How can you be a B and C student and have an IQ between 145-150?

[Anonymous]

My younger sister (17) is in her last year of HS and apparently she's always been lazy at school. She gets B's and C's on her report card and clearly doesn't seem to care too much.

Yet her IQ is higher than both our brother and mine. She's been tested a couple times and the highest she ever got was 150. It's always been 145-150. Her ACT and SAT were quite high too. There is another incongruence. Her chemistry and math grade is either a C+ or B- on the report card but her chemistry and math exams are always A's.

So what's going on? Why is she a B and C student at school but scores high on every single IQ, exams or standardized exams?

Updates

+1 y

She always comes with the answer ''I don't need to study much. I know''.

[MrOracle]

It sounds like me. By junior high, I was bored with school, and preferred to learn on my own. I educate myself on new things every day, and I didn't need formal school to do so.

One of my best friends was in town at his folk's place over the weekend, and I was over visiting. A short blurb about electric cars came on TV, and my buddy asked me a couple of questions, which led to his dad and his dad's friend to ask more questions, and I ended up spending about an hour explaining things and answering questions about charging, battery chemistry, self-driving, and so on. Much of the discussion was about Tesla, though I touched on other manufacturers several times.

His dad's friend asked how long I had worked for Tesla, and I laughed and told him that I'd never even driven one. When he learned that I didn't work for any auto company and never had, he couldn't believe that I could answer questions for over an hour off the top of my head. My buddy and his dad laughed, because I can do that about hundreds of subjects, and they've seen me do it for more than 30 years. Yet, I'm a college dropout - I started taking college classes at 16 but only stayed long enough to complete the Audio Engineering program, because that was the only thing I was interested in, and it was the only reason I took differential calculus.

Formal education has its place, but it's designed around the average or just above average student, and not everyone needs a lumbering formal structure to learn things at someone else's pace. It's BORING and higher IQ people either love Academia because it means they need have very little interaction with the real world (Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory) or they find it too restricting and prefer to learn at their own pace.

Before the Internet, I used to check out library books 8 or 10 at a time - history, science, biographies, etc. Today, there is nothing you can't learn on the Internet, so formal education just seems like an anchor to me. And I'm behind your sister at a mere 143 IQ.

[BoopBoopBeep]

Is she missing the questions that are reasoning questions or memorization of some fact? Having a high IQ doesn't mean you're suddenly loaded up matrix style with all the geographic features of asia on a map or the name of all 16th century Irish poets. Also doesn't mean you know or perform in all subjects equally well. She also may be missing some assignments all together. I stopped doing most of my homework sophomore or junior year. Just took the zeroes. We were on 10-pt scales, if homework is only worth 8% of overall grade then I figured I was still walking out with an A, why bother? Higher A? All looks the same on a transcript, and those only matter for so long. Did give me a lot more free time though. Maybe that's her issue.

[Miah05]

Smarter people are bored in school because it's too easy.

They struggle to maintain focus. Albert Einstein is a perfect example

[Dinklex3]

Having a higher IQ doesn’t mean you know everything. You still have to take the time and learn the information.

[abc3643]

By not working hard enough. And that can happen with really smart people who are not used to working.
I had this problem in college at first. I had to learn how to learn to become a much better student.

As for the high test scores but the low grades, that's because grades are more than just tests. Homework, attendance, etc...

[Asker]

She really hates her HS. She hates her English literature class for this reason:
She told me that all her teacher does is read from the book verbatim, seats back on his desk and gives handouts and assignments, teaching nothing. She finds that boring and doesn't even care about trying.

[abc3643]

I was the same exact way in my Spring 1982 Math III class (Introduction to Linear Algebra). The professor read verbatim from the book and the book was cryptic at best. I didn't understand it after the first two weeks. Eventually, I just went to class and did the crossword puzzle in the school newspaper.

Ultimately, I got a C in that class... and in a lot of other classes that semester. I only got a single B. So, my GPA was shit. In full disclosure, I was also going through my first broken heart - my girlfriend dumped me over the winter break, so I was in rather shitty mood and not caring about much.

It took almost another year before I got my shit together and realized that learning on my own was sometimes better than any teacher. And that did make me a better student because then I could go to the professor after class and ask a question or two...

========

What does your sister want to do after high school? College? (What major?) What does she want to do for a living when she is done with her schooling?

[ShadowYamihiro]

its about interest, we remember thing that are intriguing to us, i had bad grades in school cuz none of that was interesting to me, subjects including anime, psychology, nature, japan, behaviour, statistics of some thing were interesting to me and a know a lot, i'm very good when debating stuff i know but other thing i dont care about and have no use for that knowledge

[Asker]

This might be the cause of her lower grades on school. Even the teachers are quite surprised about her not putting her whole effort. The thing is if she really wanted to put her full potential and did that, she would probably even skip a school grade or challenge herself on an invention.
She always talks about how school sucks, how it's boring and there is nothing really new to learn.

[ShadowYamihiro]

Exactly she pretty much already knows most of what she is supposed to learn bit by bit, that is why school year in long so you can learn things gradually but she probably already knows most of cuz that is how high iq people work, she lost interest in learning about it because she already thinks she know enough about it and since it's not something she is interested in she really have no inspiration to learn more about it, she simply does her minimum for that and school to simply go by-her grades are good enough for her to not worry about failing so i think she is simply trying to figure herself out, the worlds is really a vast place and you would need 200-300 years to explore majority or things you can actually do so she feels stuck right now. that will slowly pass but probably won't go away completely, and ofc lets not forget the kids at school either, she can be a failing student or honor student but they will always be bullies. she deals with them as w ell just like any other normal student, perhaps its nothing serious or physical but just simply knowing people are w atching her, judging her etc is putting extra pressure on her and that's probably adding to reduced lack of interest as well, High iq people are usually either very ignorant about themselves or people around them or they are very self-conscious and observant

[ShadowYamihiro]

I for example (dont know my iq but its probably average perhaps even below average when it comes to things i don't care about, and trust me i haven't felt how to say properly say alive since i was a kid, not a very warm family in short and my personality is more of a lone wolf and once you mix those 2 you are kinda just breathing and surviving instead of living, big difference) but anyway i'm very self-conscious and highly observant, and i have a feeling your sister is too as well, regardless or IQ that is probably something we share and we learn and try to replicate others but we don't feel the same so we get super self-conscious and feel like an outcast, even if you are surrounded by people you know love you, if you have a hard time feeling that warm love inside of you you will feel stuck and trapped, i'm sure that is the same for her

[artgorgeous]

IQ scale is a scale that does not necessarily measures a quality or the amount of knowledge. Its rather a test to see how fast can person understand the task/puzzle and solve it. It measures your ability so effectifely understand the task and find solution.

[exitseven]

My son has a very high IQ. He used to intermittently make the honor roll. He thought that barely making the honor roll without having to put any effort into it was better than studying and becoming class valedictorian.

[TallAnon]

Rate of learning has no effect if you're not learning.
People also have different rates of learning on different subjects.

[Asker]

Her issue is she won't put her full potential. If she did, then she would be the top one in class or likely even skip a grade. But she hates school and keeps telling me that her English literature teacher literally just reads from the book and gives assignments and how she doesn't feel like trying in that class at all because of how boring it is.

[TallAnon]

Yeah, I can relate. Not everyone lives to their potential, but that's fine. She should do what makes her happy.

[Drumlin2001]

Dosent matter how intelligent you are. If you don't study you won't achieve.

[Lokiion]

I don't know for her but me personally its boredom