Would you say grades are a pretty good indication of someone's intelligence?

[Jaskalas]

What of a person who Aces tests but gets straight Fs?

 

[brianmanahan]

i got all a's, so yes it is a pretty good indicators of ones intellgience

 

[IronWing]

I got an A in P Chem! 😛

Does this mean I have high levels of smartness?

Yes, yes it does.

<== A in P Chem.

P Chem tied in very nicely with soil chem, low temp geochem, and contaminant hydrogeochem. Maybe it would have been harder if I had taken it first. 😛

 

[unokitty]

If grades are an indication of intelligence, does this chart indicate that students, over time, have been getting smarter?

Uno

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Yes, yes it does.

<== A in P Chem.

P Chem tied in very nicely with soil chem, low temp geochem, and contaminant hydrogeochem. Maybe it would have been harder if I had taken it first. 😛

I've had a couple educational forks in the road, and while circumstance has brought me to my current occupation, it is not my love. Research and applied science would be and so I've had many courses and know things that I don't currently use. I consider none of it a waste of time or money. One thing it did is provide a broad context for things like a bumper sticker I saw which said "I got an A in P chem" which made me chuckle out loud. No one else in the car got it 😀

 

[mrrman]

not really...grades dont really tell a persons intellect, some people are smarter than what a grade represents

 

[IronWing]

If grades are an indication of intelligence, does this chart indicate that students, over time, have been getting smarter?

Uno

It indicates that public schools lag private schools in grade inflation. If we retroactively apply grade inflation to my HS grades, I was a straight A student! :biggrin:

 

[IEC]

Provided you're not lacking in intellect, the grade represents your effort and time.

If you're brilliant and have a photographic memory, you could potentially get away with a lot less effort and time.

 

[IronWing]

What of a person who Aces tests but gets straight Fs?

Lazy.

 

[Mixolydian]

No, not at all.

No, because there are plenty of people who just don't focus their energy on getting good grades.

And this.

 

[OVerLoRDI]

I generally like to support the idea that success in the hard sciences = intelligence, but that isn't the full story. I know a few people who are truly are genius level intelligence, but they really lack social intelligence. They can't empathize properly or have a normal conversation and tend to find people boring. In that sense they are stupid.

Now that I'm out of college I think some of the most intelligent people in the world are actually those who can navigate social/professional hierarchies to their benefit.

 

[slpdLoad]

No. But they're a good indication of someone's discipline.

 

[Fenixgoon]

Yes, yes it does.

<== A in P Chem.

P Chem tied in very nicely with soil chem, low temp geochem, and contaminant hydrogeochem. Maybe it would have been harder if I had taken it first. 😛

P chem was easy.

Ochem is just a bunch of alchemy. It's not hard, it's just straight memorization.

Stress Analysis II? continuum mechanics? fuck that shit. Now THAT is hard. i like stress analysis, but damn I suck at it.

 

[Udgnim]

better than average

having a combination of enough intelligence & social skills will get most people farther though

it pays to network & get people to like you. flaws become more diminished / ignored / tolerated.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

CS is fairly logical... at least there's logical motivation for the way most things are done. however, I can see how remembering all the motivations can be difficult. not as raw (in logic) as pure math or things closer to pure math. I guess law would be similar in that respect. remembering all the motivations is hard.

CS involves a great deal of abstraction and problem solving. It's why they dump so much math on you that you'll probably never use.

I put 0 effort into my math classes (calc 1/2, def eq, prob/statistics) (didn't do homework and only studied just before tests) and just barely passed them. Meanwhile, some of the hardest classes I took like Machine and Assembly Language I cared about and got an A in.

 

[dud]

To clarify, I meant book smart.

Having high grades in classes that requires good aptitude, memory, and logical thinking skills are basically I.Q tests in disguise. I am posting this because a lot of people seem to think having high grades doesn't necessarily mean a person is smart, but that it is just that they worked hard. I think it is both.

Classes such as Calculus, linear math, Organic chemistry are universally known to be very hard classes. Math especially tests a person's logical thinking, memory, and problem solving skills to a great extent.
Humans just aren't inherently good with numbers. That is why we have difficulty doing mental math. Of course there are a few exceptions, but generally it is safe to say that a lot of people struggle with math for this reason. The people who are good with math are needed, and you can be sure they will or can make a lot of money.

