Do you have to be good in Math to be smart?

[aztx.1998]

I get the fact that for STEM careers, you need a good GPA...but idk, just read on and please put your input


Silly question, ima ask it anyway.

But first, a short bio, I'm taking up PT Assistant as my major at a community college. And I am struggling (and did drop out on my first try) my Anatomy I class--now retaking it. My mom thinks I am "smart" to pass that class, but really I am not. I guess I could blame the times I "M"d beforehand. Idk.

Question 1) Does abstaining from PMO help with intelligence and being good in math? Like, can I learn Math?

There is a simple explanation to why I don't think I'm smart.

- I am not a PreMed, Engineering, or Computer Science major (which require MAD math skills). Im not good in Math, had a 3.0 GPA in high school, not even part of the top students.

- I understand smart people go to like Harvard, Yale, UT Austin, and I ended up in a junior college pursuing an Associate's and not a Bachelor's. See, if I was smart in high school, I could have ended up in those places with full-ride scholarships.

To that end, PLEASE ARGUE/GIVE ME EXAMPLES on why I can/am wrong because this generalization of us people wearing glasses is something I dont understand and is pissing me off, whilst I understand it's a compliment.

 

[Deleted Account]

Abstaining from PMO cant make you smarter but it will increase you energy level, focus and retention of your information so if youre working through tough subjects it would probably help you alot.

People always confuse education with intelligence and they don't always coincide. Stimulating your brain at a young age can help develop it but school doesnt make people smart. Alot of school work equates to memorization and trivia I met people In highschool and undergrad who had high GPA's because they worked hard but weren't really intelligent enough to apply what they know to anything. I Knew a guy with a 4.3 GPA but when it came down to it, he was actually kind of Dumb. You can be a genious but if you never learned math then you wont know it.
Dog trainers say its easier to train a dumb dog than a smart dog because a dumb dog is empty headed. A smart dog kind of has better awareness and his own plan and isnt interested in stupid tricks. Its actually common for smarter kids to drop out of high school because the curriculum doesnt challenge them. I know a few high level programmers who never graduated high school.

 

[ConstraintsTheory]

I actually have a math degree and working on a masters in computer science. Just a side note I hated math and ended up getting a degree in it.

I'm a math tutor at the university I attended and I go up there and I make complex equations to some people so mind blowing easy and I tell them the difference between why I make it look easy and why you have trouble is because I have over 10,000 hours dedicated to studying math so yes i make it look easy.
But I was just like them when I first started.

Pmo will not make you more intelligent I don't know where that is even coming from. But what I can tell you from my experience I am able to focus more clearly, less brain fog and retain information better. Also you have more time to study as well since you're not manning the pmo terminal.

So do you have to be good at math to be smart? No you do not have to be good at math to be smart. It really does boil down to what is your idea of smart actually is. I have limited mechanic abilities I know the basics, change the oil, change a tire etc... don't ask me to take a part an engine and put it back together because I don't know how to do that I'll try but your car might not work again... That doesn't mean I'm not smart it mean I lack the experience in order to do it efficiently

What math brings is critical thinking skills, the ability to analyze and rationally find solutions to certain problems. Those are the key skills math people learn which is a highly sought after skill base.

In short bring you don't have to be good at math to be smart. Define smart by experience in a field instead of one whole encompassing idea. Pmo will not make you more intelligent but it may help with stronger mental faculties allowing you to remember and function more efficiently. To be good at anything it requires at least 10,000 hours dedicated to that skill.

Good luck

 

[aztx.1998]

Thank you so much y'all! I appreciate both of the inputs!

 

[Deleted Account]

Math is quite abstract, if you can learn it "quickly" it can say something about your intelligence. Math students IQ's are among the highest when it come to fields of study. But you definitely don't need to know about (advanced) math to be smart. You need to define smart to make sense of it, for me it is the ebility to work with what you got and make the right decisions, intelligence can help, but personality plays the major part in my opinion.

What I think is interessting is what abstaining from PMO can do and what it means to abstain from it.

If you take on this challenge, you discipline yourself, that is very beneficial for studying, you are learning a new skill for life.
You save time to do different things and have to finde another "hobby", if you really love what you do, you can shift your addiction towards your field and do good.
If you've been addicted severely, it probably also affected your confidence and other factors negatively. If you stop and become more confident your presentations will be better or you might start to talk to people more or in a better way, which could make them feel good arounf you and help you in a more sophisticated way.
I hope you see where I'm going with this, the impact to abstaining can be quite large, it changes mulltiple chains of causality.

