<p>Purely speaking in terms of GPA, what separates both parties? </p>
<p>For example, I would consider myself a great student, my average grade is closer to a 95.</p>
<p>On the other hand, my best friend in school has a 98 average and is an amazing student. </p>
<p>The irony is that we study together for most of our classes. For example, in a Physics test last Tuesday, we both studied with each other and the same concepts. Both of us do our homework the exact same way and get the same answers in the same amount of time. We are equal in a plethora of ways, the difference is that I got a C on the test and he got an A+. Using the exact same preparation, how did we get such a difference in scores? I understood the same concepts that he did and also completed the same homework he did. This is undoubtedly theoretical in the terms of your opinions. </p>
<p>I, in no way at all, am intimidated by the test taking experience, it’s all just an enigma to me.</p>
<p>It’s more than just a point disparity. What you are probably noticing is a difference in the way you are thinking about the concepts that leads to this 3 point score gap. It’s not just about the scores on the tests, but the way that you interact with the material.</p>
<p>I’m not talking specifically in my situation, that was just an example. What about a Harvard and Brown student? Both put in extreme amounts of effort,</p>
<p>Whatever it is, I’m sure it has very little to do with grades because high schools are full of grade inflation. (Obviously, good students and great students would both get good grades, but there’s nothing great about a 98 compared to a 95. I think the difference would be more qualitative than that.)</p>
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<p>What do you think, Brown is full of Harvard rejects or something? They’re both extremely prestigious, but aside from that they appeal to people for different reasons. Brown has an open curriculum, for example.
The hardest college to do well in isn’t necessarily the most prestigious college (though I’m sure there’s a correlation on some level). Many prestigious colleges have a lot of grade inflation too.</p>
<p>He’s probably putting in more work when your not realizing it. When he went home he probably studied more, or maybe he woke up extra early to review again. No such thing in this world (in my opinion!) as someone not being able to do as good or better then someone else. It all comes down to how much work you put in and how much you want it. When you want it bad enough then you will become the student with the 98</p>
<p>This is actually a really good question, one that may be difficult to answer. It could range from a variety of factors–IQ, perseverance, better test-taking intuition, a better overall grasp of the material, a penchant for checking answers twice, etc.</p>
<p>Brown and Harvard offer very different things; students who don’t go to HYP/MIT aren’t just ‘settling’ for a ‘lower’ school.</p>
<p>That aside, this topic is actually pretty interesting to me. I’d say academic intelligence is a combination of environment and natural ability–unfortunately, you can’t control natural ability.</p>
<p>To me “great student” implies that you have an interest in learning things for a class even when they’re not going to be on the test. It wouldn’t require being brilliant or even especially intelligent, though that would help. A “good student” might just be concerned about the grade, and wouldn’t go very far beyond what was necessary to get an A.</p>
<p>I don’t really think natural ability has anything to do with whether you’re a good student, though I think it’s a good motivator…if I thought I was dumb I wouldn’t be as motivated to study because I’d believe that I’d fail no matter how hard I tried.
But I think I’m a pretty suckish student even though my natural ability is probably at least slightly above average…I procrastinate and skip class and forget to turn things in and all kinds of stuff. Being smart just means you can do well even if you’re a bad student, if the class is easy enough. The smarter you are, the harder the class can be before you have to develop actual studying skills.</p>
<p>well, what did you do differently on the test that got you a C instead of an A? Because you can think you “understand” how to do everything, but maybe you actually don’t.</p>
There’s a study on this. People who were poor achievers and were told that intelligence is fixed performed worse (academically?) than people who were poor achievers that were told that intelligence is malleable.</p>
This makes sense. On days when I feel really crappy about myself, I do really poorly on tests and quizzes, while on “high self-esteem” days, I tend to do better.</p>
<p>Although I don’t like to think so, I do believe that a good portion of being a great student rests in natural ability. Not having integrity or drive certainly hinders that person from being a great student, it’s just a lot easier to be a “great” student if you’re naturally intelligent and good at thinking things through.</p>
<p>I don’t really consider myself naturally smart, which is why I try to convince myself that hard work is the main factor. It just really sucks when you have to put in 5x more effort than some of your friends to get the same grade. (I know grade doesn’t really measure intelligence - but you really just can’t help thinking it does sometimes, especially when someone else constantly gets higher grades than you.)</p>
<p>Extremely sorry guys, this was certainly a shocker to me. I went into Physics class today after school to look over my test. Each question was worth 3 points and there were 33 of them. According to the grade book, I received a 72 out of 99 (9 wrong). Looking over the test hastily, I saw that there were only 4 wrong on the Scantron. Apparently, my Physics teacher entered the grade that came after mine and sooooo, it was all a mistake. I got a 88 instead of a 72. That explains my inhibition!</p>