My perception of giftedness in higher education and real life. I’m still a professional educator, afterall… I teach at the tertiary level. This is just my view.

I believe if a person is above the 75%, they are no handicap to another at 99.9997% percentile. In fact, most people of very high IQ end up with repetitive jobs. So, it is better to nurture the EQ part of things.

Once a person is smart enough (above 75%), he/she functions no differently from a higher IQ person. The rest is also training, passion, attitude and the subconscious mind. I found these more important that pure brain power. I seek to help my children with these more than improving their brain prowess.

Here are some areas I see very lacking in students when they finish they IB/PreU and land in my classes:
1. Lack of opinion
2. Cliche style of writing (taught in primary school)
3. Afraid to have a different thought from what is ‘right’. There’s no ‘right’ in my classes, I need to know how you get your right answer.
4. Afraid to/Cannot ask intelligent or well thought out questions. I guess they are asked to shut up in schools.
5. Only seeking to score ‘A’ by finding out and reproducing what professors want. They’ll never find out in the uni, because there’s no such thing.

In the society (not government sector), I see top students struggle and mediocre students doing very well, because the latter adapt much better. The mediocre students are less afraid of making mistakes and more flexible.

Just my observation. From my observation, I often tell my children and students that it did not matter how extraordinarily smart they must be. Most importantly, they must do extraordinary things. Afterall, Einstein’s IQ was measured at only 70. Let’s not forget that.

Here’s a video you may like to watch