I think I'm intelligent, but not really smart (bad decision to watch porn everyday). I failed my physics classes and switched to architecture, which is by far not as stimulating as physics, but I learned to put programming into the design process, it gets more interesting for me once you involve math and logic in general.

 

[aztx.1998]

Math is quite abstract, if you can learn it "quickly" it can say something about your intelligence. Math students IQ's are among the highest when it come to fields of study. But you definitely don't need to know about (advanced) math to be smart. You need to define smart to make sense of it, for me it is the ebility to work with what you got and make the right decisions, intelligence can help, but personality plays the major part in my opinion.

What I think is interessting is what abstaining from PMO can do and what it means to abstain from it.

If you take on this challenge, you discipline yourself, that is very beneficial for studying, you are learning a new skill for life.
You save time to do different things and have to finde another "hobby", if you really love what you do, you can shift your addiction towards your field and do good.
If you've been addicted severely, it probably also affected your confidence and other factors negatively. If you stop and become more confident your presentations will be better or you might start to talk to people more or in a better way, which could make them feel good arounf you and help you in a more sophisticated way.
I hope you see where I'm going with this, the impact to abstaining can be quite large, it changes mulltiple chains of causality.

I think I'm intelligent, but not really smart (bad decision to watch porn everyday). I failed my physics classes and switched to architecture, which is by far not as stimulating as physics, but I learned to put programming into the design process, it gets more interesting for me once you involve math and logic in general.

I pretty much see where you're going. Thanks a lot for this interesting input

 

[RoaringAngst]

I get the fact that for STEM careers, you need a good GPA...but idk, just read on and please put your input


Silly question, ima ask it anyway.

But first, a short bio, I'm taking up PT Assistant as my major at a community college. And I am struggling (and did drop out on my first try) my Anatomy I class--now retaking it. My mom thinks I am "smart" to pass that class, but really I am not. I guess I could blame the times I "M"d beforehand. Idk.

Question 1) Does abstaining from PMO help with intelligence and being good in math? Like, can I learn Math?

There is a simple explanation to why I don't think I'm smart.

- I am not a PreMed, Engineering, or Computer Science major (which require MAD math skills). Im not good in Math, had a 3.0 GPA in high school, not even part of the top students.

- I understand smart people go to like Harvard, Yale, UT Austin, and I ended up in a junior college pursuing an Associate's and not a Bachelor's. See, if I was smart in high school, I could have ended up in those places with full-ride scholarships.

To that end, PLEASE ARGUE/GIVE ME EXAMPLES on why I can/am wrong because this generalization of us people wearing glasses is something I dont understand and is pissing me off, whilst I understand it's a compliment.

What is the defination of smart or intelligence? For me it is the ability to absorb knowledge i.e comprehending.

Now ever since I know I sucked at math and hence avoided it like plague, cheated in the exams and everything was going fine. In class nine my freind whom I would have a cheating relationship with transfered school. So I hired a private tutor and believe me when I say this, I satred from learning tables, the only ones I knew were of two and ten. I practiced under him for just three months and I was the top scorer for maths in my class exams.

I studied under him just for that short while. And after that I once again just became really average at math. I noticed that word problems were nothing for me, my only problem was I would forget formulas or methods. So now I had picked maths for my graduation, and once again I knew shit.

I went from teacher to teacher to understand some topics and their words elluded me like words of aliens. I was very embarassed ans questioned that maybe I amt dumb, and maths is not for me. Now there was only a week left until the exams and thankfully I found a teacher. Here is what happened,mit was nothing less than a magical experience for me.

He starts speaking, and ends in under three minutes. Before he could even finish speaking I could already solve the questions in my mind to some extent, it was like some seals were released, magical really. zother teachers tried to teach the same topic to me taking more than thirty minutes and yet I could vaguely understand them, but he did it in less than five minutes. I solved all the practice questions right there and then without getting stuck anywhere in less than thirty minutes. So I was not that dumb after all?

I was similarly challanged in accounting. Numbers just scared me and left them alone and that was the problem as all my teachers suggested time after time, there is only practice in maths. And as I started practcing, I fell in love with it. Even when I am eating,mplayong or talking my mind is unconciously trying its best to solve a question I am stuck in, and suddenly in the middle of the night I wake up screaming 'Got it' because I just figured out how to do this really tough question.

