Are gifted students necessarily more advanced than the average student on everything academically?

Question

I'm pretty much an average Joe academically (2.9 GPA), but have superior calculus skills for some odd reason. Anyway, I am tutoring a friend who claims to have been a gifted student in high school, but obviously struggles in college level calculus. Does this prove that even gifted students have an academic weakness, or is she lying about being gifted?

Answer 1

I really disagree with the tests that label kids as gifted.  I think they are dead wrong a lot of the time.  

Also, as a lot of people have said, sometimes people are gifted in a certain area, but not others.  This plays also plays a role in making the tests that label kids as gifted less than accurate because there is a bias towards various subject areas and skills in each test out there.

Sometimes people can be very gifted in one area, and not so gifted in another.  For example, my strength in high school was English, Literature, and Composition.  My husband excelled in all things related to math.  We are both considered very intelligent people overall, but we do have our areas of strengths and weaknesses, so the hypothesis of gifted students having a weakness is definitely viable.  

A lot of people lie about being gifted, and I'm not saying it's impossible for her to be telling the truth, but the term gifted is very broad with many definitions, so I would take the term with a grain of salt.  

Gifted or not, she still needs help in math, and it's great you take your time to help out a friend.

Answer 2

No, some gifted students excel at many subjects, some just a few, some only one area...you can even be considered gifted in the arts, but not academically...If you go to some gifted websites, they will usually have a checklist to give you an idea of what gifted characteristics are...you are probably gifted in math skills...many people use one side of their brain more than the other

Answer 3

No, I don't think she is lying.  Most gifted students have areas in which they are gifted while they may be average in other areas.

Kind of makes you think doesn't it.  It seems to level the playing field.  

I also think that educators should really try to find those areas in which students are likely to excel.  You for example, I hope, have been encouraged to really pursue further studies in calculus

Answer 4

No, most "gifted" students excel in one subject. For example, I have one student who is at the top of the class in math, but can barely read.

Answer 5

My answer comes as a mom with a "gifted" child of 16.  She has maintained a 4.0 since middle school, and was classified as gifted by 2nd grade, but she is very self motivated and works really hard at her studies.    She really excells in anything that has to do with reading comprehension,  but has to work extra hard to maintian an "A" in algebra, so  I guess you could say that she has a weakness in math skills.  Even though she has an "A", she just has to work harder in that area than in English, Latin, etc.

Answer 6

gifted students are most likely only gifted in one subject but there are some who are advanced in every subject