Would you say grades are a pretty good indication of someone's intelligence?

[DrPizza]

I'd be interested in polling AT, specifically this thread, to question how many of you consider yourself of "above average" intelligence. I'd wager that most in this thread (heck, most people) consider themselves above average. Which is of course impossible.

I don't find it impossible at all. I don't feel that the members of this forum represent a random sampling of the general population. Have you ever noticed how the vast majority of posters here are capable of posting in grammatically correct sentences, with proper punctuation and spelling?

 

[Slammy1]

Classes such as Calculus, linear math, Organic chemistry are universally known to be very hard classes.

No...

I used to study in school. I put myself through, you'd get these guys who were threatened with good grades. They'd say, oh, I only made a C but I don't study or some BS like that. They were also the ones interested in who got the highest grades on tests (I kept quiet but I liked to mess with their egos sometimes). I don't think grades are a measure of intellect but a combination of factors and a narrow scope of intelligence (like IQ tests...).

 

[OverVolt]

Nah, there were classes where I was the top 10% or so in the class which worked out to a C because the teacher had other interests (research) and truly did not give a damn about teaching his students. If you take a class full of people with 3.5 GPAs and 90% fail is it the teachers fault or the students fault?

Many go through college trying to find the easiest route. 300 Biology grads with 4.0s and 30 Chemical Engineering grads with 3.0s. Who is smarter?

OP is probably naive for even asking IMO.

 

[ultimatebob]

Good grades are often just a measure of someone's ability to memorize useless information and then regurgitate that information in the exams. That's why so many places do not want to hire someone until they have a few years of experience and decent references.

I'm sure that almost every older ATOT'er around here can tell you of a story of someone their business hired with a 4.0 GPA who couldn't do their job if their lives depended on it.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Being book smart means you are good with theory stuff, but does not really prove applied knowledge well. I suppose the theory can help a bit but not more than that.

I used to do extremly bad in the college CCNA course, because a lot of it is theory. But when it came to hands on stuff like setting up routers, switches with routing and vlans, I was blowing everyone out of the water, while most of them were doing better than me at the theory part. Some people are more applied, that's me. I'm glad the place I work for looks at experience more than grades, because my grades were not above average, but I probably was able to do more than the average person coming out of college.

 

[alkemyst]

Being book smart means you are good with theory stuff, but does not really prove applied knowledge well. I suppose the theory can help a bit but not more than that.

I used to do extremly bad in the college CCNA course, because a lot of it is theory. But when it came to hands on stuff like setting up routers, switches with routing and vlans, I was blowing everyone out of the water, while most of them were doing better than me at the theory part. Some people are more applied, that's me. I'm glad the place I work for looks at experience more than grades, because my grades were not above average, but I probably was able to do more than the average person coming out of college.

We have one of the highest concentrations of CCIE's out there. Some of our best engineers cannot past that test yet they are the ones other IE's ask when the shit hits the fan.

My brother is both highly certified and can walk the talk. Not to mention he is taking a Masters in Network theory from Harvard now.

He never believed in certifications before. He started several ISP's and one of those became the largest private one in the Texas/Ark/Louisiana area until it was bought by a large public company and he cashed out. Most jobs he was interested in wanted a CCIE, so in 11 months he did all the CCNAs, CCNP's, some CCDPs, CISSP, and his R&S CCIE (he is 8xxx). Recently NetApp offered up some $2500 tickets to the first 80 candidates to complete their IE level storage cert. So in six months while traveling back and forth to Atlanta to Palm Beach weekly he picked up his Cisco Storage IE, the NetApp and EMC IE level storage certs.

He's a monster at that. Plus you ask him a question on any of it, he can pretty much regurgitate the textbook and spout off all the commands to get someone up and running.

 

[stockwiz]

No.. when young some people don't understand the value of getting good grades if they want to be a 'cog in the white collar machine' and make good money when they get older.


Perhaps they see the whole drive for wealth and status to be overrated, or they are just addicted to some vice like gaming and waste too much of their time. They might be intelligent but have unrealized potential.

Perhaps they just find the information boring.... far more useful and something not taught in schools are critical thinking skills.. the ability to question the reality that you are told. Rather students are encouraged to accept reality as it is, not question what they are taught... at least until college. History is recorded by the victors.....

Also book smarts are no substitute for real world experience and also simply finding people who can show up to the job on time consistently.

 

[BoberFett]

I'd like to think that the marketplace has decided who is worth what, which is why I get paid the way I do and you get paid the way you do.

If by getting paid the way I do means being in the 5 to 10% of income earners with only a high school diploma (where I had about a 2.6 GPA) then sure, the market is deciding nicely.

But keep crying, I actually make a killing selling janitor's tears online.

 

[surfsatwerk]

I'm trying to whistle while I got the whole "pat head rub tummy" thing going on. It's taking some effort.