Duke Talent Identification Report

I have always had Final Grades being above a B! In fifth grade, I was apart of a handful in having straight A+’s in my whole school! In sixth grade, I was apart of a test to participate in accelerated classes! Today, I am in Algebra I and in seventh grade; the lowest grade I had in this class was a B+, even above some eighth graders. During sixth and fifth grade, I got involved in Math club at Franklin Woods Intermediate, I competed against other kids in other schools, doing eighth and even high school math! I have participated in accelerated Language Arts and Math since fifth grade; I have continued to grow since then! I pride myself in being in advanced classes, many people ask how I got to be really “smart,” I say, “ I listen, speak at a low amount and come to school; I pay attention and ask questions.” Overall, I think that the choices I made, got me here; I really like a quote from Robert Kiyosaki, that was mentioned in one of the books he

Every student is intelligent within their own way, academically and street smart. This is brought up by professor Gerald Graff in his essay “Hidden intellectualism”. Within his work he begins by bringing up a comparison between the potential of street smarts and academic smarts. His views are in support of street smarts as he begins to recount his childhood as a street smart and academically smart child. His problem with both types of intelligence was how he was portrayed to his classmates , either he was seen as a nerd or a common kids based on solely their intelligence on certain matters.Gerald graft has a well thought out interpretation on why students aren't born intellectuals in an academic sense but instead they could be intellectual

Grant Penrod, a former student of Arizona State University, writes a piece about how the smart kids get ostracized called Anti-Intellectualism: Why We Hate the Smart Kids. There are smart kids on every school across the nation. These kids are usually not athletic or popular, but some are. Penrod wrote about the non-athletic and non-popular smart kids. These “nerds” are being looked at negatively. They are getting unpopular stereotypes. It isn’t cool to be smart anymore. It’s looked at as if you don’t need to be smart to be successful. People are more worried about the money then the philosophies you learn and develop while you are in school. Penrod says, “The image of intellectualism is disliked as anti-social, and the harms of even a fallacious

I’ve always had a strength when it comes to things like school and college. I’ve envisioned myself as being deemed smart, or at least mature and wise. I aim

Of course this information did not help ease my tensions at all. I asked her about what would happen for the rest of the year considering that it was late winter at the time. She explained that dad would be driving us to school in the car everyday until the end of the year. I was relieved about this, I was still able to say goodbye to all of my friends and end the year. I had always heard rumors about how freshmen are always teased and made fun of by the older kids, this had me worrying. I thought that since it was my first year and I was a freshmen it would be twice as bad. After school wrapped up I had my entire summer to ponder what could happen in the new school. The new house was exciting and big, I no longer had to share a room with my brother. With most good things comes a downside, in this case it would be, bad internet, new school, crappy appliances, and a poorly constructed

Throughout my life, I had always been a very studious person. For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be the top of my class, even in Elementary School. It started getting competitive in seventh grade, when everyone was allowed to take classes to get High School course credit. I worked all year and was able to be one of the twenty kids that was allowed to take high school biology in eighth grade. That was the beginning of my advancement in science classes. It was also one of the factors leading up to my challenge in getting at least a B in physics class as a Tenth grader.

My early education shaped my motivations and philosophy in both negative and positive ways. At a young age, I became motivated to read and learn as much as possible. I regularly outperformed all of my peers in school and became focused on showing everyone that I was superior to them. Consequently, I continued to perform better and became convinced that I was smarter than my classmates and friends. Despite being given chances to excel in elementary school; in fifth, sixth, and seventh grade I was not sufficiently challenged and was disappointed that my time in school felt wasted. This was particularly frustrating because I had contemplated skipping sixth grade, but was discouraged to do so. Halfway through seventh grade I had the opportunity to challenge myself again. This time it did not influence my motivation or work habits; instead, I learned self-humility and had my personal philosophy reshaped.

First off, I learned that it is not a sign of weakness to ask for help. All throughout elementary school, excluding fifth grade, I always thought that if you asked questions it meant that you were not smart. I never asked questions. When I got to fifth grade I learned that when you ask questions you can grow

We moved in with her and coincidentally the house is right down the street from Brookwood High School. At first things were a little hectic because I had to get adjusted to the school system and the people here. At first I struggled because I had never worked or learned at such a quick pace and I had never had teachers that went in depth as those teachers did. The teachers did offer as much help as possible to those who needed it. After a week or two in school I adapted and began getting my grades up to par. Another huge change was all the tests we had to take. In Mississippi we only had to take the MCT, but here we had to take county assessments, EOTCs, Gateway exams, midterms, and the final exams. I hated that we had to take them but Gwinnett County officials told us that the tests would eventually pay off in the long run. Another huge adjustment I had to make was making friends. In Mississippi people are usually friendly and go out of their way to be polite; here that wasn’t the case. The first day of school I got lost really bad. I was confused and you could tell I had never been to the school before. I asked a guy for help and responded with, “It’s a map in your hand, use it.” It caught me off guard but I did not let it get to me because I assumed it was only one person. Later on that day I was bumped and I dropped my tray at lunch. This guy, Brandon, helped me pick it up and since then we have been friends. I also gained a few more friends but it seemed like the people there did not like me for some reason. I didn’t mind it but it did change the way I interacted with people there. After a while things back in our house began to get rocky. I did not like the way that my uncle treated us and I would verbally express my feelings. Also my mom said, “They claim they are family but I see their true colors. “ She and my aunt were also not on good terms, and as you can imagine we did not mesh well. It

I do agree with you when you say that being book smart doesn’t equal success, in fact, the Terman’s child geniuses did not turn out as he expected and there was a child that was rejected to his research because of his IQ went on to win a Nobel Price. Also, I believe creativity play a great role, being creative and being out spoken is something that an individual learns in their everyday life.

No I would argue that the "real talent" of a popular musician cannot be assessed at all as music like art is subjective, that there is no undisputed method to compare people's talents, and that music will inevitably evolve past the need for talent.

By being here at Johnson C. Smith, with my grade point average being at 2.99, I feel I am as smart as I was when I started high school. Even though I have

I'm not smart in the gifted sense. Growing up I was always dead last in class and felt inferior to everyone. I had no talents or skills, barely managing to scrape by with a passing grade. Something was off about me too, people saw me and moved on, I was simply ignorable. Odd, dumb and with no friend beside me, I wandered into despair.

In junior High School, things started to turn around for me. Although I was still placed in lower level classes, I developed a love for learning. In the years to come from Junior High to High School, I had a strong urge to make up for lost time. One class I started to excel in was the one I used to have the most trouble with, Mathematics. It seemed as though the once boring and complex equations now seemed meaningful and simple. As I progressed into 8th grade, I was able to advance to normal classes. I felt that the hard work I put in was finally paying of. At this point, I felt that I could handle a higher level. At the end of 8th grade, I took the necessary procedures and tests to try and get into honor - level courses in 9th grade. After taking a summer course of Algebra 1 and several tests I was able to succeed and take the classes. The experience was great. I felt that I was finally going the right direction

My smartness became evident when I topped the primary school admission test. I remember how tears of joy rolled down her cheeks after hearing the news. I was little and didn’t quite understand the gravity of that achievement in that tender age so I went to play and my father went to buy sweets for the neighborhood families. It took me years to realize that sweet was not about sharing joy but an excuse to spread the good news. My mother kept on bragging. And Rekha aunty, her ‘best vabi’ living next door, used to just nod along with a smiling face. Her son Rana, who happened to be my age and my most intimate playmate didn’t obviously top. He was not even in the top 10.