[j3321]

I feel like I can ask this somewhat impolite question because I am an INTP making me pretty similar to you guys in a lot of ways since the only thing changed is the F. I do terrible in school and most people who know me think I am an idiot before anything due to how awkward and absented minded and eccentric I am.

So anyway, I've gotten close to an INFJ and an ENFJ and they were both very intellectual. The INFJ was super intelligent but actually preferred interpersonal/"sentimental" (to my mind at least) topics rather than scholarly, technical thoughts but gifted and fully capable when she wanted to. I've met a few INFP's but neither of them struck me as academic or analytical in the least. Although very cool and good for talking to they don't relish intellectual conversations it seems to me. One of them I met was a really good poet which was cool...but yeah uhh some of them just seem "lost." Like I have to explain everything to them. And then because they are abstract and lost in thought they just forget or zone out when I'm saying it only pretending to understand to be friendly.

Thoughts....

 

[timeless]

I'm an INFP and I'm fairly academically successful.

 

[Bote]

I've got a Master of Arts degree in Semantics and am contemplating what thesis to pick for a PhD. :tongue:

I do terrible in school and most people who know me think I am an idiot before anything due to how awkward and absented minded and eccentric I am.

Does that happen in high school? From what I know once you go to college you'll see much of your eccentricity will be applauded lol. Also, you may see some similarity to high school on the 1st year of college, but after a few months when the whole teenage know-it-all idea crumbles under the sheer vastness and variety of ideas in given literature you'll see people opening up to novelty in a much greater degree than what you face now. Same goes for you though xD much of what you think you know will be put to doubt.:wink:

 

[Darkestblue]

I often thought school was too easy. No one would believe how I felt though because my grades were bad. I just didn't care was all. I could never get it through my head that it was something I needed to do in order to have a better life or whatever.

 

[j3321]

I've got a Master of Arts degree in Semantics and am contemplating what thesis to pick for a PhD. :tongue:

I do terrible in school and most people who know me think I am an idiot before anything due to how awkward and absented minded and eccentric I am.

Does that happen in high school? From what I know once you go to college you'll see much of your eccentricity will be applauded lol. Also, you may see some similarity to high school on the 1st year of college, but after a few months when the whole teenage know-it-all idea crumbles under the sheer vastness and variety of ideas in given literature you'll see people opening up to novelty in a much greater degree than what you face now. Same goes for you though xD much of what you think you know will be put to doubt.:wink:

I've been to three colleges and they all function like high schools.

 

[Drea]

I'm in the top 10% of my class, I believe.

 

[Calvaire]

I often thought school was too easy. No one would believe how I felt though because my grades were bad. I just didn't care was all. I could never get it through my head that it was something I needed to do in order to have a better life or whatever.

That's How I was. For me I never understood why I had to do Homework I Understand and knew the
Material Homework was just to practice to understand the material that was going to be on tests,I was naturally able to do well on tests and things because I'm a natural learner at it.
I got awful grades in classes but my test scores were always well into the 90's.

Most of the time I just skipped classes I never understood why it was so important to go when I already
got what they were learning it was a joke to go to me. Do I wish I did better? Of course,It is actually Important. I'm actually now going to study to be a teacher and I think good teachers are the ones that understand that kids have different learning styles.

Oh and out of a class of 209 Only 190 graduated what was my class rank? 190. I find it pretty badass actually haha.

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

ah, used to be a straight A student, lost more and more focus, got wiser as my grades dropped (the correlation between my actually intelligence was near perfect, as intelligence increased the grades decreased. go figure.).
at the end of High School i was pegged to get all A/A*s and, well...didn't. did no revision at all, got a bunch of Bs and the odd A in Music and English.

everything except Maths i could have got As but for the most part flopped, because i just didn't care, it was so unimportant. they expect us to work our pretty white arses off for what? a few numbers on a sheet of paper, a pat on the back. it's so meaningless.



