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Is TSR home to some of Britain's most intelligent people (judging by their GCSE's)

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There is no such thing as intelligence, you study hard, you get good grades. Simple as that.

This is a ridiculous argument. I know some people who genuinely try incredibly hard to succeed in their GCSEs and will probably not get a single grade above a grade C. I also know some people who don't have to try at all and get almost full marks in everything they do.

You sound like another person who is using lack of effort to explain your poor GCSE results, and that had you tried, you'd have 11 or 12 A*s.

Reply 61

MoreTeaVicar?

Original post by apolocreed

All I see on TSR is how many A*'s people achieved, 5 seems to be a good average (but I don't know many people who got those in 'real-life'), but all I'm trying to figure out is did everyone achieve supa-dupa marks?

I took my IGCSE's last year (which I was always told were the harder ones, though some say differently)

I'm not going to say my marks, as I feel theres no real need to tell them (not that they were bad, in fact I thought they were good for someone a year young).

So I guess the question is, 'are you guys all so smart?'

I would like to see people who didn't get A*'s across the board discussing their results, and what they think attributed to them.

'...in fact I thought they were good for someone a year young' - I'd say so. GCSEs at a year old is no mean feat. :biggrin:

Sorry, I'm a real eejit when it comes to grammar - all my friends will tell you so!

But that aside, I don't think you should be getting overly worked up about looking at people's marks. Often people fabricate the truth about their results, given that this is online.

Secondly, I wouldn't take TSR as a proportional representation of the overall student body in the UK. Like people have said before me, the very fact that a lot of people end up on TSR because they are looking for revision supplements, or to talk to like-minded people about their studies means that there must automatically be a relatively high level of self-motivation and willingness to learn. We could therefore say that students on TSR are more likely to achieve higher grades, but this does not mean that they are typical of the entire population.

The thing I found when I joined TSR to chat on the Cambridge threads was I compared myself so much to other people who had ridiculously good grades. I think this stressed me out a little as I thought I'd never match up to them, but it shouldn't have.

Because there are so many threads on TSR representing various universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, Durham etc, you are inevitably going to find that students with 'A*s across the board' are contributing to discussions. Therefore, people who aren't getting A*s like that may not want to talk so openly about their results. I got 5A*s, 4As and 3Bs at GCSE but still felt inadequate when talking to people who got 9 or 10 A*s and are now being super-duper clever at Oxbridge.

Invariably, grades don't add up to being a nice person, thankfully, so I'd say stop worrying about TSR and concentrate on your studies & make some good friends on the way, whether they got straight A*s or none at all. :smile:

Reply 62

Safiya122

I wouldn't say I was. Like if I went up to somebody and said "Hey guess what I got an A in my History unit 1", chances are they would consider me smart because History requires a lot of knowledge. Thing with me is, I revise. Once I'm done with the subject, I tend to forget. So I wouldn't consider myself like "Sheldon Cooper" smart..

Reply 63

Swanbow

I didn't get a single fail in GCSEs and I didn't put in a single hour of revision. That said they weren't the best results but I preferred the care free approach than the stress ridden that others take.

Reply 64

Selym95

Original post by MrHappy_J

I can't say I agree, I'm at uni and I'm fairly stupid.

Thank you for the comment. Unfortunately, you have interpreted my statement incorrectly. I stated that GCSE's are less intellectually demanding than Degree level. So, Degrees are a better indication of intelligence because it is more demanding, whereas GCSE's are generally simpler, so easier to score higher in.
I never stated that the majority doing degree's are intelligent, I just stated that degree's are a better indication of intelligence than GCSE's.

Reply 65

AGrumpyMole

GCSE results aren't a measure of intelligence, IQ tests are. Intelligence is the ability to apply knowledge and interpret, whereas GCSE exams mostly consist of regurgitating information that you've learned.