Comment on Does anyone else feel like 90% of the population is stupid?

z00s@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

• KarmaTrainCaboose@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  This is interesting to me though. Didn’t most people (at least in developed countries) take tests in school? Get grades? I would think if you did below average on those you kind of…should know that you’re in the bottom half?

  I get that it’s possible to make changes after schooling, and grades are only somewhat reliable (in that they also rely on effort) but still.

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  • Dkarma@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    You ever see the people who get As in school take an aptitude test? They don’t always get high scores.

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    • piexil@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      And aptitude tests themselves are flawed and usually only measure certain quantities or qualities of intelligence, and are not really a great marker for general intelligence (this is including IQ tests which have a very racist origin and history)

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    • jandar_fett@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Not to mention grades are about doing the work and having the discipline and organizational skills. There are plenty of people who are very intelligent, but lack both of those. US testing metrics (is that the right word?) are heavily flawed. This isn’t even bringing up the racist aspect of most institutions, including educational being headed up and formulated by white people.

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      • BigSadDad@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

        I’m curious. Do you think “educational” being headed up and formulated by a black person would increase scores overall? Just within black children scores?

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  • Elderos@sh.itjust.works ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    IQ tests were first developped because it seemed obvious not all students performed equally. On average a student that is good in a given discipline will also tend to do well in other unrelated disciplines. On average is the keyword here, outliers exist.

    I think gifted students can easily tell what side of the curve they’re on, even though they might not want to acknowledge it. It is not even avout the grades, because gifted students also often learn early on that they can get away by doing the minimum amount of work and still get passing grades. So they’re not necessarily top of classes.

    Gifted students get told they’re fast learner all the time, and they notice how everyone else seem to be progressing in slow motion. They know.

    I think it gets harder to self-evaluate the closer you are to the average, since most of your peers will be more or less just as intelligent as you. Then, the dullest you are, and the less you can identify competense and the more likely you are to be over-confident.

    I think in the end, most people will end up believing they’re above average because we tend to notice dumb people a lot. Ironically it is probably students who are just slightly above average who will have the most self-doubts, because they feel different and they can probably tell more gifted students are around.

    Source: 50% my ass, 50% being surrounded by incredibly smart people who shared their personal experiences with me.

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