Which type is the school underachiever?

[GirlFromMars]

I dunno, but I for one wasn't very good at school. I had a few subjects I loved, and did well in, the rest I didn't care about, slacked off, and got bad grades. I had the attitude of "If I don't personally like the subject, I don't care if I do bad in it, because it's of no interest/use to me"

 

[sofmarhof]

I was a very high achiever until about ninth grade.

My last three years of high school, my teachers would have described me as the epitome of "smart but lazy".

Now in college, I think my profs just see me as an average student, since they don't get to know me as much as in high school.

 

[onemoretime]

I've read somewhere that the biggest gap between achievement/IQ tests and grades is with the ENTP type.

Also being I is an advantage in school compared to being E. Introverts can sit still and listen. J and N are both advantageous in getting grades as well. T and F doesn't really matter.

Tenth through twelfth grade, there wasn't a first period class I didn't sleep through, given the opportunity. Right after lunch was a struggle, as well.

 

[sofmarhof]

I knew plenty of Es who could sit still and listen, even in elementary school. They were all EJs; EPs wold have a lot more trouble. Any opinionated EJ can't help but call out sometimes, but it's only a problem if the teacher is a control freak with zero tolerance for talking out of turn.

Meanwhile, I was harassed in the comments section on every report card for not "participating", but I still managed straight As (up to 8th grade that is). I don't think I vs. E is significant.

I think J vs. P is the biggest factor in school success, once you get to high school and college.

 

[FDG]

Introverts have a really clear advantange in school btw, it's been proven experimentally (Big 5)

I personally was really good (not truly overachiever...just kind of whiz) up to 13, then I didn't give a shit up to 18, then at university I started liking it again

 

[BlueScreen]

I've read somewhere that the biggest gap between achievement/IQ tests and grades is with the ENTP type.

Also being I is an advantage in school compared to being E. Introverts can sit still and listen. J and N are both advantageous in getting grades as well. T and F doesn't really matter.

yeh, I wouldn't be surprised. I just said ENFP because we are known for it.

Tenth through twelfth grade, there wasn't a first period class I didn't sleep through, given the opportunity. Right after lunch was a struggle, as well.

Yeh. In tenth grade one teacher gave me 1 for ability and 4 for effort on a scale of 1 to 3. I think around grade 9 or 10 I realised there are way better things to do than sit in class and learn at snails pace, and that nothing was making me. We used to exit and re-enter English class via the window.

 

[Nonsensical]

I'm really inconsistent. I hate a lot of the garbage I learn and I am not motivated to readily apply myself. Put something in my way and I am out of focus, as far as being centered around school and grades.

It's not that I'm lazy, it's just that I DON'T CARE.

 

[OrangeAppled]

Introversion - may provide an ability to concentrate & not get distracted by social stuff (ie. talking in class). May be more likely to spend time alone to study/read.

Ne - grasps theory very well, sees patterns, enjoys new ideas, is creative

Fi - has a strong value system, albeit detached from the external standards. May or may not value traditional education. This probably has the most bearing on whether an INFP chooses to make the effort. Fi is also a rational cognitive function which evaluates and reasons. That makes it has a lot of potential for critical thinking skills so useful in an academic setting.

INFPs are also over-represented in colleges and universities according to some studies (can't find the link, sorry), so it seems they do well enough to pursue higher education & to be accepted there.

Personally, school was a breeze for me & I had excellent grades. I might have "under-achieved" in that I slacked because I got bored, but I still did much better than most of my schoolmates. College was also pretty easy, and I enjoyed it a lot more.

As for under-achievers, possibly P types for various reasons, but it cannot be pinned on any one type. I think ESTJs are often over-achievers, in that they work hard, but may not be that smart (hey, you asked for it).

 

[Space_Oddity]

Personally, school was a breeze for me & I had excellent grades. I might have "under-achieved" in that I slacked because I got bored, but I still did much better than most of my schoolmates. College was also pretty easy, and I enjoyed it a lot more.

I have the same experience... ^^;;

 

[EJCC]

I've known quite a few xSFPs who were underachievers in school. Even if they were smart, they either didn't care enough ("I have better ways to spend my time"), or weren't disciplined enough, or in the case of the ISFPs I know, didn't consider themselves to be "smart", so didn't try hard because of that image of themselves (even though they were, in fact, smart).

 

[com999]

Which type would be the least likely to get high grades or perform as well as inherent abilities should suggest?

INFP?

I= not participating
N= no common sense
F= overly sensitive and emotional and tear-clouded judgment
P= lazy slobs

Or maybe INTPs, since they're the same as above except their "T" is more worried about Star Wars, RAM drives and tantric philosophy than academics, and they seem like smartasses.

No offense of course. I can see someone coming at me with a derogatory ESTJ letter breakdown. lol (But don't do that, focus on my question.)

I am an INTP and I was in the top 5 percent of my class in high school. Now I'm in college studying biological sciences.

 

[Saslou]

My kid.

So smart and knowledgeable but the teachers didn't enjoy him questioning their methods and his behaviour hasn't helped.

