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hardwork vs. natural ability (1 Viewer)

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i don't think it's because they're not working hard enough .. some people are good at some things and not so good at others.

pretty much all through school i came top (or close to it) in english, where most of my assignments were done the night before and i studied the night before my exams - i really like english and always found it pretty easy. but on the other hand, i didn't pass one maths exam in year 11 or 12. no matter how hard i tried, it was just something that i never really understood.
 

^CoSMic DoRiS^^

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i know its been said before, but different people with different strengths and weaknesses will get different results based on their own unique study ethics and needs. there's a guy in our year who i never even saw open a book last year yet he did very very well in all his exams. it depends on how quickly you absorb things in different subjects. like last year, i did absolutely fuck all in maths and geography, but while i did quite well in all my maths tests (high 80s to mid 90s) i practically failed geography. i went ok in the sc for geo though. in fact i tend to get through most subjects without a great deal of study. i know if i studied i could do better, but im happy with the results i get now, so i dont bother.
basically, if you have a lot of natural ability in something, you will do well regardless of study. but studying can really help to push your already good marks even further up. and if youre not naturally good at something you can still get great marks, you will just have to put in more work to get there.
 

beccaxx

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there were 4 girls in my yr who worked harder than any one else.

1st girl got a UAI of 97.7
2nd got 95.5
3rd got 79.95
4th got 78._

natural ability is SOOOO important, as is doin high scaling subjects.

the girl #3 came 1st in all her subs, except gen math which she came second. and she still got that as her UAI.

i didnt work anywhere near as hard as the other girls AT ALL

but i still got 86.3 which i was totally stoked with, and which my family (especially my lil sister in yr 11) thinks is so unfair, becos they swear i didnt study....

i did... but i learnt it as i went and i think that that is better than puttin in all these long hours trying to learn somethin over and over, that the teacher explains easily in 5 min. just UNDERSTAND it the first time, instead of trying to complicate it so it takes 8 hrs to learn one syllabus dot point.
 

paper cup

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spin spin sugar said:
it can go both ways. in my experience it wasnt hours spent studying or how hard i studied that earned me a UAI of 99.25, it was bullshitting skills and studying smart - as in, studying the right things at the right time
lol, I agree, bullshitting goes a long way, especially in english. In advanced there's a lot of that in the analysis work. With maths and the sciences I think practise makes perfect, I'm not a very math or science inclined person but I managed to accelerate in maths..learnt the ext 1 course in three months prior the exams. It takes solid determination, I didn't do anything else for those three months.
Obviously ability...well I think it is necessary, but it's not a straight cut thing...some of the concepts require intelligence to understand...if you have ability but don't work you probably won't get a great UAI. I don't think I'm very qualified to comment, so I won't. :)
 
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zenger69 said:
it's interesting.. because i think the people who do like 4U maths or 3U maths with chem and physics don't do well in English. Because they're not working hard enough.

It's kinda happening to me except i'm doing 4U English, so it kinda forces me to work hard in English.

BUt i thought of how much I spent on 3U Maths and I said, if I could concentrate on English as much i'd get way higher.
No it's because English isn't a real subject, it's a joke.
 

Sphyx

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it's interesting.. because i think the people who do like 4U maths or 3U maths with chem and physics don't do well in English. Because they're not working hard enough.
thats a great generalisation. however, i do think that it is this way depending whether you're female or male. Females who are good at maths tend to be also good at english, but guys who are good at maths are good at only maths, but if they are good, they are bloody good at it. but thats generalising once again, there are always exceptions.
 

Seraph

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hardwork 9/10 always pays off

you will feel like it doesnt , but in the end it does

take this advice or go fall over
 

dy357lx

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if u got the natural ability, then it does work

I did study for ancient and modern history, but did sweet f a for my other subjects, only stated studying advanced only 2 days b4 the exam and didnt even studay at all for some exams like studies of religion

still got band 5's and 6's for pretty much everything and ended up with 94.2

so i'm one of the lucky ones who can get marks without having to do that much work, and damn im grateful for it
 

spin spin sugar

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its not about how HARD you work. its about how smart you work- that is, not hours and hours of study, but studying the right things at the right time.

i did the bare minimum and just worked hard (as in, no sleep) the night before all my assessments and got 99.25. it wasnt cos i worked sooo hard it was just cos i studied the right things ... im also good at bullshitting in exams :)
 

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ild say probably a combination of both would be best, although this doesnt reflect what i did.
 
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Sweets

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I think its probably a combination of both. because hard work alone can only get you so far.

In way it can be hard being too gifting in the hsc because the hsc has such middle class values 'work hard and you will suceed' etc. One of my friends who was extremely gifted always found school incredibly easy and as a result got incredibly bored, dropped out in yr11 because the hsc wasnt doing anything for her. I don't know what happened to her though. I think she became a hairdresser.
 

Korn

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Huh, she was incrediably bright but dropped out to become a hairdresser....hmmmm.... I can understand dropping out to go to TAFE or something.
 

meLoncoLLie

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spin spin sugar said:
its not about how HARD you work. its about how smart you work- that is, not hours and hours of study, but studying the right things at the right time.

i did the bare minimum and just worked hard (as in, no sleep) the night before all my assessments and got 99.25. it wasnt cos i worked sooo hard it was just cos i studied the right things ... im also good at bullshitting in exams :)
spin spin, out of curiosity, what subjects did you do?
 

persephone

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i think that natural ability and hardwork go hand in hand. if you have natural ability but do nothing to help yourself your natural ability may fail you. i'm not incredibly smart. i'm quite average but i have a knack with getting away with doing the bare minimum and still end up okay at the end. i didn't study as much as i should have for the hsc and i went ok. imagine if i had done consistent hardwork throughout the year....
 

nicomed

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I think getting good grades or learning something has nothing to do with natural ability or studying hard. It all depends on how fast a persons intake/uptake of knowledge. This varies with each individual. Some people process the stuff they learn faster than others, and some people process stuff they learn much slowly. Think of 2 computers w/ the same type of memory but both have different speeds in their intake of data. It doesnt mean that the slower computer is obsolete compared to the faster one, it just means that it takes more time for that computer to intake the data required. Basically it goes the same for us. The other thing to consider is the type of intelligence one has. People learn things through different stimuli make it verbal stimuli, written, visual, emotional, spatial, kinetical etc etc. Some people seem to be better than others in different subjects/areas because they process knowledge faster with their types of intelligence. Example> Athletes have kinetical(i think thats wat its called) intelligence, naturally they have good reflexes, good hand eye coordination, perfect timing, fluid body movement etc etc. Thats why some people excel in sports(they become sport stars) while others dont. The "smart" people in your class usually have good listening skills, they only have to listen to the teacher and BAM! the lesson being taught is embedded in their heads. Some people learn through visual stimuli, you show them the lesson visually and they pick up the lesson right away. People are different from one another in learning, so it doesnt mean your of lesser intelligence or lack "natural talent" if you studied your ass off just to get a 99 uai and yor friend didnt even study and got the same mark, it just means that you both intake knowledge at different speeds and with different methods.
 

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nicomed said:
I think getting good grades or learning something has nothing to do with natural ability.
nicomed said:
Some people process the stuff they learn faster than others, and some people process stuff they learn much slowly. Think of 2 computers w/ the same type of memory but both have different speeds in their intake of data. It doesnt mean that the slower computer is obsolete compared to the faster one, it just means that it takes more time for that computer to intake the data required. Some people seem to be better than others in different subjects/areas because they process knowledge faster with their types of intelligence..
Proof by contradiction.
 

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