Are People Shurprized To Find That You Are Intelligent?

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Throughout my life I have found this. Even teachers that have taught me have been shocked to find I have an above average intelligence. Admittedly I am no where near genius level, but for some reason, they assume that I am thick.
I have been put down classes in the past because I somehow gave the impression that I was not intelligent, and at the end of the year when the exams come along, those who taught me have been surprized to find I was not just at the top of the class, but I was often 10 to 20 marks higher then second place in almost every subject with the exception of languages. Yet when I was in the top classes, because I can't keep up with the pace as I am hopless at dictation and keeping up when work is written on the black board etc (Which is all done at a much slower pace when I was put down to the bottom classes), I would be put down not just one class, but right to the bottom as those who taught me assumes I was thick.
The slower speed I think at, and the speed in which I can get my body to write was assumed to be a sign of being thick, but in reality I am a deep thinker and I can often even out whit those who are assumed to be intelligent.

Can you relate to this? Understandably some of you can and some of you can not relate to this, but how common is it to assume that someone is thick and then find out a year or two later that they are the complete opposite?

I remember when I was 11 at school everyone in the class had to read a paragraph each from a book we were all reading, and when it was my turn I read my paragraph just like everyone else. After the class was finished, all the girls gathered around me and expressed surprise that I could read.

But, now that I think about it, I think they might have just been surprised that I was able to read out loud in front of the class. It was a very long time ago so I can't really remember.

I have both issues.

Some people have been surprised at my lack of skill / awareness / ability / aptitude in seemingly simple areas. There are many areas in academics and adaptive skills where I'm very far behind my peers, and always have been.

Conversely, the people who know me with those limitations are amazed by my academic accomplishment in other areas (literature, maths, physics, art history, philosophy).

I have never had this problem
Despite the evidence, I have never been 'accused' of having a good head on my shoulders.
People want to believe what they want to believe.
What can you do?

Would you rather surprise or disappoint...?

No, I have never had that problem. I was too smart for my own good many times in my life though.

Only for physical appearances reasons.

1 I'm small. Really small. I look like a kid. Still think that some people who know my age think of me as a 'prodigy'. I've been called a 'prodigy' as an adult.
2 I have touch sensitivity & find it hard to dress as well as I'd like. Instead, I wear tracksuits. Tracksuits say 'chav' to some people. Chavs don't tend to be intelligent.

Or reasons like
1 I don't work. I'm on disability benefit. They assume anyone who doesn't work & is on disability benefit is stupid.
*
Most of the time people who get to know me think of me as a font of knowledge (nicely) or a know-it-all (less nicely). I read a lot and not just fiction.

I was really peeved in middle school that I was not voted the "smartest girl". As early as 4th grade, I was thinking so far ahead (North is not absolute) that it appeared to others I didn't understand the basics (North from your chair is that way). I was acing algebra in elementary, but would miss the simple "tricks" (classmate multiples a serial string of numbers and operands by 0 and adds 4 --- I'm still trying to do the first twenty computations and everyone is laughing at me). My daughter is in 4th grade now and has a similar problem: the teacher says to "take" the 1st two numbers from her phone number and my daughter is besides herself on which phone number to use (dad's, mom's, the house) and what to do with those two numbers. So everyone else is moving ahead with 72 or 30 and my daughter has painfully settled on 7 and 2 (which is the highest frequency) and is near meltdown waiting to find out if she's supposed to add, subtract, multiple or divide the two numbers.

Even today I have a very difficult time conveying the complex concepts I see and understand ---- when my type of intelligence does become apparent (b/c I have practiced the terminology others understand, or somebody can interpret me), people will say things like "you have a head on your shoulders", I think "of course" and we're stuck staring at each other. It's really hard to find a niche in the "real world" where an individual focused type of intelligence can be applied well.

I went from high school dropout, to the library, to lecturing to graduating engineers, but I don't think that most people can tell if I'm intelligent. I show them how to save millions of dollars, and they just assume there must be some mistake.

People usually understand that I have some level of inteligence.
If I wanted to, I could join Mensa.
It's when it comes to intelectualism where they get confused.
Sure I'm a punk and a rebel, but I've read Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman.
It's hard for some people to grasp that one who listens to Metallica and Rammstein also reads Nietzsche and Goethe.

/Mats

There is one person I know who might be. They infantilise me. I'm glad I don't see them on a regular basis.

People are sometimes surprised that I'm so dumb!

People are very dismissive of me at first and don't think I can do much, since I'm very clumsy and don't have great verbal ability. They're always surprised I know as much as I do about certain subjects and that the quality of the tasks I do are as good as they are.

^I bet you are a better carpenter than I am.

People are very surprised to hind out how intelligent I am. People think I'm slow at first and than I really surprise them.

I AM often "slow" at first----and I don't always give off a good "first impression."