How many of you students realize that...

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.

Pretender

Banned
Mar 14, 2000
7,192
0
0
In my school, if you do no homework you're getting at least C or less. Not that it hasn't stopped me from spending as little effort as possible on the work and doing it while playing UT. School doesn't measure intelligence, it measures how well you do what you're told, which is what companies want nowadays anyway.
 

Doomguy

Platinum Member
May 28, 2000
2,389
1
81
Doing good in school requires no more intelligence than doing bad. If you do your work you pass if you dont you fail. Its not a matter of intelligence.
 

eyor

Banned
Feb 7, 2000
1,641
0
0
I have never really tried in school. I consistently get honor roll. Sometimes Bs. I was actually granted a scholarship for a summer course to Boston University. I got an A. The final exam was on my thirteenth birthday. And yet my seventh grade teachers give me B+s. Figures. But I think maybe I will start trying harder, as I want to get into a good college.
 

Phalkon

Banned
Aug 20, 2000
233
0
0
I never tried in Elementary School... I got D's and F's.
I never tried in High School.. I got D's and F's.
I'm not trying in College... I get A's and A Distinguished's.

Go fig.
 

duragezic

Lifer
Oct 11, 1999
11,234
4
81
I agree. I have pulled straight A's all through school and I hardly ever do homework. Maybe 10-15 min a day. I only studied for one or two exams and I still get A's. I would do homework and try more if my grades dropped but they don't.

I think I am far too l337.
 

NikPreviousAcct

No Lifer
Aug 15, 2000
52,763
1
0
I went to a private school.
In the subjects where creativity and individuality didn't matter (like math, chemistry, some parts of physics), it was 1)get it right or 2)get it wrong.

In the subjects where it did matter (english, writing, reading, etc), the teachers would usually get to know you. They'd get to understand your capacity, your potential, etc. When you did anything less than your potential, you were encouraged to do better. I usually didn't do anything less than my potential; but the math teacher constantly was being complained about that she couldn't teach. My grades reflected that. I didn't understand crap, and she couldn't help. But I got good grades in almost everything else.

Including PE, Viper :) But, then again, I wasn't the one going to college at age 12, was I?? :p
 

Raspewtin

Diamond Member
Nov 16, 1999
3,634
0
0
In grade school I got horrendous grades. I didn't feel it was a good use of time, even when I was in class. I didn't get good grades until they put me in class (higher grades, part-time college, etc) that forced me to work in order to grasp what the other kids were learning (since they were older than me). I guess I'm fortunate that with my bad grades, I got promoted up instead of dropped down.

When school became challenging, and I had to work; I got excellent grades. When school was a breeze, I got horrendous grades. I'm guessing there are many others who are in a similar situation, only instead of material getting challenging, it just gets easier and easier, more and more pointless. The result is bad performance in school.

 

perry

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2000
4,018
1
0
ViRGE... iqtest.com is a nifty site. Just did the test. Took 9 minutes.

My score: 146
 

perry

Diamond Member
Apr 7, 2000
4,018
1
0
It's pretty close to the number that was measured when I was a little kid. I think it was tested around 141 or 143. So their score of 146 is pretty close.

For the hell of it, I told it that it took me 13 minutes and the score dropped down to 144.
 

fishy101

Senior member
Mar 21, 2000
252
0
0
I sort of agree with AMD Junkie on the original question. Grades are a measure of effort for most people, but more importantly, it's a way to encourage students to develop the habit of studying.

I was a pretty good student in high school. I mostly did my work, but it was rather effortless. As a result, I had a horrible studying habit, which came back to bite me HARD in college the past couple of years. During many nights before the exam, I wished I had listened to my high school teacher about not cramming materials the night before. I mean, I can still change, but I bet it'd be a lot easier had I developed that habit in high school rather than starting over now.

Another thing I wanted to point out. Several people mentioned being a computer junkie and grades weren't important. Yeah sure, to be a computer junkie, you don't really need to know anything about European History. But IMHO, a person educated in different fields is more likely to provide useful inputs to society as a whole than those who just buried themselves in their own field of study. A perfect example is the intelligent inputs in some of the debates this forum has been having about political and moral issues. Most of the authors of those intelligent posts are not only proficient in techie stuff, but also on other issues that affect the society. That's what makes them so respected.