Nw I am out of touch again, and once again not really good with maths. But many friends do come to me for learning and this is what I discovered, not everyone is the same. You have have to make them understand something foreign, something they dont know with or using something they already know. Examples work wonders and from what I have seen 'Even the said worst sent in maths has a talent for it that we are not able to ignite'.

So you can be very good at maths, smart or not. And no, to be smart you dont have to be smart in maths.

 

[SuperFan]

CS Lewis was horrible at math.

Today he's considered one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.

The end.

 

[aztx.1998]

CS Lewis was horrible at math.

Today he's considered one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.

The end.

Ok that was pretty solid. Thank you

 

[S777]

To see if I can help, I’ll do give you a quick crash course in psychology...hope this helps.

So for starters, my personal opinion is that intelligence is simply something we percieve in other human beings around us. Due to the countless classifications of intelligence itself, there is no absolute definition of what makes a human being smart as different people possess different quantities of knowlegdge. While I might have some knowledge in mathmatics, you could possess an equal amount of knowledge in a totally different subject. The point being is that there is an equilibrium in what intelligence we possess compared to other human beings.

As far as math skills goes, the Atkinson Shiffrin Model might point a problem with your ability to encode new memories and information. The real sucky part about the human brain is that if your trying to “Cram Study” everything for a class, your visual memory will last only approximately 1/10th of a second. As my professor put it, these methods might help you to study and keep study information for most subjects in your long term memory more efficiently.

-Rehearse Repeatedly and test yourself. The human brain really hates being wrong and will actually try to correct itself when it happens. This can help you retain information better.
-Make Material Meaningful. Associate pictures of your puppy or favorite pet when you take in information. That way, whenever you think of your favorite pet, your brain also brings in information linked to that mental image.
-Mnemonic Devices: This one you’ll have to google as I don’t want to paraphrase all my psych notes here.
-Do not study all at once. As a fellow college student, trying to cram everything in one go will not go well for your Midterms. Remember that even though the brain has unlimited capacity for information, the brain doesn’t like getting flooded with information in one go.

-Hope this helps you and anyone else that reads this

 

[Deleted Account]

I get the fact that for STEM careers, you need a good GPA...

That's a different question than the one in the thread title....

The thread title is basically asking "do you need to be good at math to be considered smart?"

That following statement is basically asking "do you need to be smart to get a job in a STEM field?"

So those two things aren't really related. They're very different statements.

But yeah, I don't think you have to be good at math to be considered smart. People are smart for different reasons. Plenty of people in my life would consider me to be intelligent, and I got straight A's through most all of my schooling, including most of my college classes, but I'm not great at math and physics. Those are my worst subjects. Especially fast math, I just am not good at. But I'm good at other things, so I don't really care.

 

[Runtilmylegsdropoff]

Yes you do have to be decent at Math, otherwise you may as well get a liberal fArts degree.

 

[Noelle]

I've seen too many Ivy Leaguers and otherwise "smart" and "successful" people fly too close to the sun and burn out. I'd rather be a decent human than have a fancy brand-name degree. And my school ain't too shabby. Tufts is top 20 in the US and has one of the best medical programs in the world.

 

[aztx.1998]

Yes you do have to be decent at Math, otherwise you may as well get a liberal fArts degree.

LMAO that made my day, no lie!! #PhysicalTherapyMajor

 

[aztx.1998]

To see if I can help, I’ll do give you a quick crash course in psychology...hope this helps.

So for starters, my personal opinion is that intelligence is simply something we percieve in other human beings around us. Due to the countless classifications of intelligence itself, there is no absolute definition of what makes a human being smart as different people possess different quantities of knowlegdge. While I might have some knowledge in mathmatics, you could possess an equal amount of knowledge in a totally different subject. The point being is that there is an equilibrium in what intelligence we possess compared to other human beings.

As far as math skills goes, the Atkinson Shiffrin Model might point a problem with your ability to encode new memories and information. The real sucky part about the human brain is that if your trying to “Cram Study” everything for a class, your visual memory will last only approximately 1/10th of a second. As my professor put it, these methods might help you to study and keep study information for most subjects in your long term memory more efficiently.

