why do i have a high iq but suck at school?

Question

i took an iq test and scored 127, but i barely finished higschool.
and yes it was a legitamit test.

Answer 1

Your IQ score is only 3 points away from the "gifted" cutoff, so I will address your issue based on your being gifted (you're close enough on that score, anyway).

There can be any number of reasons why you have problems at school. Most likely, it is one of these:

1. School is boring. If you are very smart, you are sitting through classes paced for people with IQ's 20 to 30 points below yours. This would be like average intelligence people being asked to sit through life skills and basic academic lessons for the intellectually disabled.

In my Gifted Enrichment class, we call the drill work and constant repetition of what we already know "doing the dishes."

While true learning and higher motivation would take place if regular ed teachers really did self-educate about gifted students and compressed/accelerated curriculum and instruction as needed, it usually doesn't happen. On the other hand, guess what your job is going to be full of when you start your career? Unless you are in a management position (business, doctor, lawyer/judge, etc.), you're going to have to do lots of "dishes," or repetitive paperwork, as part of your routine.

Positives: College, especially once you get into your junior year and higher, is geared more towards people at your level of intelligence. Be ready to be challenged!
Doing the "dishes" in classes that have inflexible and "in a rut" instructors is excellent practice for those jobs I mentioned above.
Motivation builder for career advancement... if you want to get into a job that does NOT require you to fill in all those papers all the time, you need to advance your education and work experiences, as quickly as you can, and maximizing your scores/evaluations.

2. Mood disorder like depression or anxiety.

Gifted people are more inclined to experience depression or anxiety, because of their heightened awareness of things going on both in their own personal lives and in the world in general.

Seek counselling, take meds if needed. With a good counselor who understands gifted mood issues, it does help very well.

3. Lack of connection between your goals/dreams, and the school experience. Either you have yet to set your goals (still "searching"), or you have an idea of what you want to do with your life, but just don't see the connection between school stuff and your chosen lifestyle/career.

No goal yet? Perhaps you should work for a year or two, in whatever job you can find, just to "reset" your mind and rest from school pressures. You can also try different career areas, until you find something you like. Then go to college.

Have a goal, but don't see the school connection? Hook up with people in that career area, and get their take on how education may have helped them with their line of work. Get a lower-level job in that career field for a little while, and observe the difference in roles between those with more school, and those with less.

Real life experience does wonders for helping make that connection happen, and for people in this situation to get motivated for studies.

4. If you tried your hardest, but still struggled in school, even though you scored well on the IQ test, then you ARE gifted. However, you may have a Learning Disability as well. Ask your local college/university's Office for Students with Disabilities about a referral to a certified educational diagnostician.

If you are both gifted and have a learning or other disability, it is called being Twice-Exceptional (2x).

It means you were called "lazy" by your teachers and by others all through school, no matter how hard you tried.

It means that some things made instant sense, and others were confusing, but you were too embarrassed to ask for help on the hard stuff because "smart people already know this stuff... or weren't you paying attention?"

It means you went through H***.

If you are 2x, or have a mood disorder such as anxiety or depression, there are supports you can use to get through college. It also means you may have a lawsuit against your old public school system if they failed to identify and support you adequately.

Here are some links:

http://www.hoagiesgifted.org/twice_exceptional.htm

http://uniquelygifted.org/

Example of programming given to 2x students: http://www.susd.org/district/gifted/twiceexceptional.htm

2x or mood disorder? Here's the site with everything you need to start your lawsuit (after lots of reading and then hiring a lawyer):
http://www.wrightslaw.com/

Answer 2

Well your IQ score indicates that you're intelligent, but that doesn't guarantee that you will do well in school. Doing well in school requires a lot of things including hard work, taking tests well, getting along socially with teachers and students, interest in the subjects you're studying, etc... Perhaps you weren't challenged enough in your classes, got bored, and did poorly. Or maybe you did well on tests because you knew the material, but never did the homework and therefore had low grades. Whatever the reason, it's good to know that at least you have the intelligence and the potential to do well in your life and perhaps get an even higher education. You just have to reexamine what's important to you and figure out how to get it.

Answer 3

a lot of people mentioned it, and i think the same thing: it is self-motivation. having the higher IQ means you CAN do it. But if you can do it, but don't do it, then obviously u're not going to get the grade you could have got.

To shed some light on your situation though, Einstein had an IQ over 200, but he was a school dropout and did terribly at school. He just wasn't interested, and maybe that's what's happening to you. The problem you have nowadays though is that if you don't have the credentials (school diplomas), then you're not going to go anywhere. So put up with the BS, do it, get out of there and then do what you want.

Answer 4

I also tested with a high IQ and had a hard time in school. My theory is the average public school curriculum wouldn't challenge the IQ of a monkey. Then there was always the distractions with the disciplinary problems in public school. I found it hard to concentrate on the course work with the class clowns, stoners and the ones that only came to school because the law said they had to. I found I did much better with college level courses where there was more of a mental challenge and more mature people who were there to learn.

Answer 5

You don't really have to be smart to get good grades. A lot of times I have seen C-average students who are obviously ten times more brilliant than any straight-A student. The difference between them is that the straight-A dork has the motivation to do a lot of busywork, and the C student doesn't. It doesn't always take brains to do the schoolwork, just the self-discipline to do it.

I was very frustrated with my school situation for a long time, and almost dropped out. I wasn't being challenged and I knew none of the crap I was being taught really mattered in the real world. But then I grew up and realized that I just have to go along with the BS and do it anyway. I'm still not terribly challenged, but I go to a better school than the one I was going to at the time, at least. Now I care about my grades and have a 3.67 GPA. I used to have a 2.3.

Answer 6

There's many reasons but first of all because a high IQ does not equate that you're smart. Also school is a place to prepare you for life, this means being able to study etc... Also it could be that you're not being changelled. It's pretty easy to say that you're not being challenged or the stuff they're teaching you is not interesting to you but most of the times it comes down to you not trying

Answer 7

The reason that you didn't do as well in school is probably because you slacked off and didn't work as hard as you should have. You shouldn't rely on your IQ to do your work for you. It's the effort and the time you put in that matters.

Answer 8

IQ is potential. Doing well in school takes hard work. Were you trying to skate through on your IQ, or did you really apply yourself?

How well you did in school means less and less as you get older. If you want to learn things, learn them. You don't need school to do it.

Answer 9

What did you get on your SAT or ACT? I'd rather go off of those then an IQ test.
Plus, any test doesn't really measure how much you actually know, it measures what you know on that specific test.

Answer 10

127 is somewhat above average, I would not call it high, but my guess is you are lazy, bored or just don't care.

I can tell you don't care, because you did not bother to use spell check or capitalize IQ.

Work on it, get your GED and show people you are smart. You are smart enough to know you have some smarts and you should not waste it.