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Academic performance and its factors
What factors affect academic success
Factors affecting students academic performance
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Intelligence comes in many forms and many types. There’s crystallized intelligence, which is the stuff taught in school, and what tests measure. There’s also fluid intelligence, which is one’s ability to think critically and problem-solve, it’s one’s “street smarts”. People often revere intelligence as the most important trait to success, besides hard work and determination. Although that’s not entirely true, it definitely helps to be smart. Successful people are often labeled “geniuses”. People will list endless ways to increase one’s intelligence, such as eating a certain food, or doing a puzzle a day, but research has shown these three, legitimate contributors to an overall higher intelligence: genetics, diet as a child, and music lessons. …show more content…
One needs a mixture of different types, like analytical (crystallized) intelligence, fluid intelligence, AND practical intelligence, which is knowing how to argue, read situations, convince, people, etc. In the third and fourth chapters of Outliers, a book written by Malcolm Gladwell, Gladwell explains it very well. He takes two people with extremely high IQs: Chris Langan and Robert Oppenheimer. Throughout the chapter he compares the two men’s stories, and shows how although Langan had just as high of an IQ as Oppenheimer, he was unsuccessful in life. He hasn’t made any amazing new discoveries, or created something wonderful, he dropped out of college. Oppenheimer on the other hand helped design the first atomic bomb. In the chapter, Gladwell points out what Oppenheimer had that Langan didn’t: practical intelligence, the ability to argue, reason, and convince people of something. For instance, Oppenheimer had no consequences after he tried to kill his tutor in graduate school, Langan could hardly talk to his professors at college. Gladwell shows another example in the previous chapter, when he compares the answers of two students on a test. The test asked them to come up with as many uses for a blanket as possible. One student came up with nearly a dozen hilarious answers, whereas another student only came up with about three obvious ones. The first student did much better on that test and would probably do better in a real life situation, since he was more creative. However, the first student had a lower IQ than the second student. Normally one would expect the second student to do better in everyday life, although that wouldn’t be the case. Those two examples and many, many others help show that although having a high IQ score is certainly helpful, it’s not the most important thing to one’s success and
Malcolm Gladwell, in the nonfiction book Outliers, claims that success stems from where you come from, and to find that you must look beyond the individual. Malcolm Gladwell develops and supports his claim by defining an outlier, then providing an example of how Stewart Wolf looked beyond the individual, and finally by giving the purpose of the book Outliers as a whole. Gladwell’s purpose is to explain the extenuating circumstances that allowed one group of people to become outliers in order to inform readers on how to be successful. The author writes in a serious and factual tone for the average person in society of both genders and all ethnicities who wants to become successful in life.
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell argues that there is no such thing as a self-made man, and that success is only the result of a person’s circumstances. However, throughout the novel Gladwell points out that your circumstances and opportunities only help you become successful if you are willing to take advantage of them and work hard. From a twelve year old living in the Bronx, to those who were born at just the right time to become millionaires, one thing is the same throughout; these people because successful because they seized the opportunities they were given. The advantages and opportunities that came from their circumstances would not be important if they had not grasped them. Every successful man is self made, because he has seized the
Imagine a book that offers the reader a key; a key that enables them to ride down the highway to success and see all of the stops along the way that are instrumental in achieving success. Malcolm Gladwell does precisely this in his novel Outliers, which examines some of history’s most successful people and then attempts to explain why they specifically became successful beyond their wildest dreams. Gladwell is a reporter for The New Yorker and an accomplished author in the areas of psychology, sociology, and social psychology. In Outliers, he presents his reasoning as to why some people become successful and some do not. One of his major points in this regard is the ten thousand hour rule, meaning that to master a topic and become extremely successful in that area, one must accumulate at least ten thousand hours of practice in that area. He closely examines the early lives and careers of some of history’s greatest success stories to make a fine argument for his case. However, his strong arguments in support of his theories on success are not as strong when they come to countering the “typical view”, as Gladwell sees it. Outliers is different than most persuasive novels in that by proving his point, Gladwell does not necessarily disprove other people’s view on success. He effortlessly utilizes logos, along with numerous examples and parallelisms to support his theories. However, his lack of ethos and strong counter-argument allows for the audience to understand his ten thousand hour rule without necessarily supporting it wholeheartedly. After proposing something unthinkable to the average mind, Gladwell goes on to explain his ten thousand hour rule theory using two, very descriptive, very in-depth anecdotes. He shows how multi-bil...
