I worry about how intelligent I am.

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I have the desire to become intelligent and useful in this world, to be able to understand what others do not. Yet I am conflicted inside. People often say I am smart, but from what I recall my I.Q is not as high as some people at my school. I read somewhere that intelligence has something that correlates with height and I am a very short man, about 5.6FT. I want to become intelligent, yet I am worried I will never reach my main goal.

The correlation is statistically significant but very small.

Far more important to achieving your goals is to constantly make small but steady progress.

Many folks could be intelligent, but aren't, simply because they never applied themselves to doing the hard stuff, or taking advantages of opportunities to learn. For instance, many high schools offer Advanced Placement courses in Physics and Mathematics, but many students don't take advantage of this opportunity.

So you say it has very small affect on my overall intelligence?

While I did not join the advanced classes as I could not handle the stress, (I was in an advanced kids club in Elementary school, but my parents decided I would get too stressed to take advanced classes because of my Aspergers. )

I know one guy in my Cisco class who is giant sized, and he has been in there for three years and is still stuck on ITE. I am in Cisco2. I am worried about not having the capacity to learn more. Such as a set biological limit to how much knowledge I can hold.

No, it probably has no effect on YOUR intelligence, What the studies sort of show, is that if you study enough people, the average intelligence of taller people is likely to be higher. But, if you looking at individuals, you can find numerous examples of a small person being smarter than taller people.

For instance, I'm just 5' 2" tall, but hold the distinction of having the highest score ever achieved on the technical exam given to potential employees where I work. I'm really good at taking exams.

In your case, did you miss out on those advanced classes because of your height? I think not. You may want to work on ways of handling stress--it is hard to learn if you aren't challenged by what you do.

I see, of course it kind does make sense if you did not get your nutrition when you where younger. Luckily I did, in fact I am overweight. XD

Congradulations! If I recall one of the greatest military commanders, Erwin Rommel was 5,5" He was the person who created the idea of the Atlantic Wall in Normandy in WW2.

Well back then I had major problems. Now I think I can control it if I do not get too stressed. In fact I kind of am. Cisco 2 can be hard in some levels.

I'm not familiar with the school system in whatever country you may live in. Forgive me, I'm just an ignorant Central European who hasn't got out of his country much.

Well do you recognise significant change between your mental capacity a few years ago and now? Maybe you should check yourself for clinical depression or similar disorders... when I compare my mental abilities now to those I had five or even three or two years ago I notice a huge difference and if you only had the record you'd assign the values to two different people. Not that I was that much of a genius anyways.

So, yes, maybe it's not your intelligence you should worry about but rather whatever might be compromising it... given you feel it to be compromised in the first place.

I am in the US. I do not find Europeans ignorant at all. In fact I am fascinated with Europe.

I do believe I am still as sharp as I have been in the past, just I worry about my overall mental capacity.

I think height vs intelligence is a myth. I wouldn't worry about that at all.
Intelligence comes from knowledge and experience.

You'd be surprised how ignorant we can become while accusing Americans of the same thing.. ^^ Germans at least, that is.

You shouldn't make it your goal to be useful. You'll never have a proper scale with which to measure if and how much you are and then you'll keep stuck in a perpetual panic of not being useful enough.

From here I cannot judge how intelligent you actually are but given that you get called smart by more than just two or three people there must be something to it and yes there are people getting a higher count on the IQ scale but no matter how intelligent you get there will still be some people who do. It all depends on the way they pen their tests. While IQ still does give an approximate idea of how intelligent one might be they still do hardly more than measure how good one can solve an IQ test. Mine isn't that high either and I'm pretty much of a failure but I'm spending a lot of time on self-reflection and thought about how people interact with each other so maybe I found more and more useful solutions to problems occuring with that than people whose IQs count way higher than mine. I still fail most of the time, but I guess I'm on a good way. It's not even that much about effort and pushing yourself but rather about finding creative ways to apply a problem to yourself.

Yes. I pretty much guess it's about that. Develop a personal interest in the problems you need to solve in your Cisco classes. It might likely make it easier for you to approach them. I don't know how to do that but maybe you find a way yourself. After all, you know yourself better

I went through a phase once when I thought I wasn't smart enough. But then I realised my main goal in life is to be happy and successful, not neccessarily a Nobel-prize-winning genius. There's that old saying: 'No matter how good you are at something, there is always somebody better'. Unless, of course, you have been recognised as the best in some sort of international championship. There is, however, no such thing as a world happiness championship.

Jeanne Calment, the oldest person ever to live, said that the secret to her 122-year lifespan was that she always 'acted clearly, morally and without regret. I am very brave'. Studies have shown that long-lived people never took themselves too seriously.

People have called me smart, but I know there are many, many, many people who are smarter -- I don't let it bother me.

You shouldn't worry too much about IQ anyway. On the Mensa test, I scored one point below "genius level", but the skills required to score that high don't really translate all that well into the real world in terms of usefulness. Good pattern recognition and logic aren't too helpful when you're downright naive when it comes to certain other skills....

Plus, the tests themselves can be pretty arbitrary. The difference between normal an "culture fair", and the different standard variations kind of distort the results. (140-160 with a standard deviation of 24 is somewhere about 130 with the more common deviation of 15, if I remember correctly).

And in the end, your personal results can also vary a lot. (Sleep deprivation, for instance, can cause a significant drop).

I see, well I would say I have better social skills then some people in my socail skills class, but they are still not the best social skills.

Interesting. I have not taken an I.Q. test in a long time. I suppose this is really my paranoia at work.

I see. So I should get more sleep correct?

I see, I do however want to start my own computer company.

I think I am too serious with myself then if that is the case.

I guess I need to accept the fact I am not the most intellectually sound person on this planet. My problem is I put all my efforts into being smarter to make up for my slight stature.

Categorically, there is NO meaningful correlation between Height and IQ.

Is Shaq more intelligent than every Scientist that ever lived?

Of course not.

Accept yourself, work hard, and remember to laugh as often as you can.

Interesting, I've never heard about the correlation between height and IQ before. I thought "I bet Wikipedia has a separate article on this very topic!" Sure enough, it does: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Height_and_intelligence

I see. I went to the doctor and she told me I was 5.5ft. 1/2,(I will say 5.6 as my drivers license says I am 5.7)

I know a guy in my class who is very tall, 6.4 or 6.3, and he is still in ITE#1. I am almost in Cisco2. I think if the question was if I was not fed in life I would be less intelligent, but I can tell you as an person who had about a 180 in how fat he was I was most defiantly well fed as a child.

I live in the south so I have my share of like minded country simpletons who are really tall, I seem to be a tiny bit more intelligent from them based on my past observations.