It’s currently university exam season in my country. My roommate has quite literally not come to university at all the entire semester except for mandatory stuff; hasn’t studied at all, doesn’t even have the coursework, 0 notebooks or folders, etc. We’re more than half done with the exam session and he got 10/10 (max grade) at each exam. He just read through my coursework the day before the exam for a bit & that was it. When I ask him he says he uses intuition, logic and reading between the lines to understand the “patterns”. I just don’t understand how you can use “intuition” for microeconomics & math applied in economics for example. I know for a fact he doesn’t cheat cause in his mind cheating is too much effort.
Some people are smarter than others. Some people are so smart that they struggle to be interested in school unless it’s a challenge, and can simply skate by like your roommate.
I certainly can’t say I am anywhere near that level, but I was smart enough to coast through a lot of subjects I was interested in without studying.
I also learned from a young age that I could pass a multiple choice test on a subject I knew nothing about just by intuition, looking for context clues, and guessing. Ask me to write an essay on an unfamiliar subject, and I was screwed, though.
I wouldn’t necessarily equate having a good memory or good intuition to intellect / being smart.
For certain subjects, I opted not to study and did well like OP is asking about. Studying would have helped my grades further. I just simply couldn’t be bothered and I have no regrets with how I chose to spend my time.
In university, I had low emotional intelligence, so maybe that was a tradeoff?
I feel that multiple choice test thing in a major way. I could probably get 75% or more right on any multiple choice test regardless of my actual knowledge on the topic. I always found those tests to be a terrible way to see if someone actually understood the subject matter.
I was smart enough to purposely average Cs in grade school and highschool and then drop out the second I turned 18 lol.
I’m pretty stupid, but I often find my self completely perplexed by the stupidity and lack of logical thinking from people who had 4.0+ GPAs and have doctorates. Like on paper these people are smarter than me in every conceivable way, but they were too stupid to know not to put engine coolant into their oil.
Something something fish climbing trees.
You know what’s infuriating about multiple choice tests? When you know enough to notice a mistake. You can tell the teacher screwed up, and now you know none of the answers are correct or more than one is. Next, you’ll just have to telepathically figure out what the teacher was thinking of when designing the exam, and pick the answer that was originally supposed to be the right one.
If you’ve mastered the art of exam telepathy, you also unlock the ability to pass any multiple choice exam.
Basically my son. He currently studies math and computer science, and for the first time in his life he does not feel bored to death.
Yup, I was able to pass recertification as a pediatrician for the state of NJ in 1985 when I was in 5th grade because Im good at multiple choice exams. You wouldn’t want any version of me doing pediatrics as my major/minor in college were poli sci/International Relations.