What a waste of talent that some of us have to work hard to obtain *sigh*

 

[KDude]

Probably ISTPs. I did and do well when I put my mind to it, but technically, I didn't even finish highschool. I know I'm not alone in this. I don't know if I'd call it "sensitive". Maybe I was. I hated the environment. I got in a lot of fights, so maybe I was sensitive. I got kicked out of my school division after multiple chances, and screwed up my chances at another one. From what I can tell, INFPs and INTPs seem pretty dedicated to school. I wasted a lot of time with now deceased thugs, now deceased car thieves, and now deceased crack dealers. It was still educational though.

I think ENTPs, without self-discipline, fall by the wayside too.. but not necessarily in a bad way. Just more into chasing flights of fancy way.

 

[mrcockburn]

heeee I remember this thread!!

Anyway, I now think it'd be xSFP. Se won't want to sit still, and the ones I've known tended to blow school off. As an ESTP, I found school too static and slow-moving as well, but I couldn't really completely blow it off, since I had a wrathful xNTJ (aka, the natural overachiever type) father to face if I did.

But even though I'm long gone from him, I still refuse to drop out of uni no matter how tempted I am. I just won't kill myself over grades though. Most classes I skip and still get A's or B's on the tests. I've had a bunch of classes where I simply skipped EVERY single class, showing up only for exams...and still got the highest score in the class. Se helps with thinking on the fly during exams, I think. As does Ti.\

But group work sucking fucks though. It forces you to actually show up and do the work.

 

[ICUP]

Probably ISTPs. I did and do well when I put my mind to it, but technically, I didn't even finish highschool. I know I'm not alone in this. I don't know if I'd call it "sensitive". Maybe I was. I hated the environment. I got in a lot of fights, so maybe I was sensitive. I got kicked out of my school division after multiple chances, and screwed up my chances at another one. From what I can tell, INFPs and INTPs seem pretty dedicated to school. I wasted a lot of time with now deceased thugs, now deceased car thieves, and now deceased crack dealers. It was still educational though.

That's crazy. You don't seem like you didn't finish high school.
I got through college. Top 10% in my high school, deemed "gifted and talented" at 10 years old, then AP all the way through. Unfortunately, I got a shitty education, nevertheless. Thanks southern public education system.

 

[FDG]

Anyway, even if you have trouble sitting still because you're a high energy type, you can deal with that by undertaking lots of sporting activities. That's what I've done during my university years in order to stay sane. Typical pre-exam day (supposing I could take a week off from work): 7-12 studying / doing homework, 12.15 - 3.15 cycling, 3.45 - 7 studying / doing homework.

 

[mrcockburn]

Anyway, even if you have trouble sitting still because you're a high energy type, you can deal with that by undertaking lots of sporting activities. That's what I've done during my university years in order to stay sane. Typical pre-exam day (supposing I could take a week off from work): 7-12 studying / doing homework, 12.15 - 3.15 cycling, 3.45 - 7 studying / doing homework.

Holy shit. You studied for 8.15 hours a day??? The fuck? I don't study that much for an entire semester combined.

 

[iris.moon]

Well... no! There are only 3 people getting better marks than mine in the whole high school. I don't know if there's a most underachiever type, maybe xNTPs, they usually do a lot less than they could. But in my experience the worst students are usually ESFPs and ISTPs.

 

[Jade Curtiss]

I would say ESFP as the type most likely to get the lowest grades because of cognitive preference, followed by ISFP and ESTP.
As for the type with the biggest difference between grades and IQ, I would guess ENTP.

Extraversion = less focus, more easily distracted and less time for studying if they're busy with social activities. The Se of SPs wants hands-on learning rather than the memorization focused learning style in grade school that favors Si. Fi over Ti makes grasping technical theories less natural, and the P for procrastination is of course the biggest factor, especially before college. ExxP types are the typical "class clown" that can't focus, but the Ne of ENxPs gives them a propensity for theorizing and playing with ideas and patterns, which would help in classes that aren't totally focused on rote memorization (and college in particular).

As an INTP, I enjoyed almost all non-math subjects even if I hated the school environment, and was an A/B student without too much effort. My parents rebuked me often for "wasting my potential", however. I procrastinated endlessly and only studied the night before sufficiently significant tests, and even then only for a couple hours. This has continued into college, though I rarely skip class. The only thing I ever did poorly in was algebra, which I continue to despise.

 

[Gami]

Haha, I'm currently in the last 10% of my class with a GPA of 1.7 haha... ha...

I've found school terribly boring since middle school, really
Instead of paying attention to class, I tend to draw, daydream or sleep. Not like classes teach me much anymore, though :c
Instead of doing homework or anything school related, I go online and research things like typology for fun! Last week I was supposed to read Canterbury Tales but uh instead I watched five hours worth of documentary on String Theory, read a few chapters in my linguistics book and researched enneagrams! \o/
So when our essay-test thing was due, I just wrote a paper on British life in the 1300s (Which was thankfully a prompt and I'm on the Tutors in my British history book!)
I also have never studied in my life, besides the few minutes teachers give you to review notes before a test. I've nearly never failed a test, either (Besides math, but I'm actually really terrible at math so shhh) ^ ^;;

My best friend is also in the last 10% of our class, though she's an ISFP
She gets distracted drawing, mostly. Until recently she had no college plans, either, so that kinda stunted her 'Whoo I want to get good grades for college!' personality I see most people have