A genius is a person who is exceptionally intelligent or creative. One of the most famous geniuses of all time,Albert Einstein, had an IQ of 160. An individual who is considered a genius, has an IQ of 160 and up. Also mentioned in Gladwell’s book,Outliers:The Story of Success,is Christopher Langan. With an IQ of 195,Christopher Langan, is considered the smartest man in America.With such an exorbitant IQ, you would be under the impression that he attended the most prestigious university and is now exceedingly successful.However, that is not the case and in fact he is entirely the opposite. How did this happen? Well, the answer is uncomplicated and straightforward. The trouble with geniuses is not their intelligence,but
Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers includes a section based on the Bible's “Matthew Effect” and a self-fulfilling prophecy. This chapter elaborates on“the Matthew Effect” and how if anyone gives certain opportunities at the right time, their experiences will be furthered than others through training and more opportunities being opened to them. Gladwell touches on this using the example of hockey players given the advancement of only being born in the early months of the year and then those kids get trained exceptionally better than others for this simple reason of them being born in these months. It shows how society is simple-minded and always set to have an outcome, it’s not only random at this point, it’s always decided upon and furthered. Kids
It is the relationships individuals depend on most that fail them in the trials of life. In his novel, Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell appeals to the emotions of the readers in order to convey this message as he examines the lives of several particular individuals. Gladwell explains the story of a man named Chris Langan who is constantly involved in negative relationships. Gladwell writes: “He [Langan’s father] would lock the kitchen cabinets so the boys couldn’t get to the food. He used a bullwhip to keep the boys in line. He would get jobs and then lose them, . . .” (Gladwell 92). In order to appeal to the reader’s emotions, Gladwell has very precise diction in each of his details. The words “lock,” “bullwhip,” and “lose,” are incorporated into his descriptions in order to create a
I think Gladwell’s book is an interesting science. I am not sure I know enough to say it is good science yet, but the Medicine Hat Tigers example he used is surely a convincing argument for good science. Gladwell cleverly redirected the reader’s attention to the birthdays of the Tigers rosters, something a Psychologist (Roger Barnsley) had done some time ago also pointed out by Gladwell in his book. But what Gladwell did that could be construed as good science is replace the players’ names with their birthdays to highlight when the more successful players on the team were born, January, February, March and April to be exact. This is good science if the discovery’s technique was used to draft players in all sports going forward as seems to be the indication in Gladwell’s book.
Gladwell gives differing definitions of intelligence. Yet his definition of success is singular—"worldly" success in terms of wealth, power, and fame. Are there also differing definitions of success that Gladwell doesn't consider? If so, what are they, and what does it take to achieve those versions of success? What is your definition of success, and how does it compare to Gladwell’s? Has your definition of success changed at all?
For generations, only certain people have achieved success - they are known as geniuses or outliers; however, they did not obtain it on high IQs and innate talents alone. In the book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell, #1 bestselling author of The Tipping Point and Blink, reveals the transparent secret of success behind every genius that made it big. Intertwined with that, Gladwell builds a convincing implication that the story behind the success of all geniuses is that they were born at the right place, at the right time and took advantage of it. To convey the importance of the outlier’s fortunate circumstances to his readers, he expresses a respective, colloquial tone when examining their lives.
“People don't rise from nothing....It is only by asking where they are from that we can unravel the logic behind who succeeds and who doesn't”(Gladwell 18).
Malcolm Gladwell makes many debatable claims in his book “The Outliers”. One of these controversial topics is brought up in chapter three when he talks about a person’s IQ and how that relates to one’s success. Gladwell says, “The relationship between success and IQ works only up to a point. Once someone has reached an IQ of somewhere around 120, having additional IQ points doesn’t seem to translate into any measurable real-world advantage.”After reading “Outliers” I believe that this is the greatest controversial topic. I agree with Malcolm Gladwell because there are a high amount of people who are not incredibly smart that are very successful, success can be viewed differently by different people, and from my own experiences on the U-High
We all understand what success is, but what allows for a person to become successful? Malcolm Gladwell wrote his book Outliers to study this topic and settle once and for all why some people are more successful than others. Gladwell uses the success stories of people throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to discover just exactly what it is that allows for one to be successful. He explains that there is much more to becoming successful than just natural talent and skill. Gladwell states in Outliers that success is the product of the time we were born, our dedication, and most of all where we come from.
“A statistical observation that is markedly different in value from the others of the sample” (Gladwell 3) or in other words an outlier. In the novel Outliers: The Story of Success, author Malcolm Gladwell holds one of the many secrets to life, the secret to success. Gladwell takes one’s thoughts on an astonishing journey to reveal the keys to success, their patterns, and how to achieve it.
In Chapter 8 and 9 of Outliers: The Story of Success, Gladwell exams some of the ways that Asian and American students learn math, arguing that some of the principles in the US education system should be reconsidered. I generally agree with Gladwell’s point of view. I believe in two ways, students ' principal spirit and the length of students’ studying, the US education system leaves much to be desired, though an overhaul is in progress.
In the book Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell (2008) tells a series of stories of success and concludes his discoveries of underlying secrets in success. Gladwell divides his book into two parts: opportunity and legacy. For the first part “opportunity,” Gladwell explains that individual talent is necessary but not sufficient to achieve success because accessible opportunities matter a lot to one’s success. As to the second part “legacy,” Gladwell emphasizes the significance of cultural legacy and the historical advantages that can’t be ignored when considering the factors of success. Although some critics argue that Gladwell uses stereotypical examples, Outliers is a convincing book because its merits outweigh the defects.