EDIT: it sounds as if i am bragging that i could get As if i wanted to - i'm not. grades don't mean shit, at least not to me. wittiest kid i know, also the best natured and just...well, all round awesome guy didn't even pass most of his subjects - and i respect him more than anybody there.

 

[vocalist]

There is a difference between being intellectual and being "smart," kwim?

Anyway, my INFP brother always struggled more in school. But he is still smart in his own right. Now that he's in college, he's doing much better grade-wise, he even pulled 4.0's his first couple years. Thing is, he takes like, twice as long to do things as it takes most people. So now that he's concentrating more on his Cumputer Science classes, he's finding it more difficult to keep up because the programming takes him so long. But, he's plugging along and still doing fairly well. It helps that he's managed to have good summer jobs so that he doesn't have to work part-time while he's taking his classes.

For a while now, though, I've realized that of all of us (me and my siblings), he is probably the one most likely to pull in the big bucks once he enters the work force. In fact, he's already got a pretty much guaranteed job working at the same place as my dad once he finishes his degree. And since he wants to have like, ten kids, he's going to need all the money he can get lol

 

[j3321]

I think maybe I'm mistyping...I might be talking to ISFP's.....

 

[Leroy]

I did okay in high school and am entering my senior year of college with a 2.4. I never took of in college like I was hoping too, but then again I'm going to a shitty state school which functions like a high school most of the time. If only I knew then what I know now, I would have made an effort to go to a nice college, oh well. It's annoying because I understand the concepts of my major really well, and if you were to converse with me about it, you'd probably agree. Make me write multiple detailed essays about it...I lose pages in the stapling process and get D's.

 

[BrooklynBoy]

I feel like I can ask this somewhat impolite question because I am an INTP making me pretty similar to you guys in a lot of ways since the only thing changed is the F. I do terrible in school and most people who know me think I am an idiot before anything due to how awkward and absented minded and eccentric I am.

So anyway, I've gotten close to an INFJ and an ENFJ and they were both very intellectual. The INFJ was super intelligent but actually preferred interpersonal/"sentimental" (to my mind at least) topics rather than scholarly, technical thoughts but gifted and fully capable when she wanted to. I've met a few INFP's but neither of them struck me as academic or analytical in the least. Although very cool and good for talking to they don't relish intellectual conversations it seems to me. One of them I met was a really good poet which was cool...but yeah uhh some of them just seem "lost." Like I have to explain everything to them. And then because they are abstract and lost in thought they just forget or zone out when I'm saying it only pretending to understand to be friendly.

Thoughts....

Interesting. I enjoy intellectual discussions (Philosphy, Religion, Literature, Psychology). Very much so. I only know one other INFP (in person, not a forum friend) and he is the same way.

During my school years (grammar school through HS) I struggled. Once I started going to school for Computer Science I did much better.

Btw, I don't think intelligence is something that could be measured by grades and IQ scores.

 

[northernsky]

I did very well in school and university but I absolutely would not relish an unexpected intellectual conversation! I much prefer to express myself through writing and in fact I find it quite hard to consolidate my ideas if I have to give an opinion without any forewarning. However, if I have had the chance to prepare myself beforehand, I would be much happier. So, for example, when I am tutoring students, I need to do lots of reading on the subject we're discussing before the person turns up. It's very difficult for me otherwise to come up with stuff off the top of my head, unless it's a topic I'm really really confident and familiar with.

Also, I'm not about the analytical and technical. In maths I loved statistics and pure maths where you could play with algebra and data, but not applied maths, I could never get my head round it so didn't do a degree in it - my degree is English Lit where it's all about metaphor, interpretation, opinion, argument. I suppose there is a degree of analysis there butI don't think it's in the way you're saying, and I never did too well at the essays involving a high degree of technical knowledge such as knowledge of analytical frameworks like deconstruction, Russian theory or anything like that. See I can barely even remember any of it to reference even now )

 

[hood]

I'd consider myself smart, but not in a way high school grades could show. I never really cared much about grades, to me their just kind of a joke. I go to school and slide threw with some Bs a few As maybe a high C here and there, and I'm good. I'm sure if I wanted I could get really good grades, but I'm not interested in going to top colleges or anything like that. I'd much rather prefer to go to a local less known college where people aren't competitive and they're just happy to study what they do and live life how they want. I mean, if someone gave me a free ticket to Oxford or Harvard I'd take it no doubt, but it's just never been one of my goals.

