I don't think I'm smart?
I don't think I'm a smart or intelligent person. People and teachers have said over the years that I have potential but I don't see it. Although, I've never been in the bottom set. The lowest set I've been in was set 4 out of 6 for Science, but I've always averagely been in Set 1-2. I've never been really good at any subject. I can get a good grade in a subject, but I'll never be one of the bests or top of my class, except in a few instances, but it's always forgotten. I just feel like I've never really unlocked my academic potential and that I've never tried but I don't know what it is that I feel is holding me back, and I don't know where my talents lay either.
This affects me in my degree. I'm currently in the first year of an animation degree but I feel like one of the dumbest students there. I can draw well but I'm just not creative. I can never come up with a creative idea without looking at other people's work or my tutors suggesting things to me. Or if I do, it's often very basic. People tend to have interesting interpretations of work that I've done that was never intended to be interesting, and it makes me feel upset that I don't think creatively. People have produced very creative, detailed, fanciful illustrations of work and investigation, and it's always like 10 pages. Yet I'm giving very much basic with fewer pages than them, as I have no idea on how to be creative like that. I've always been like that and I don't know why I struggle with thinking creatively, or unleashing the potential people see in me that I don't.
This affects me in my degree. I'm currently in the first year of an animation degree but I feel like one of the dumbest students there. I can draw well but I'm just not creative. I can never come up with a creative idea without looking at other people's work or my tutors suggesting things to me. Or if I do, it's often very basic. People tend to have interesting interpretations of work that I've done that was never intended to be interesting, and it makes me feel upset that I don't think creatively. People have produced very creative, detailed, fanciful illustrations of work and investigation, and it's always like 10 pages. Yet I'm giving very much basic with fewer pages than them, as I have no idea on how to be creative like that. I've always been like that and I don't know why I struggle with thinking creatively, or unleashing the potential people see in me that I don't.
The worst thing you can do at university is compare yourself to your peers.
I know it is hard but the more you compare your work to those around you, the harder you will be on yourself and the more you will doubt your ideas.
You made it this far! Cut yourself some slack!
I know it is hard but the more you compare your work to those around you, the harder you will be on yourself and the more you will doubt your ideas.
You made it this far! Cut yourself some slack!
Original post by sophthedino
The worst thing you can do at university is compare yourself to your peers.
I know it is hard but the more you compare your work to those around you, the harder you will be on yourself and the more you will doubt your ideas.
You made it this far! Cut yourself some slack!
I know it is hard but the more you compare your work to those around you, the harder you will be on yourself and the more you will doubt your ideas.
You made it this far! Cut yourself some slack!
Thanks. I'm likely repeating one module again for next year because my tutors don't think I will pass it. I just feel so rubbish.
Original post by Anonymous
I don't think I'm a smart or intelligent person. People and teachers have said over the years that I have potential but I don't see it. Although, I've never been in the bottom set. The lowest set I've been in was set 4 out of 6 for Science, but I've always averagely been in Set 1-2. I've never been really good at any subject. I can get a good grade in a subject, but I'll never be one of the bests or top of my class, except in a few instances, but it's always forgotten. I just feel like I've never really unlocked my academic potential and that I've never tried but I don't know what it is that I feel is holding me back, and I don't know where my talents lay either.
This affects me in my degree. I'm currently in the first year of an animation degree but I feel like one of the dumbest students there. I can draw well but I'm just not creative. I can never come up with a creative idea without looking at other people's work or my tutors suggesting things to me. Or if I do, it's often very basic. People tend to have interesting interpretations of work that I've done that was never intended to be interesting, and it makes me feel upset that I don't think creatively. People have produced very creative, detailed, fanciful illustrations of work and investigation, and it's always like 10 pages. Yet I'm giving very much basic with fewer pages than them, as I have no idea on how to be creative like that. I've always been like that and I don't know why I struggle with thinking creatively, or unleashing the potential people see in me that I don't.
This affects me in my degree. I'm currently in the first year of an animation degree but I feel like one of the dumbest students there. I can draw well but I'm just not creative. I can never come up with a creative idea without looking at other people's work or my tutors suggesting things to me. Or if I do, it's often very basic. People tend to have interesting interpretations of work that I've done that was never intended to be interesting, and it makes me feel upset that I don't think creatively. People have produced very creative, detailed, fanciful illustrations of work and investigation, and it's always like 10 pages. Yet I'm giving very much basic with fewer pages than them, as I have no idea on how to be creative like that. I've always been like that and I don't know why I struggle with thinking creatively, or unleashing the potential people see in me that I don't.
