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Would you rate yourself as clever?

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Reply 40

TheIncredibleZ

I still don't see myself as clever even though i scored 132 on the actual Mensa IQ test and got in.

Reply 41

2886426

Tbh I'm actually really thick, but then again I would never pretend otherwise. A fair amount of my family are illiterate, and how no qualifications. So I just keep going really, no matter how bad my grades are...

Reply 42

confuzzedsoul

Original post by coupdetat3

Almost everyone on this website is above average. The average person has an IQ of 100 and barely gets a C in gcse maths. The average person is an imbecile.

okay then enstien

Reply 43

Kallisto

Entertainment Forum Helper

Original post by Cherub012

Is this the part where we post our GCSEs?

:K:

Don't hope so. Can't remember what grades I had when at GCSE.

To estimate myself: I would say I am clever enough to communicate with people in an intellectual way.

Reply 44

PossiblyNotGod

Only in comparison to humans.

Absolutely

Original post by xianlong

Mensa literally means **** all lol

um not really
are you trying to tell me if your not in the top one percent then your not smart?

Reply 47

Kallisto

Entertainment Forum Helper

Original post by Hirsty97

Most people on TSR think they are smarter than they are. It's called the Dunning Kruger effect.

That puts it in a nutshell.

Is there an effect for the other way round? have always the feeling that I underrestimate myself in comparison to another people.

Reply 48

katycaresse

The average person thinks they are more intelligent than average.

Reply 49

Vesniep

Original post by IrrationalRoot

I am an extremely slow thinker and on top of that I am completely devoid of any actual intelligence or creativity and only able to carry out mindless, mechanical tasks, a skill which I miraculously managed to extrapolate to achieve good STEP results. I can't solve a single non-trivial problem, but luckily with how the maths education system is, that doesn't prevent me from getting good results.

Anyway I hadn't heard from you after the STEP papers, I know it's a bit irrelevant now but how did you do?

That's true for pretty much everyone though. Don't worry about it mate! I'm in a similar case with you. Most of us are.

I did pretty well in STEPs (SSS ... all of them borderline). I can't really remember a lot of what happened though.

Where do you study btw and what did you get?

Hope you are doing great :smile:

Nah.

Original post by katycaresse

The average person thinks they are more intelligent than average.

Prove it.

Reply 52

IrrationalRoot

Original post by Vesniep

Studying at Warwick. Unfortunately it's pretty rubbish, but I've realised if I had gone to Cambridge I would've probably failed spectacularly, probably not in the first year but certainly at some point, so I guess I can't complain that I'm set for a comfortable first at reasonably respected university.

I got 1S1 in STEP with both 1s being one mark off an S (so basically same as you but on the unlucky side). Funny thing is, according to the examiners report I was in the top 100 people who sat STEP I but still didn't get the top grade lol.

Hope Cambridge is going well for you, make the most of it. I'd imagine it'd be very enjoyable for someone who's actually good at maths like you.

Reply 53

Vesniep

Original post by IrrationalRoot

Basically as you said I was on the lucky side the whole time.

That's why I'm in Cambridge and you're in Warwick.

I'm not 'actually good' at maths, I can barely make survive the workload and I don't have a lot of free time which means I don't join societies and I don't make the most out of the Cambridge experience.
I can get firsts in tripos but I won't enjoy my time here which is pretty important for me.

I was thinking of transferring to Warwick/Oxford/Imperial (I don't know how though) cause I want to enjoy those years.

My priorities in life changed and honestly I don't think I care that much about maths now.

Reply 54

0zzu

I think of myself as intelligent, but I probably think I'm more intelligent than I actually am.

I think intelligence ties in with personality and experiences, too. There are lots of types of skills and knowledge, so there has to be different types of intelligence too. There's also the kind of person who's technically intelligent, but without the motivation or knowledge to do anything useful with it, and vise versa.

Reply 55

math42

Original post by IrrationalRoot

I must say I think you're setting the bar too high. Relative to the majority of the population you have proved yourself very creative and very intelligent. You may not be a genius or a phenomenal talent but that is no shame. I mean I would consider you significantly smarter than me and I answered yes in this thread lol. It's all about perspective. I am sure you wouldn't chastise me in the same way even though I got a measly low 1 in STEP I and couldn't even hope for that in the others, but I am comfortable with knowing that I am a relatively smart person, if not notably so.

Reply 56

IrrationalRoot

Original post by Vesniep

Fair enough. Yeah it seems that everyone doing Cambridge maths finds the workload massive. Though I would actually like that, seeing as I literally do nothing but sit in my room all day; here we have little to no work at any given time - revision for my exams consists of 90% reading through/memorising reams of lecture notes. It's effective, but I'd rather be swamped with lots of maths problems to do.

Reply 57

Vesniep

Original post by IrrationalRoot

Why do you just sit in your room though?

Did you join any society?

If only we could switch :wink:

at least for a term

Reply 58

IrrationalRoot

Original post by 1 8 13 20 42

No I think I've just faked intelligence by managing to 'play the system' all the time. I'm good at the exams, not the subject. I don't have a clue how to solve maths problems, neither how other people do it. Anything I can do is just a consequence of having done it (or something very similar) before. I have a weird set of 'cheap' skills such as rote memory etc. which allow me to effectively cheat my way through exams.

For example, in every supervision, we're given an interesting non-trivial problem or two, and everyone in the group comes up with ideas and solves the problem almost immediately, whereas I just sit there like an idiot for the whole hour, unable to even process the question. It's pretty embarrassing when I'm told to go up to the board and 'try the problem.' There is no trying. I've either seen it before, or it's impossible. I'm a f***ing robot.

It's ok in view of getting good exam results, but I certainly cannot enjoy the subject and have had to give up any non-compulsory maths completely. I now only do assignments and read through lecture notes. Well there are no assignments now, so now I'm reading through lecture notes once in a while.