Do you feel you are intelligent?

Originally Posted by Jenaimarr

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my academic credentials would say i'm intelligent (tested really high iq as a child, near-straight A high school student, near-perfect math scores on sat I/II/GRE, finishing up a ph.d), but in the company of my peers throughout all of my academic life, I've always had the constant nagging feeling of self doubt... that I was a dumbass since I never felt i understood anything. It was much easier regurgitating information so that you could feign intelligence.

has academic achievement translated to success in life? nope. I was just good at taking tests. As I got older, I realized I just rested on my laurels and skated by without ever learning any practical knowledge... which I equate with being a dumbass.

O, the pitfalls of dogmatic slumber.

Originally Posted by Jenaimarr

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my academic credentials would say i'm intelligent (tested really high iq as a child, near-straight A high school student, near-perfect math scores on sat I/II/GRE, finishing up a ph.d), but in the company of my peers throughout all of my academic life, I've always had the constant nagging feeling of self doubt... that I was a dumbass since I never felt i understood anything. It was much easier regurgitating information so that you could feign intelligence.

has academic achievement translated to success in life? nope. I was just good at taking tests. As I got older, I realized I just rested on my laurels and skated by without ever learning any practical knowledge... which I equate with being a dumbass.

There's actually a name for this self-analysis, and its equated with a psychological condition. Back story: a friend of mine is a brilliant linguistics student, a person who I'd easily place in the top 1% in terms of intelligence. The guy's attending the best program for his interests, working hard...but believes himself to be a failure or idiot of sorts. He did the research and found out about this condition.

As for myself...I've always felt slow. In terms of book smarts, I'm probably brilliant (great at math, composition, visualizing and understanding problems, test taking, etc.), but I struggle a ton socially (afraid of new people, lacking empathy at times, recently learning about subtle social/physical cues). I wonder if I'm one of those people with Asperger's.

Top 5% might be pushing it, but I'm certainly in the top 10% overall imo. In HS I scored in the top 1% on the University of Waterloo SIN test competition for physics, but I'm not equally strong in other areas. In more general math competitions I was more like 90th percentile, but then again, I was a bad student and my score probably would have improved if i had ever studied more. On the other hand, I'm a complete dumbass when it comes to extracting the underlying meaning of poetry.

I put above average, even though, objectively, I'm probably between 90-95th percentile.

The person that contstructed the poll did a pretty horrible job. There's a huge gap between average, above average, and 95th percentile.

Standardized test scores are a dubious measure at best. I scored in the 87th percentile on the SAT (although, I did not study for it at all) and in the 98th percentile on the LSAT (although, I did study for this one).

Originally Posted by odoreater

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Standardized test scores are a dubious measure at best. I scored in the 87th percentile on the SAT (although, I did not study for it at all) and in the 98th percentile on the LSAT (although, I did study for this one).


A dubious measure of what? They measure what they measure. The dubiousness is not in their measure but in the value we attribute to what they measure or the assumptions we make about what it is that they are measuring.

My intelligence on paper (through testing) is very high, has that helped me be successful in life, no, actually I think it has hindered it. That said, I am not sure I would prefer to be less intellegent but more successful.

Originally Posted by Mark from Plano

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A dubious measure of what? They measure what they measure. The dubiousness is not in their measure but in the value we attribute to what they measure or the assumptions we make about what it is that they are measuring.

They are a dubious measure of anything other than your ability to take that particular test.

Originally Posted by odoreater

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They are a dubious measure of anything other than your ability to take that particular test.

But they measure that with perfection.

Originally Posted by Mark from Plano

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But they measure that with perfection.

Well, almost - there was that October 2005 SAT debacle.

Originally Posted by odoreater

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They are a dubious measure of anything other than your ability to take that particular test.
Yes, and rulers are a dubious measure of anything other than your ability to stretch ********** along that particular ruler.

Originally Posted by Dedalus

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Yes, and rulers are a dubious measure of anything other than your ability to stretch ********** along that particular ruler.

Sounds like a Patches O'Houlihan quote.

Originally Posted by odoreater

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Standardized test scores are a dubious measure at best. I scored in the 87th percentile on the SAT (although, I did not study for it at all) and in the 98th percentile on the LSAT (although, I did study for this one).

"Dubious" but you still post about your high scores.

Originally Posted by Dedalus

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Yes, and rulers are a dubious measure of anything other than your ability to stretch ********** along that particular ruler.

You want to compare brainpans? I won the Westinghouse prize when I was 12, big deal. Published at 19, so what. I got a double doctorate from MIT at 22, chemistry and geology. I taught at Princeton for two and a half years.

Originally Posted by HomerJ

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You want to compare brainpans? I won the Westinghouse prize when I was 12, big deal. Published at 19, so what. I got a double doctorate from MIT at 22, chemistry and geology. I taught at Princeton for two and a half years.

Whatever. I dropped out of high school, just like Einstein.

Originally Posted by HomerJ

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I won the Westinghouse prize when I was 12, big deal. Published at 19, so what. I got a double doctorate from MIT at 22, chemistry and geology. I taught at Princeton for two and a half years.

That's pretty impressive. You must be above average. Are you still an academic?

Originally Posted by HomerJ

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You want to compare brainpans? I won the Westinghouse prize when I was 12, big deal. Published at 19, so what. I got a double doctorate from MIT at 22, chemistry and geology. I taught at Princeton for two and a half years.

What did you win? An air conditioner? Fridge? What?!

Forgive me, I did mark "below average".