-Rehearse Repeatedly and test yourself. The human brain really hates being wrong and will actually try to correct itself when it happens. This can help you retain information better.
-Make Material Meaningful. Associate pictures of your puppy or favorite pet when you take in information. That way, whenever you think of your favorite pet, your brain also brings in information linked to that mental image.
-Mnemonic Devices: This one you’ll have to google as I don’t want to paraphrase all my psych notes here.
-Do not study all at once. As a fellow college student, trying to cram everything in one go will not go well for your Midterms. Remember that even though the brain has unlimited capacity for information, the brain doesn’t like getting flooded with information in one go.

-Hope this helps you and anyone else that reads this

It sure did by a long shot. Thanks

 

[Plutonium]

Question 1) Does abstaining from PMO help with intelligence and being good in math? Like, can I learn Math?

I have a strong interest in math so will try to answer your question as helpfully as I can...

My favorite math book is Euclid's Elements. It is over 2,300 years old and after the Bible it is the book with the most editions ever published. It was the standard textbook for math in the west up until 100-150 years ago. Sir Thomas Heath - the translator of one of the best versions of Euclid - argued that there will never be a better math book written and this is certainly still true today.

In the 20th century there was a lot of debate about whether logic precedes math or the other way round. Similarly whether geometry precedes arithmetic or vice versa. This also went into the nature of mathematical knowledge as synthetic a priori knowledge - to use Kant's terminology - ie meaningful knowledge about the real world that does not depend on experience. In many ways this debate is still not completely resolved.

The beauty of Euclid is that the work is presented as an axiomatic deductive system where certain definitions and assumptions are made as a starting point, and from there all mathematical knowledge is deduced logically. It all starts with the drawing of a humble equilateral triangle. The book teaches you both math and how to think and reason. Lincoln famously studied Euclid to teach him how to argue logically, as have many other great men before and since.

I feel one of the greatest tragedies of modern education is how math is divorced from logic, and the deductive nature of math knowledge is not readily appreciated. Math instead is just a bag of tricks to be memorized. The inter-relationship between logic and math and the important role it plays in our ability to reason is fundamental to STEM subjects. It is therefore hardly surprising that a person who is not strong at math also struggles with other STEM subjects.

So to answer your question. Refraining from PMO does not increase your intelligence it just makes it easier to concentrate. As to whether you can learn math - there is an interesting proposition in Euclid. His proposition Book I.5 has been called the Bridge of Asses. There is some disagreement over whether the "asses" in question were of the animal or human variety. But in the old days it was considered a test of someone's ability to do math. If you can "cross" the Bridge of Asses by understanding this proposition then you can learn math. Give it a try! - it's available online in a few places - you'll need to do everything leading up to I.5 first.

Finally, if you prefer to relearn your math in a more contemporary way - I would recommend you work your way through www.KhanAcademy.com. This is simply a brilliant (and free!) resource. There is nothing else like it.

 

[Plutonium]

CS Lewis was horrible at math.

Today he's considered one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century.

The end.

He's not thought of much as a scientist or engineer though...

While philosophers think, scientists and engineers do. They are the unsung heroes of history...

 

[SuperFan]

He's not thought of much as a scientist or engineer though...

While philosophers think, scientists and engineers do. They are the unsung heroes of history...

To be fair, the OP asked if he needed to be good at math "to be smart." If he had said, "Do I need to be good at math to become an engineer?", my answer probably would have been different.

 

[Floorista]

Abstaining from PMO cant make you smarter but it will increase you energy level, focus and retention of your information so if youre working through tough subjects it would probably help you alot.

People always confuse education with intelligence and they don't always coincide. Stimulating your brain at a young age can help develop it but school doesnt make people smart. Alot of school work equates to memorization and trivia I met people In highschool and undergrad who had high GPA's because they worked hard but weren't really intelligent enough to apply what they know to anything. I Knew a guy with a 4.3 GPA but when it came down to it, he was actually kind of Dumb. You can be a genious but if you never learned math then you wont know it.
Dog trainers say its easier to train a dumb dog than a smart dog because a dumb dog is empty headed. A smart dog kind of has better awareness and his own plan and isnt interested in stupid tricks. Its actually common for smarter kids to drop out of high school because the curriculum doesnt challenge them. I know a few high level programmers who never graduated high school.

Why do you compare dogs to students though? lol

 

[Deleted Account]

Why do you compare dogs to students though? lol

Cause the way we educate them is pretty similar.