The Student Room Group

Which is better: a high IQ or academic success (good grades)?

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Reply 20
Original post by Gordon1985
There is a huge correlation between IQ and academic success, what are you talking about?

Academic success (the same goes for career success) requires quite a few attributes, intelligence is one one of them. If you have a high intelligence, you're better placed for academic success.

IMO being hardworking>high IQ


IQ btw doesn't show intelligence.
Academic success, don't think an employer gives a damn what some arbitrary test claims your intelligence to be :colonhash:
Reply 22
Does this thread mean that the person with academic success has low IQ and vice versa? Or are they average in the other quality? And are we equating IQ with intelligence?

I would rather have average IQ and academic success. But would rather have high IQ and no success than be below average intelligence.

Either way, this underrates personality which is critical to success IMO


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Reply 23
Academic success - a high IQ says nothing about whether you are a hard worker or whether you can apply to actual situations whereas academic success provides some form of more solid evidence of achievement.
An IQ for me is to more of how someone is naturally abled and someone can have a big IQ w/o working hard. However, for someone with a low IQ but high academic achievements, means that they would have worked their bums of so achieve their goals and dedicated thise time to make their future and that's in my opinion worthy of respect. Nevertheless that doesn't mean the other person is any less worthy of respect, it just indicates that both have a talent into becoming who they are.
Original post by A-New-Start
If you're a 3 you can become a 1, however 2 usually stays where it is. :smile:


Exactly.
Original post by DudeBoy
IMO being hardworking>high IQ


IQ btw doesn't show intelligence.


I think you're right. A person with an average IQ and a really great work ethic will almost always be better than a high IQ person with no work ethic. That's basically what I said in my post.

IQ does show intelligence I'm afraid, it just doesn't give the whole picture. Understanding people is clearly part of intelligence that doesn't show on an IQ test - but being hard working doesn't mean you understand and are good with people either.

IQ really tests problem solving and analysis. These are two things which can be pretty universally applied if you're good at them.

I would bet that almost every very successful person (in areas where you actually need to think - not a popstar or model for example) would have comfortably above average IQs. They may not always conform to people's ideas of what a high IQ person should be like, but they'll have it.

EQ is obviously pretty important as well. A person with reasonably high in both is likely to do better than someone with really high in one and really low in the other.
Reply 27
IQ is just theoretical, it doesn't really mean anything. Whereas academic stuff does :smile:
Reply 28
Original post by Olenna Tyrell
I don't mean just for securing jobs or anything, but in general to society and life.

Which is better (yes I know very subjective): a very high IQ or scoring great academics (so academic intelligence)?

So a comparison may be:

1) A person with a very high IQ and thus able to answer logical, mathematical, IQ-type tests, or:

2) A person with AAA at A-level and a First Class traditional degree from a Russell Group uni, but a significantly lower IQ than the person above.

I know the two do not have to be mutually exclusive, but what do you think?


If you're studying psychology and not physics, then it doesn't matter.
Psychology requires emotional reasoning which is a different brain system.

You're assuming the 2 are related, what if an individual is a lazy potato of the couch?
Reply 29
High IQ perhaps, academic success doesn't lead you to high IQ but I think IQ does influence the academic performance.


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Original post by Skip_Snip
IQ is just theoretical, it doesn't really mean anything. Whereas academic stuff does :smile:


Look up what theoretical means.
I've never asked someones IQ during a job interview but I have asked about their qualifications.

Surely the answer to this question is obvious?
Original post by donuticus
I've never asked someones IQ during a job interview but I have asked about their qualifications.

Surely the answer to this question is obvious?


Evidently not. It's entirely subjective.
Which is better to have? probably academic success. Whilst I know plenty of people who are by not "especially" intelligent who achieved well academically - none of them are by any means stupid... that sort of success sort if guarantees average or above average intelligence.

On the other hand... as someone who is (trumpet blowing...) of above average intelligence who completely messed up University (twice, despite high academic achievement up until that point) through apathy... I can promise you that being intelligent but stuck in a dead-end job is completely soul destroying. I would genuinely rather be a thick as muck some days, because at least then I might be content with the world.

Maybe. I'm not quite ready to write myself off yet, I suppose. Ask me again in 10 years.

For now I'll say... intelligence is not only worthless if you waste it, it's utterly miserable. You'd be better off as an unintelligent, happy worker bee than an intelligent underachiever.

[edited to add] obviously I'm answering this in terms of general high intelligence, rather than specifically "IQ", as I don't think it's a particularly useful tool. I've encountered plenty of people with sky-high mathematical / logical / Visio-spacial IQs (and resulting high IQ scores) who are almost completely void of any form of social or personal awareness. I doubt those people are particularly prone to existentialist issues. Then again, I suspect they're also far less likely to underachieve academically...
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 34
Original post by Gordon1985
Look up what theoretical means.


Speculative. Which is what IQ is.
High grades will mean you can actually apply to jobs. If I was in charge of recruitment for a company and someone sent me a CV where the only thing on it was a high IQ, I would **** on it an send it back.

IQ tests aren't great indicators of intelligence, they were never designed to test how intelligent someone is.

If it was a choice between high intelligence and good grades, that would be a different discussion. As good grades requires some intelligence and also give you a head start applying for jobs etc but very high intelligence gives you the opportunity to really succeed, but you you might be in a very junior position with out the real chance to show your self for a while.
Original post by Skip_Snip
Speculative. Which is what IQ is.


In what way is it speculative. It exists we can measure it.
Reply 37
Hard work trumps talent. Hard workers have changed society. Smart hard workers have changed society. Just smart people change nothing.
Reply 38
Original post by Gordon1985
In what way is it speculative. It exists we can measure it.


IQ tests don't measure intelligence. They measure how good you are at IQ tests.
Original post by Skip_Snip
IQ tests don't measure intelligence. They measure how good you are at IQ tests.


They measure certain, very important, aspects of intelligence. I don't think anybody in this thread has tried to claim that they cover every aspect of intelligence.

By the same token, exam scores measure how good you are at that particular exam and nothing else, so by your own definition, they're hardly any less "theoretical" or "speculative".

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