Do you believe you are smarter than most other people?

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Then have your IQ tested and settle your self-doubt.

Good idea.

I tend to think while pprobably more knoweldgeable than the average person, in the capacity that I have to be able to recall things I know, I may be.

But overall the ability to learn things, there are many vastly more intelligent than I am.

I know that I have a qualitatively very different intelligence than most. But being "more intelligent" ? Quantitatively ? Maybe in some way, after all, there are certain things I can do that seem impossible in the opinion of the normal person and maybe kind of a bit "magic" even for people that are in my environment (university of Humanities and social sciences, after 5 years of study), even though I mostly hide it from them (but aïe, results cannot always be hidden).

I have never done (seriously) an IQ test, that wouldn't work on me and it is so restrictive, as some have pointed out here. For a student, I would say that if you success at university, with really good or extremely good results, provided you're in a good environment and in favorable conditions (because we all know really or extremely able persons can fail if it isn't the case), then it means what it means, so to say. It's at least a way to know in what category you fall in, in your particular area at least. Else, things like IQ tests don't really seem interesting, except when you're in a situation of failure, "denial", hiding or not-knowing about the fact you've much intellectual potential. At school and high school people told me I was gifted - "surdoué" in French - which is maybe right in a way, but I'm a lazy intellectually person, so...
I've already encountered truly intellectualy gifted persons, for example a friend (we met at a genial several-days event organized for the "deserving" [French] "students" who had passed a hard optional competitive examination for the "best" [and most academic sometimes too] high school students of the country) who must have by now mastered the study of a dozen of ancient languages, without counting a good array of contemporary ones, and studies in linguistics. He was bored even though he was in one of the most prestigious high school of the country and he spent some of his free time translating from English or other languages articles and grammar about obscure ancient tongues, which he could themselves translate, of course. There were other really "intelligent" people in that event, doing amusing things (in my and their point of view) like speaking in foreign tongues just for fun, making jokes in latin, and of course speaking on many subjects (since it was a literary event, literature was a prominent one). I think some of them illustrated the virtues of being in the perfect environment so as to be able to fulfill one's potential, a chance I haven't got as perfectly as them, having been schooled in a town in the province, sometimes without the appropriate amount of stimulation I would have needed. I felt a bit inferior to them at times.
At least it was a very different experience than what I lived at high school, where they were normally intelligent people, except in my first year, when I was with people who weren't clearly able to pursue in general education. I felt so mortified for them, because there was this teacher who took me as a kind of model / weapon so as to show them why they did wrong and even sometimes humiliate them (I had nearly all the time 20/20 or about this mark, while they mostly had less than 10, except when they were lucky or had better understood) ; that year was hard in what regards peer interaction, and I had no stimulation whatsoever except when I spoke with teachers of course. With the "normal" people (in a statistical meaning of the word) it was better, but dull ; they thought I was smarter than them (while I was secretly jealous of them, of course, because they seemed so much more able and "smart" in another way than me !). At least it's true than in academical fields and in matter of literary creation, they were right. I also know that I can process data easier, much faster, and understand it, rearrange it and augment it in ways that are not those of many people. Alas, I lack the really exceptional general memory it would require so as to truly be complete in this matter...

I would say it depends or is maybe more complicated. I don't know much about PhD, but I know about doctorates in France (which can surely be extended to the European Union), in humanities and all the social sciences. Engaging into a doctorate clearly requires a set of abilities not everyone has or can get by learning. Doing research and writing the mémoire (final dissertation) of the Master, or doing something equivalent or with more exigence, is feasible by many people in the absolute. Research for a doctorate is more tricky, and you definitely need to be "rather smart" or really smart for that, in the disciplines that I know (letters, linguistics and languages, history). It can depend of the kind of thesis and its level of ambition. Some researches require abilities, intellectual "workforce", that not every usual PhD student can get through learning or method alone, and even though all theses that are accepted have an excellent level, some are outstanding and are by the way rewarded. For example, when you know someone has had his doctorate with a "summa cum laude" (in France it would rather be the "félicitations du jury à l'unanimité", I imagine), it means something. Even though nowadays having a doctorate is seemingly less revealing than it could be several decades ago (it was different then, but it's the days where you can find absolutely monumental theses in several volumes).

Comparing "intelligence" of individuals can be a curious hobby, but in the end it has no value if it is autotelic and doesn't serve a purpose - gloating because one would be "more intelligent" is not a very good one. It's what we do with our abilities that matter.

The word "intelligent" is very unpractical to speak of the great variety of things it can refer to in common usage, and is even more less usable when we regard the applications of "intelligence". Everything is mixed up : long term memory, short memory, power to process data on the short and the long run, the amount of knowledge you have or can use fast, without speaking of the many kind of "intelligence" we list nowadays...
I don't really see a good and valid reason that would dictate there is something really specific and important about the things IQ tests are able to evaluate. Of course, it's good for you if you've an high or a very high IQ. But IQ tests are actually more interesting when you can evaluate the people who have problems - those who are at the other end of the curve, or who are below average. Otherwise, it is not really useful for the person except in the other case I've written about before.



