Something that never ceases to irritate me is when people associate intelligence with good grades. Not even just "oh you're smart in other ways" (that sucks too don't get me wrong.)
But I am extremely academically gifted. I have been told I'm smart since I could walk and talk at the same time (~1 1/2 years old) being told I'm smart does not impress me; it hasn't in 14 years. But being told I'm not smart? That pisses me off to no end. Because the reasoning behind it is always horseshit.
"You're not as smart as Sarah, she has better grades" shut the absolute fuck up. Sarah is smart yes. But I'm an outlier. Not just in my ability to understand, but the speed at which I do it.
When I started second grade, I read below a kindergarten level. I struggled with words like "of" "was" and "busy". I frequently misspelled relatively simple words. Every single kid in my class was two or more year's ahead of my reading level. A year later, when I started third grade at a new school, I was required to take a test to determine where my reading level was. This was to start you off on books at your level and work you up throughout the year. The test came back, and I had scored " eighth grade or above" the highest the scale went.
Over the course of one year, I went up 8 grade levels of reading comprehension. Without outside help. I didn't have a tutor. I didn't take special classes to help me. I sat down and figured it out on my own.
I started practicing basic subtraction at the age of 4. Most 4-year-olds I know today can't count to twenty, much less tell you what 12-5 is. I've been in advanced math classes since I was 11.
I'm a freak. I learn ridiculously fast and retain that knowledge over long stretches of time. The thing is, I burnt out. At 15, I was clinically depressed. I didn't have the energy to shower, much less do my geometry homework. And my grades suffered for it. (Not in geometry, I had a friend who let me copy his work) I 'average passed' no less than five classes throughout high school ( I failed the second semester, but my first-semester grade was just good enough to level it out or vice versa) No matter how smart I was, no matter how well I understood the material, if I couldn't muster the energy to do the assignment I would fail. I had average to below average grades in many core classes. But I had above average understanding.
So good grades=/= intelligence. Not even academic intelligence.