So I do think grades measure the effort, but it's also important to know that why grades are measuring effort instead of intelligence.

just my 0.02
 

BoberFett

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
37,563
9
81


<< How many of you students realize that... >>

school is overrated.

Don't blow school off completely, but your future is determined more by your attitude and determination than by what you do in school.
 

CyberSax

Banned
Mar 12, 2000
1,253
0
0
Don't blow school off completely, but your future is determined more by your attitude and determination than by what you do in school.

How you do in school reflects your attitude and determination. Unless your name happens to be Al Gore, in which case you can get D's and F's in some private yuppie school, then get D's and F's at Harvard, then do mediocre work the rest of your life and some how become Vice President of America :p
 

GoldenBear

Banned
Mar 2, 2000
6,843
2
0
Well all I can say is for those who don't try yet get good grades, either a) you're infatuating your intelligence to show off to others here, or b) your school doesn't value an education and gives easy work to inflate their &quot;average student grades&quot;. Not sure where most of you guys fit in here.
 

Pretender

Banned
Mar 14, 2000
7,192
0
0
Scored 152 :)
Finished the test in 8 minutes (The first part was simple but the second part I had to slow down for a little.)
 

jobert

Senior member
Nov 20, 1999
714
0
0
This isn't as silly a topic as it first appears.

I guess the only rationale for required homework
is that the quality of your homework is a measure
of your mastery of the subject matter, just as is
your achievement on a test.
 

Gibson486

Lifer
Aug 9, 2000
18,378
1
0
hehe, yeah right...in geometry, I got a 96% average in teh final quarter...how hard did I work? not very. All i did was zip through homework every night. My friend did teh same exact thing, but he did not get homework credit because his homework was too messy and careless, yet he still managed to pull of a 95 average. Now my other freind, he really pisses me off...he never studied, he did his homework in a shoddy manner, and he gets all A's...grrrr...by th eway...this all took place in a private school.
 

raptor13

Golden Member
Oct 9, 1999
1,719
0
0
For those of you that think grades in school should be based solely on effort, think about this:

Take any sporting event. Say one team has lots of talent while the other team has only scrubs but the scrubs have tons of heart. The two teams play. Naturally, the team with the talent handily defeats the team with heart. True, the team with heart gave it their all, but they still lost. Does that mean the team with the most heart should win the game? Certainly not. The team with the best skills should get the victory.

Just like the students with the best skills should get the best grade, regardless if they had to &quot;try&quot; for it. Simple as that.
 

AMDJunkie

Diamond Member
Dec 6, 1999
3,431
5
81
Sorry GoldenBear, I meant that schools are known as places of education, not as job processing plants. Or are schools job processing plants? You're a bunch of commies, aren't you? Work, work, work, but no education, no sir, we want you slaving for peanuts to make this world go round, huh? You bastards aren't going to take me! Mwuhahahahahahaha!
 

GoldenBear

Banned
Mar 2, 2000
6,843
2
0
<< True, the team with heart gave it their all, but they still lost. >>

You've obviously never heard of the '69 Miracle Mets, Joe Namath's New York Jets (?), the 2000 Oakland A's, or the '75 Golden State Warriors?

Like I said, I'm not sure how everyone else's school system works, but at my school, effort earns you good grades, whether it's studying real hard or spending the extra time on a long term project. I admire those at my school who take it seriously, and they're rewarded as a result. Those who don't do any work on the other hand despite knowing a lot of things, are punished for it.

Now, call me absolutely crazy, but I believe being rewarded for hard work and having people treated fairly in the class room is a darn nice concept...
 

BoberFett

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
37,563
9
81
I glided through school without doing much homework. I dropped out of college after one month.

Now I'm the lead developer at a software company making quite a bit of money at 25. Go figure.
 

Warrenton

Banned
Aug 7, 2000
777
0
0
Before my life collapsed in 10th grade, long story, but it landed me in the hospital for psyciatric help.

Well anyway, in 9th grade, I complete the math and science courses before the end of the first quarter. I then just started the 10th grade stuff in those classes. Then the next year I did the 11th grade stuff. I passed that year, barely. 11th grade and 12th grade I failed. Being a manic depressive was not helpful at all.