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It really is kind of odd who ends up doing well in school and who doesn’t.
Some of the smartest people I knew when I was younger got terrible grades or even dropped out of high school just because they didn’t like dealing with the structure.
On the other hand, some people I knew who were just kind of average as far as brain power really studied hard and got straight As.
So, if you ask me, I think doing well in school is about putting in the work…for the most part.
But do you think doing well in school is about working hard or being smart?
Let’s see what AskReddit users said.
1. Tired of it.
“You don’t have to be a genius to get 80s/90s or even go to university/college.
I’m tired of hearing people say they are just not born smart when in reality school is an effort based system. If you put in the effort and become driven with getting high grades I guarantee you can get them.
Everyone rather make up excuses as to why they did c**p in school. People will blame the teachers, their parents, say they were not born smart or even just say it’s the schools fault as to why they failed. But in reality the school never failed the students… the students failed themselves.
If you treated school like a chore and just put in the bare minimum and failed there’s no one to blame but your self.
And getting 90s also doesn’t mean you’re smart it means you just put in more effort than the person next you.
If you have some sort of learning disability or any other disability/medical condition I can understand as to why you may have not done as well.
Also if you were born into a wealthy family, were privileged, went to a good school, never dealt with bullying or family matters and never had any disabilities or medical condition and still failed you should be disappointed in your self. You let your self down, you had all the tricks and benefits, but still managed to F up.”
2. Don’t mean much.
“I routinely score high in IQ tests.
They don’t mean anything other than you are the kind of person that does well on IQ style tests. I happen to be good at pattern recognition.
If anything IQ tests measure how well a person can visualize a problem. This has nothing to do with actual intelligence.”
3. It is what it is.
“I’m decently intelligent and capable but didn’t have the energy to put in the effort.
I just barely graduated with a 2.7 GPA.”
4. You need both.
“I say you need a combination of both. I’ve seen people bust their a** and fail because they just couldn’t process the information.
Now this was in my graduate program so I imagine the rules change a bit in there.”
5. Not a walk in the park.
“You can’t just walk through college and get a STEM degree by treating it like a chore and a modicum of effort. It’s work. I know plenty of engineers/doctors that took 5-7 years to graduate.
I’ve seen anti-college sentiment a lot recently and while I agree you don’t need school to be successful there are certain careers where you definitely DEFINITELY want to know that the person at least has some idea of what they’re doing in the workplace, or at least has been vouched for by some 10-20 people with advanced degrees/experienced in the field as “this person has a decent idea of what they’re doing.””
6. Not an even playing field.
“Being naturally smart definitely helps people to do well in school. Some people just naturally remember things more easily, or understand math more easily, or understand grammar or language more easily, etc.
So, even though anyone who puts in enough effort should get good grades, some people need to put in a LOT more effort to get the same grade, not everyone starts off with an even playing field.”
7. Does it drain your brain?
“Also I would say that so much of it isn’t “hard” work, but rather busy work.
Tedious and redundant tasks can be easy points for some students but absolutely brain-draining for others.”
8. What’s going on at home?
“I feel like the kids who don’t do well usually either have a bad home life or have a learning disability.
I agree that the average person can get reasonably good grades just by putting in the effort.”
9. I was like this.
“Some people are just terrible test takers as well.
They know all the material but have trouble putting it on paper in the form of a written test.”
10. Just not a fan of school.
“I had a good home life and no learning disabilities. I did relatively bad in school simply because I didn’t care about it, I didn’t find anything that was being taught to me was interesting.
The times I actually put in a little effort I did fairly well. All this being said, my point is that some kids just don’t like school.”
11. All about effort.
“I just chose not to do the homework because I had other ways I’d rather spend my time.
Got out of high school with about a 2.5 GPA just doing well on tests. Got about a 3.5 in college when I actually put more effort in.”
12. This is good.
“A lot of schooling is learning HOW to learn.
Kids that are good at picking up new ideas are bored as hell, because there’s no challenge in learning.
The school system is designed for like, 2 forms of learning, and everyone else is just expected to fall in line or else suffer the consequences.
I barely graduated highschool, never finished my AA degree, and finally got high grades when I went to a trade school that actually interested me.
After 12 successful years in IT, I’m now 3 years into a new career and very happy.
The importance put on school is largely bulls**t for some people. It’s the definition of “do what we say or else we won’t like you “.”
Do you think doing well in school comes down to being smart or working hard?
Let us know in the comments.
We’d sure appreciate it!