Indeed. Because these are eventually the things we do.

The last official IQ test I took in 2003 placed me in the 99.8th percentile with a 144.
Which means there are approx 14,000,000 people in the world "smarter" than me.
Approx 4,500 of them live in my metropolitan area.

But then how can intelligence be accurately measured on a linear scale?
Sure my spatial/geometric/math skills are off the charts, but it takes me 5 times as long as most folks to read a book.
I might have a rather good vocabulary, but I have difficulty communicating to others what is really going on in my head.

But to be honest, most of the people I talk to are f-king idiots.
I'm trying to work on getting over my intellectual arrogance, but I still have along way to go.

By others' comments: I'd say in certain areas I seem to shine.

Lots of 'praise anecdotes'.

*Knowledge*

Last edited by Mdyar on 09 Aug 2012, 12:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

That's how it seems to me. It also baffles me how people can be intelligent and stupid at the same time. I get the feeling most people simply "choose" not to think particularly deeply. Most people prefer to spend their energy elsewhere.

I also have more of a gestalt intelligence that allows me to see easily see connections. It's not a type of proficiency that comes across that readily right off the bat. I don't have great memory, mental quickness, or "working memory" for doing complex calculations or strategic reckonings in my head.

Last edited by marshall on 03 Aug 2012, 10:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

It's good to be knowledgeable .
As a devourer of knowledge myself (but I tend to memorize better things that are of less use than important academic subjects), I've moments when people are amazed, baffled, etc. But it can also be annoying, because I just forget not to open my mouth sometimes, and tell people who think they've just taught me something, "I know" or, worse "I already know". Sometimes, I surprise my parents with that kind of things, for example when I show that I have done some research in the fields they're interested by or work in (for example psychology).
I don't really frequent normal people, the people I interact with are students or professors at university. One of my "friends" (we don't meet very often even though we're at the same university) clearly believes I have some genius attributes in some areas. What's bad is that coincidences have corroborated her claims several times. Let's the Too Much Information begin again, sorry, but this time it's about a side of me I don't really like and I'm not proud of : I've not so much self esteem, and even if I've achieved something quite big, I quickly lose whatever form of satisfaction and proof that I'm not a loser it could have given me ; I'm also prone to underestimating my results at exams and at the work I do and I've done. It has made me live uncomfortable situations with my peers and acquaintances, because many times I've expressed my fears about the results, I've learnt later that I had got outstanding ones... And I just feel like an imbecile afterwards.
I also feel that there is a kind of injustice with me in some cases. I'm ashamed when I manage to have exceptionnal results while I don't feel that it was work or hard working, or when I do something at the last minute that would be impossible to do for many and get the same marks or more than people who have worked hard and long to gain them... At least the fact I did it quickly and overnight or at the last moment, that I can keep secret. One semester I did not go to all the English to French academic text translation lessons except for one when I learnt at entering the room that it was the final exam and we had a bit more than the usual hour to finish. I had a medical appointment just after the normal end time of the lesson, so I just did the deed quickly, without a dictionary, and I left early (I was nevertheless late at the appointment, but that's another story). And I just got the perfect mark - I didn't know it was the exam and I was kind of sick ! ... End of Too Much Information.

The problem when you're "intelligent" or too much intelligent ? You can get bored, usual things become more or less predictable, and you can forget that you're not "normal" in the way you experience it. I mean, I've used several times the word "article" to describe the writing of a 15 pages or more essay for university, I've without problem doubled the number of pages I had to write for my end of master dissertation about a subject that had already been tried and abandoned a bit later by some good students... Some (entertainment) films and novels are boring, the strings being more than obvious... I just get annoyed, because I'm forced to say for the ... time to my grandma how this thing in her phone works, because I see that my father has clearly forgotten again how to do a rather simple thing with his computer while I told him 100 times...

i may be smart, but only at my own special interests. even then, there are people out there that are even smarter in that interest than me.

Yes

But I've learned that it's not polite to say so.

I've had my IQ assessed, and it came out high, so, yes.

i do not believe anything.

I find less stress comes with answering no to this question.


-Chris

I answered "no" because arrogance in itself is an evil selfish trait. I may be able to verbally communicate words at a high level but I fall completely short with physical clumsiness and social inadequacies. People have always told me I'm smart but I have never worked up to my potential and THAT is stupid!

i can claw my way through life. that is what i can do.
i can not compare myself with others in an intellectual sense because other people are paying attention to the very things that i find uninteresting.

I don't think I'm smarter than anyone else, and I don't really like to think of myself as spectacular and above-all. I'm just average.

I do well in Maths, German, Science and ICT, but I wouldn't say I was exceptionally smart.

I believe that the ones who want to learn usually do better in academics than the ones who don't, but it doesn't necessarily mean they're 'smarter'. Some people are better in different areas than others.