 

[heartturnedtoporcelain]

How should I put this? I did extremely badly in primary school and the beginning of high school (partly me, partly I went to an extremely difficult school). Then I did really, really well at the end of high school and in university. It's all about what I'm studying - I'm actually good at the humanities and social sciences whereas I suck ass at things like math, science, spelling and others qualities prized in early education. Honestly, I would have done much better in school if we'd started learning about philosophy in grade 6 (which is when I started learning it on my own).

 

[under skies]

I very much enjoy intellectual discussions, and I even like debating at times. However, I will only engage in these types of discussions with specific people. My thoughts and opinions are just as private to me as my feelings and values, and I won't share them with people I don't trust to take me seriously.

I do fairly well in school. I won't get into all of that personally, but I don't think it's an INFP's intelligence you might question as much as their dedication to, you might say, following the system. Frankly, a lot of INFPs just don't care. Besides, I don't believe you can make a sweeping generalization such as that INFPs are or aren't intelligent based on a few people you know personally or even an entire internet forum.

 

[Nebbykoo]

I did ok in HS, ok in college.

I found that, if I was really interested in the subject, I would crush it. Grades meant nothing, but consuming the topic was everything. On the other hand, if I wasn't interested, I didn't really put much effort into it, so my grades were always middling.

Of course, music and languages occupied my attention most fully.

 

[brightidealist]

I've earned straight A's for as long as I've been graded, and I'll be a freshman at Harvard in the fall. Yes, INFPs can be smart and academically successful, just like any other Myers-Briggs personality type!

 

[Ectoplasm]

When I was in school I used to just get A's and B's and maybe that was my downfall. I thought at that time passing exams without needing to study was just how I rolled and the attitude continued into college. I projected the same delusion onto my college studies and for the first year it was, I got A's and B's for my Religious Studies essays but started to get D's and E's in other subjects. I remember the day I got my end of year exam results and looked at the things, it was a quagmire of D's E's and a U for ungraded. It was like my world shattered into millions of pieces like broken glass. I think that was when my understanding of myself failed to and I never held that delusion anymore. Even now after five years I don't think I ever recovered from the realisation of my sheer stupidity and its legacy. When I finished the second and final year in 2006 my grades were just as bad, I was sick of tests.

So I don't think I am neither smart not academic, though to be smart and intellectual was probably all I really wanted from life (I've never had any ambitions other than that) but if stupid is as stupid does then my intellect is a farce. I kind of stuck my head in the sand and ignored the warnings, thinking my grades will change without making the change. I know I need to be mature about these things but to be born with a couple of points higher in the IQ department wouldn't have been bad either I still hope to one day become smart, and an intellectual (not someone who just spouts everyone else's knowledge) but right now and for the forseeable future I wouldn't know how to salvage myself when I have an unresolvable issue and shadow hanging over me.

I like to think what I write and what I say is the greatest thing the world has ever heard (and I mean that seriously :happy but I must admit that in many respects numerous INFPs in here outrank me greatly and part of me is glad to know them.

 

[BryterLayter]

i would say i'm very intelligent but i don't apply myself whatsoever in school.
i really don't care as long as i pass, i like learning but on my own terms and own chosen subjects.
i'd rather just spend my time reading and writing.
i could be very successful academically, if i cared in the least bit about it.
also conversation wise, i've been told i'm a philosopher and that i am analytical.
i don't know how true that really is but i do like discussing theories and philosophies.
i don't listen to detailed directions well at all, that is one of the main reasons i hate math.
i think most INFPs are kind of lost in a sense but we're not oblivious ... well maybe we are and i'm so oblivious that i don't think i'm oblivious :crazy: