I know what my IQ is, but I am not telling. :p

Bill Gates said that technically he was still on a leave of absence from Harvard.

I don't think that there is anything wrong with being a geek.

i dont think that grades do people justice. I was really smart in high school, got a scholarship that covered the cost of the majority of my education, but majored in Engineering. I thought I wanted to do that, 2nd semester I messed up grade wise. Took some classes I couldn't handle and now have not so good grades. I worked my ass off and didn't do good, so I don't know if working hard always works. And I agree with Russell. Its not fair to compare a communications major (no offense) to an engineering major.

Oh, definitely.

Of course it depends a little bit on how smart you are.

But from my ex-boyfriends who are math and engineering majors, I've seen that advanced math/physics topics aren't that hard to understand. It's all there in the book, a logical progression from step A to step B to step C . . . What's tough is remembering how to apply all of these steps in the right order and then keeping them all straight in your head. That just takes a LOT of studying and practice -- not a genius.

And as for the easy major/hard major, I don't think they exist. I couldn't pass an art class anymore than I could pass an advanced physics class. My engineer ex-boyfriend couldn't write a decent short story (my major!) to save his life. It's just that so many people have math/science blocks that they think math and science classes are very hard when they really would just take a lot of work to get past your math/science block.

Neither would my parents. They had me tested in Elementary School for gifted. It was high enough to get me into the gifted program. :) Throughout high school, I'd ask my parents what I scored and they wouldn't tell me. I look back and I'm glad that I didn't know. I really believe it's just a number just like your SAT score. You can have a high IQ and no motivation to do anything with it. Like many others have stated, I don't think IQ alone can determine how successful you are. Social skills and ambition are are a huge factor. Sometimes having a high IQ can work against you. Look at Jeffrey Dahmer and many other serial killers. They were socially inept but had IQs that were off the charts. There have been studies done that show a correlation between high IQ scores and social problems although this certainly isn't always the case.

SAT scores are linked to success your first year in college I believe. And I'd really like to know who it is that's not smart but has great social abilities to get where they are. I don't mean the people who pretty much inherit money, success, and fame/notoriety but the ones that end up making it. What do people consider a measure of intelligence? I think this is funny but maybe not really a topic for greeklife. Who knows.

And mathematical and science texts aren't just logical steps. If they are, you're taking joke classes. If I don't see another frigging proof for years I'll be happy because they pretty much tell you 1+1=2 and give you one defining statement at the end and expect you to come up with all the steps in between.

-Rudey
--And before you laugh, proving 1+1=2 was actually a page long assignment.

You're right -- the SAT is supposed to correlate with first year college grades. But it doesn't correlate with college grades in general. (If anybody is an example of that it's me! . . . but we won't get into that.)

I kinda doubt that the ex who was taking linear algebra in high school is now, as a junior in college, taking "joke classes." ;)

Granted I never got past calculus, but it seemed pretty clear that math is based on logical applications. It's a little bit intuitive but mostly just requires enough practice to know when to apply which steps. And the boys have backed me up on this. I also asked the engineer if he thought most people could do well in his classes if they studied enough and he said that most of them could, though it would take a lot of studying for a few of them (this coming from a kid who already studies too much).

This is because the current conception of intelligence isn't based on who gets the answer, it's based on who gets the answer fastest. That's why IQ tests are timed -- they they weren't, the person who finishes in 30 minutes and the person who finishes in 2 hours could easily get the same score. The faster you can figure something out the higher your IQ generally is -- but that doesn't mean that people with low IQs are too stupid to figure the same questions out. It just takes them longer.

As for whoever said that IQ scores as a young child would be the most accurate prediction of intelligence -- actually, IQ scores don't stabilize until your late teen years, so it wouldn't be out of the question for someone to score 100 on an IQ test when you were 8, 160 when you were 12, and even out at 130 by the time you were 18. Usually the variations are a little less drastic than that, though ;) -- but they still exist.

For that reason most people don't advocate IQ tests for kids because they're probably going to be pretty inaccurate in the long run.

God, the things I remember from AP psych . . .

i definitely think iq is an indicator of something. i went to a high school where admission was only based on a standardized test. if the theory held that they weren't important in success my school would definitely dispute that. beyond the usual measures of high SAT scores and college admission i was blown out the water by some of my classmates accomplishments during and after high school (i only graduated 3 1/2 years ago) . published authors, actors, paid and influential political consultants, musicians, dancers, models, math and science geniuses, international competitive magicians (yes there was more than one!) etc. i am not sure if there intelligence was a cause or affect but there was definitely a connection.

and sat's probably are an indicator. its not like if there low you'll never succeed but considering college is often a string of tests if you're good at them you'll have an easier time.

That would make sense. I mentioned grade school because at that point everyone is pretty much on "lock step" still when it comes to what they are studying. It might be a better indicator of just ability.

As you get older there become more variables and IQ will be influenced more by individual experiences . . .

Well I guess I take back what I said ... I would now argue that in High school it's a HELL of a lot easier to be a "plodder", do REALLY well grade wise, but not necessarily be that "smart" than in college. In college they generally don't have the daily homework/participation points as many classes in high school do... so yeah college is more about true "smartness" as it were...
But plodding can still get you somewhere even in college.
Because even though I am (well, was, I just graduated) a broadcast/communications major... I still had to take Chem. and I did end up taking Calculus... and although it was hard for me.. (Trust me I'm NOT a math person) if you plod... (go to office hours, seek out tutoring help provided on campus) you can end up doing well in the class.