Why are some people so SMART?

[frenziedmalady]

I know there are people who are just so smart. I know a few people who are just geniuses and non of them brag lol They are actually quiet and friendly. My best friend aces everything, from language, history, to every sciences (physics, bio, everything) and math (name them all, she'll get it). Funny thing is, she just graduated development communication. I'm just happy for her that she actually did what would make her happy!

 

I agree, these truly smart people are the laid back and humble kind.

[lovestruck]

I think a lot of people that "cram" do well in the first few years of uni but it catches up in higher year classes. I took a physiology courses that was literally impossible to cram for. It was a 3rd year classes, but mostly taken by 4th years. When my "crammer" friends tried to do that for this class, they all did terrible. It worked in classes where questions were straight up memorization or multiple choice, but not in the higher level classes where they would ask you thinking and application long answer questions.

 

Personally, I only study the night before. However, I pick up stuff from lectures REALLY well. If I don't understand a lecture, I do go home that night and figure the concept out, but usually if the prof is competent the lecture itself is enough. So the night before, I do a quick review and memorize any numbers or dates I need to know and that's it. I typically do pretty well on exams using this strategy.

 

I wouldn't think of myself hugely smart just because I don't need to study for more then a day. I just think I'm a auditory-visual learner, so lectures are the ideal way for me to learn. It also helps that I usually take classes that none of my friends are in, so I have zero distractions!

 

And whoever said that the truly genius don't brag, I don't find that's necessarily true. I've met tons of people who are very smart, have been fawned over their whole lives for being that smart and now feel the need to shove it in everyone's face. I think it's all about upbringing and how other people treated you with respect to your smarts.

[rmorelan]

That's so true, my mom taught me how to addition/multiplication/fractions and such before i started school, and math has always been intuitive for me, possibly as a result of that

 

hehehe, my dad did the same - 2 hours of math starting when I was four and going up from there.

 

I really believe that a lot of "genius" is a function of long term hard work. Sound boring but I always felt that my scores in math had much less to do with intelligence than practice

[PhoenixFlare500]

My take on this thread, cramming does work if you pay attention in class and learn from all your assignments and all that. I definitely did not study every day (actually most days) and still did quite well. I got a few Bs from classes you should not cram for, but that was due to my own stupidity (like playing games with my friends one night thinking it was Wednesday night but really it was Thursday as my friends told me and I had a biochem test the next morning). If you can't do well with cramming, that's just your loss, don't feel the need to insult people who say they cram or just assume they're lying. As lovestruck said, there comes a time when cramming just won't do the job, and people like me have a harder time dealing with that.