In conclusion, having good grades in classes that require good aptitude is a good indication of someone's intelligence.

discuss.

Absolutely not. It is only an indicator as to how well the student has "mastered" the material being taught.

Intelligence takes many forms. Some of the most intelligent did not do well within the classroom.

 

[Doppel]

Yes, if you have excellent grades chances are very good that you're very smart. It doesn't work the other way, though; if your grades suck you may still be smart, but not applying yourself. It's unlikely a mediocre intellect can excel substantially above peers in school, however, even with a lot of effort.

You would certainly see a correlation between intelligence and grades.

 

[Doppel]

I generally like to support the idea that success in the hard sciences = intelligence, but that isn't the full story. I know a few people who are truly are genius level intelligence, but they really lack social intelligence. They can't empathize properly or have a normal conversation and tend to find people boring. In that sense they are stupid.

Now that I'm out of college I think some of the most intelligent people in the world are actually those who can navigate social/professional hierarchies to their benefit.

I saw a guy like this recently. Had the social development of a six year old--no kidding. It was awkward as hell to see him in a room of 50 adults and acting as he did. But he simply didn't know better and never would be able to learn to behave more appropriately. It's just not who he is. However, I bet he was smart as shit (partly because of who was in the room, and partly the things he said). Intelligence certainly takes many forms.

 

[MikeyLSU]

As a teacher, I would say no, test scores show how much knowledge you have of that particular subject, not intelligence.

Someone who gets all As in school has more knowledge than a student with all Cs. Doesn't mean they are more intelligent, just at this moment in time, they have more subject knowledge in the classes they are taking.

As far as that graph above, remember that over the past 20 years, more and more schools are giving GPAs as high as 6(up to 5 for honors type classes and 6 for AP classes)

GPAs are entirely useless information for comparing between schools. All it can show is class ranking for 1 school. Many colleges barely look at it anymore and focus more on class ranking/recalculating GPA to take away all the free points schools give/and standardized test scores like SAT/ACT/AP tests.

 

[dighn]

of course there is correlation. if you consistently do well in difficult courses, chances are you are pretty intelligent. hard work can compensate for average intelligence, but most people aren't likely to put in that kind of effort. the converse isn't necessarily true though as many intelligent people are underachievers, which is kind of encouraged by society...

social intelligence I believe is more of a personality thing. I think most people have enough mental capacity (empathy, perception, IQ intelligence) to learn and apply social skills given appropriate personality.

 

[Leros]

This is a pretty good correlation between intelligence and grades, which is why tests and grades have proven to be useful indicators.

The biggest problem with grades is that they measure a combination of intelligence and motivation. An intelligent person without motivation won't put in the effort to make good grades.

 

[edro]

Yes of course. There are always exceptions, as with all scientific data, but there is good correlation between grades and intellect.

"Einstein failed math class!' Yeah, well Einstein is one in a billion.

 

[Rakehellion]

He is not very smart then. Now I don't know much about this guy, but I know that grades are a huge factor to making it big in this competitive job market.

That isn't a very smart assessment.

 

[Rakehellion]

Would you say grades are a pretty good indication of someone's intelligence?

No, it's a good indication of how well they do in school, not in work or personal pursuits.

Case in point: Men do worse in grade school than women, but more advanced degrees are handed out to men.

 

[TridenT]

Nope. Not at all. I've done very poorly in school because I've had no motivation. (I've had a lot of stress and much bigger problems outside of school throughout my whole life)

I know too many people who are stupid but put in the time and get really good grades. (Perfect scores on everything) It's a time game and tests your memory more than anything. Very few tests I've ever come across test my critical thinking skills. It's almost all memorization of certain key facts. And I'm a fucking math major.

I stopped caring about my GPA a long time ago. If it isn't 4.0 then it doesn't matter. I don't study much or work towards anything at this point (No motivation). I do the bare minimum to get by. Does this matter in the job market? Maybe, maybe not. It really depends on what companies you're applying for. Most companies that I care about do not care what my GPA was (With reason, I suppose). They care about my work experience. If I was applying for a company that filters by GPA then I'd care. I won't be though.