in school, because all throughout elementary and some of middle school, everything was intensely easy.

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    • RomeoDeMontague
      10 years ago

      When you are smart things are so easy. So you don't have to try for anything. That is why some very intelligent people tend to get very lazy. When you don't have to try hard to be good why should you care? Nothing is really motivating you. So when something is a little hard they are so use to everything being so simple will sometimes just give up. Some people who are naturally very gifted get this kind of attitude. People who are not as bright have to try hard all the time. However if someone is overwhelmed by it they will sometimes quit as the work is too much to handle.

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  • disthing
    10 years ago

    Forget about quantifying your smarts, are you capable of achieving your aspirations? Focus on what you want to achieve and how best to achieve it, rather than trivial stuff like whether you're gifted mentally or whether it's your work ethic filling the void.

    An averagely intelligent person who is diligent and organised, hard working with good interpersonal skills, passionate and knowledgable will almost always be preferable to an incredibly intellectually gifted person with no motivation, poor interpersonal skills who is disorganised and has never had to work hard in their lives. In other words, being bright is only potential, it's no guarantee.

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  • braintrip
    10 years ago

    im not smart at all when it comes to math
    i dont even know basic 8th grade math, and ive never ever understood trig, even though ive been hearing how to do it since 9th grade
    i suck at paying attention

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  • shuggy-chan
    10 years ago

    Intelligence is difficulty to measure. It best to be a hard worker and be humble about any accomplishment you achieved

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  • Wendell
    10 years ago

    Nigga you dumb af
    Just kidding, a 27 is good! People say I'm smart, and I got a 26.

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  • EccentricWeird
    10 years ago

    This site is a piece of shit

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  • [Old Memory]
    10 years ago

    "I have no idea if I am actually smart of if I just work hard"

    The first sentence says no.

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  • Devyn
    10 years ago

    According to IQ tests my IQ is anything from 125 to 161. Given time to revise (summer exams) my grades have been straight A*s. Without proper time to revise (january exams) I got a mix of As, Bs and a C on a day I was ill.

    I also have a friend who has a similar mental capacity to me, but does very little work. His grades are much lower (Ds, Cs, Bs and As).

    So from experience I'd say hard work has a much larger effect on grades than intelligence. I would also suggest that hard work is the more useful of the two, and the more sort after by employers.

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  • dirtybirdy
    10 years ago

    I know damn well what I'm not.

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  • soul-man
    10 years ago

    I used to think I was smart but thanks to people around me constantly putting me down I don't anymore. Don't end up like me.

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  • Nephew7
    10 years ago

    If you think youre smart youre stupid- JOE ROGAN

    Youre just borrowing information from smart people.

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  • Terence_the_viking
    10 years ago

    Oof.

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  • BlackJohnnylicious
    10 years ago

    y0 ma homeboi.. yo better drop dem books n start crippin'.. either yo down with the blue, or ya down with the red n get shot at nigga.

    yo shoot guns, smack bitches n have a holla good time nigga.

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