Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Other subjects
Original poster

Were you incredibly bright at school?

172 replies

Pruni · 15/11/2005 10:00

Message withdrawn

OP posts:
Enid · 15/11/2005 10:02

Yes was superbrain

got 2:1 in the end

loved uni

hated A levels

suzywong · 15/11/2005 10:02

same here

bright but throughly unapplied, w as left to ruise through it all with no guidance. Did get a 2:1 but had no idea what to do with it.

am making up for it by applying myself to post grad study next year thouigh.

Funny isn't it?

zippitippitoes · 15/11/2005 10:04

yes i was so clever that I kept getting put into the next class until when i was eight i was in the class with 11 and 12 year olds..

now where am i

novadandypowder · 15/11/2005 10:05

ditto - brightest in year, only one to pass a maths extension paper, straight A's.

Went to college, and it all fell apart, didn't get the grades to go to uni so went and got a job in a shoe shop! Realised after a few years I had to do something so went to uni as a mature stduent (A level grades don't matter then), and got a 2:1. Then started career in TV.

Now i've given it all up to be a SAHM, although i'm going to retrain in animal care when dd is old enough (and a potential 2nd baby has arrived)

Lonelymum · 15/11/2005 10:06

Me.

I was top of the class throughout primary and lower seconadary school and then lost the plot when it came to O and A levels. I had to really struggle to pull myself together for my degree and got a 2:1 but I know I could have got a first if I hadn't taken two years to get myself together (out of a 4 year course). I wish I had worked hard consistently and fulfilled my promise of earlier years. I am very afraid to say I am extremely hard on my children in my determination that they will not fall by the wayside like I did. I think i could do with therapy for it actually. Anyone else like that with their children?

Original poster
Pruni · 15/11/2005 10:06

Message withdrawn

OP posts:
suzywong · 15/11/2005 10:11

no i'mnot very high powered by nature either, in fact Ilove being SAHM, its the autonomy I think. I was self employe for years.

Actuallyu I am the happieiest I've been for years, I've just today put my PG study back 6 months so I can get in to the habit of study and reading and thinking and making a link with the outside world.
I wsorry for crap typing but I can't open my lap top more than 20 degrees before the screen goes black so i can't see what i[m typing.

In am not Cod.

mugface · 15/11/2005 10:13

and i wonder, did you all have 100% attendance and no days off for birthdays

handlemecarefully · 15/11/2005 10:13

Oh yes, can't you tell ?

Lonelymum · 15/11/2005 10:14

I had every single birthday off! Can't undersatnd going to school on one's birthday. But then I was born on New Year's Eve!

Angeliz · 15/11/2005 10:14

I was top in top set for all lessons and then my parents emigrated when i was 13 and my education ended there!
However, through some luck and lots of hard work, i ended up in my 20's working with children which is what i've always wanted to do.
Also, i have got every job i've ever went for ,(not boasting, there's a moral here!), so i do beleive that a positive attitude counts for alot.

handlemecarefully · 15/11/2005 10:15

Actually my teachers described me as 'bright' - but I was never prize winningly clever or remarkable...

but academically I did rather well at Uni and beyond (got a Masters)

handlemecarefully · 15/11/2005 10:16

Depends on the school you were in though eh? Clever was the norm at mine....

Original poster
Pruni · 15/11/2005 10:16

Message withdrawn

OP posts:
oliveoil · 15/11/2005 10:16

I was very bright at school, right until it actually mattered and I did exams when I discovered being surly and rude was more important. I actually helped the other pupils in my class at secondary school as I had already done the work .

Didn't go to uni but don't feel uneducated as a result.

Lonelymum · 15/11/2005 10:20

Definitely makes me think about private education Pruni! I went to the local comp where any achievement was OK and no-one ever pushed me to do anything else - even when I was doing literally nothing. I know I should have done somewthing for myself, but teenagers aren't the most sensible human beings are they? Dh went to a private school and is contemptuous of state education (not that he knows anything about it as he was educated in Oz, but I suppose he looks at my record and sees only that). However, neither dh nor I managed to land ourselves high paid jobs, so I don't know how we would afford educaing one child privately, let alone all 4!

littlerach · 15/11/2005 10:21

Yes, at primary school I was usuallt top for reading, spelling etc (though you wouldn't think it now!).
then went to a grammar school so was usually aroung the top hakf of class.
then discovered a social ;life, and whilst I still did well, I was less interested in school as a place to learn. This filtered into university too, as i did enough to get my degree, but no more.

expatinscotland · 15/11/2005 10:24

I was in 'gifted & talented' from the get go.

I graduated 'magna cum laude' from uni.

My father's side of the family is full of enthusiastic 'achievers' - engineers, doctors, scientists, teachers, etc.

Then there's me .

I escaped most of the wringing of hands, however, by expatriating.

Original poster
Pruni · 15/11/2005 10:25

Message withdrawn

OP posts:
Carlk · 15/11/2005 10:25

Yup, all my school reports started "Carl is an exceptionally bright boy but...."
I was bored bored bored, bored, bored at school. totally sick of education by the time I left.
retook some exams later but was even more bored doing it for the second time, passed exams I had previously not shown up for ( they were in the morinig FFS!) without doing the classes then rubbed it in to teacher.
Thoroughly unpleasant little gobsh!te really.
got a first at the university of hard nocks then finally found out the reason for it all 19 months ago.

Lonelymum · 15/11/2005 10:26

God expat, what does magna cum laude mean? I know as a self confessed brainbox I should know, but remember I only went to a comp - no grammar schools for me - and it is a long time since I went to Mass.

puddle · 15/11/2005 10:28

I was bright at school but never learned the skill of pushing myself because it all came to me too easily. I never really had to try - found exams very easy because I have a photographic memory and could visualise pages of facts. Did just enough work to get a good degree and have frankly coasted ever since.

Original poster
Pruni · 15/11/2005 10:29

Message withdrawn

OP posts:
expatinscotland · 15/11/2005 10:30

I was privately educated at a girls academy until 'high school'. At 14, when my leftist tendencies struggled valiantly against a deeply ingrained bourgeois heritage, I tested into a top public high school for 'gifted and talented' pupils.

Fat lot of difference either one made to my future material success in life.

expatinscotland · 15/11/2005 10:31

A magna cum laude graduate from a US university has achieved a 3.7 grade point average out of 4.0.

Swipe left for the next trending thread