Honestly you sound like an 'all - rounder' and this is a great thing - it means that whilst you don't excel in something specific, you are good are multiple different things and that makes you a flexible and well balanced person (in regards to your studies). I find that creativity isn't something a person simply outputs like the way you do your university work; you need a good amount of inputs too to help you think of more abstract ideas compared to what you already work on.
Some things you can try are gaming, movies, anime, cartoons, poetry, books or simply looking at art and reading books - try different genres they're great for inspiration. Another thing you can try is to take pictures of things you find interesting and use them as references as your work, create a folder of images you want to try recreate in your own way. You could even try those ai art generator things and see how an idea can be expressed in different ways.
In regards to your writing, honestly bring it back to basics, think about how you used to write in English classes at gcse, explore each and every one of your thoughts like multiple branches of a tree. If you use certain colours, talk about why you did that, do they correspond well with each other? what is their mood? what do they signify? If you animated something a certain way, talk about the movement and pacing of the frames, the sounds and even the technical side of things like the speed of the frames and the effect it gives. Keep breaking your work down into chunks over and over and the details will start to appear and you'll be able to notice the finer things, do mindmaps and brainstorm that'll help you develop your writing too! Don't feel discouraged by other people, it's like they say 'quality over quantity.'
In regards to why your potential is locked, the reason is simpler than you think, it's because you think that way of yourself, you feel that you can't overachieve so you put yourself in this state of thinking. My favourite quote is “The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born must first destroy a world." - Herman Hesse. What I mean is that; you must break free from your thoughts in order to unleash your potential, right now you're like that bird - you need to fight against your own thinking to destroy that perception of yourself - your egg = your thoughts and when you do that you'll be on to something and will realise that you're actually a pretty awesome person and you excel in your own way.
Good Luck
Original post by Anonymous
I don't think I'm a smart or intelligent person. People and teachers have said over the years that I have potential but I don't see it. Although, I've never been in the bottom set. The lowest set I've been in was set 4 out of 6 for Science, but I've always averagely been in Set 1-2. I've never been really good at any subject. I can get a good grade in a subject, but I'll never be one of the bests or top of my class, except in a few instances, but it's always forgotten. I just feel like I've never really unlocked my academic potential and that I've never tried but I don't know what it is that I feel is holding me back, and I don't know where my talents lay either.
This affects me in my degree. I'm currently in the first year of an animation degree but I feel like one of the dumbest students there. I can draw well but I'm just not creative. I can never come up with a creative idea without looking at other people's work or my tutors suggesting things to me. Or if I do, it's often very basic. People tend to have interesting interpretations of work that I've done that was never intended to be interesting, and it makes me feel upset that I don't think creatively. People have produced very creative, detailed, fanciful illustrations of work and investigation, and it's always like 10 pages. Yet I'm giving very much basic with fewer pages than them, as I have no idea on how to be creative like that. I've always been like that and I don't know why I struggle with thinking creatively, or unleashing the potential people see in me that I don't.
This affects me in my degree. I'm currently in the first year of an animation degree but I feel like one of the dumbest students there. I can draw well but I'm just not creative. I can never come up with a creative idea without looking at other people's work or my tutors suggesting things to me. Or if I do, it's often very basic. People tend to have interesting interpretations of work that I've done that was never intended to be interesting, and it makes me feel upset that I don't think creatively. People have produced very creative, detailed, fanciful illustrations of work and investigation, and it's always like 10 pages. Yet I'm giving very much basic with fewer pages than them, as I have no idea on how to be creative like that. I've always been like that and I don't know why I struggle with thinking creatively, or unleashing the potential people see in me that I don't.
Your life history suggests you're relatively smart. Set 1-2 kids tend to be smarter than average anyway.
There are some relatively accurate online IQ tests in the internet. However, these only test visual-spatial ability and therefore is an incomplete picture of general intelligence.
Mensa Norway: https://test.mensa.no
It measures from 85-145 IQ
Mensa Sweden: https://mensa.se
Ceiling is 125+ IQ
Mensa Hungary: http://adaptiv-iq-teszt.mensa.hu/test.php?tid=1
Ceiling about 125+ IQ
If you wish to know your true IQ, you need to take a full IQ test, whether the WAIS IV or SB V. https://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=wisc+v+descriptor&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
