Feeling like an outcast in this IB world - struggling academically.

There are plenty of stupid people in IB. Running pitch books is not brain surgery.  You may not become a top bucket M&A MD, but who cares? Get in, get yours, get out.  Fake it 'till you make it. And grades, while important, are secondary to internship experience. Work your network and family connections.  Makes your job easier.

Hey buddy, we're on the exact same boat. 

Mate sometimes I forget the insanity that we are competing against kids who in high school were captain of sports teams, straight A's, took violin lessons on tuesdays and thursdays, volunteered at local community projects on wednesdays, and also somehow speak chinese?? It's not only the academic side they've learnt, they've been learning the time-management element of life since they were 8 yrs old. The struggles or drawbacks that we experience whilst studying, they realized they had those and found ways to work around them when they were 14.

What does this mean? We have more to catch up on than the people we are competing with. We have to put in more time than they do.

I graduated high-school at 18 with the lowest grades in my class, (2.1/4.00 GPA). At 19, I got fired from my job as a trashman. At 20, I got kicked out of the army. After this I got my severe ADD diagnosis and received the treatment I needed.

At this point, I decided to give university a try, and miraculously ended up getting into a no-name school (ranked 3000ish). I remember when I started my first Microeconomics course I couldn't even make sense of a simple X/Y graph, like I had to think extremely hard to interpret the relationship between supply/demand. I had missed out on so much fundamental knowledge in high school that I probably spent twice as long as everybody else - first trying to catch up on the fundamentals one usually learns in high-school, to then learn the university academics. This made me extremely self-conscious about my intelligence, knowing that I am way below my peers in the academic area. At 21, I managed to transfer to a top 100 school (GPA 3.67/4.00) with heavy coursework like Corp Fin, Financial Accounting, Macroecon with financial analysis, etc. Now at 22, I have completed three boutique internships (none IB though) and have landed a few first-round interviews at BB's. 

What has made the above possible for me was having a tutor in the area of finance. Finding someone that understands your situation, and that is willing to tutor you 2-4 times/week. It saves a ton of time in the learning process. The main reason, however, having someone that holds you accountable and that gives you hard and clear deadlines for learnings I.e. On a Tuesday session, he assigns you to learn 6 liquidity ratios and lays out the format to how he wants the answers really clearly: I will quiz you and want your answers to be in this format: First, one sentence briefly describing what the ratio is used for, then one sentence on how to calculate the ratio, then one sentence on what a good ratio is.

In any case, I feel the exact same as you've described. PM me if you want to have a chat, I'm sure there are things we could learn from each other. Hang in there bro 3

Well, considering there are Harvard graduates who get rejected for IB roles, and you're a self-proclaimed moron who snagged their spot, I'd say you're not as dumb as you think you are, and you should keep playing to your strengths and feel proud of your accomplishments. 

Honestly, don’t stress about it like that. People are smart enough to know that standardized test scores do not define a candidate’s ability to do the job properly. You got an offer which you should be very excited about, they saw something in you that goes beyond your grades. Keep having the personality and drive to do better and people will want you.

Also, I just wanted to point out that not everybody in IB is smart, you’d really be surprised. Keep your head up and try your best, but don’t stress.

Intern --

First, you passed the first test.  Congratulations.  Have a drink on me.

Second, how many of the Analysts are as smart as Steven Hawking?  None.

Third, and this is my point:  Why the hell are you comparing yourself to others?  You are your own person, with strengths and weaknesses (looks like self confidence is top of the list).  

Let me let you in on a little open secret.  You are average.  Average versus your peer group.  Top 1% in US society and even higher compared versus the world.

Think about that for a minute.

I have posted some random bits of my past in these forums, but I am fairly certain you have better grades and overall academics than I had.  Hell, I failed "Rocks for Jocks". I survived. 

You will too.

So stop wallowing on a message board, have a drink, breathe, take a friend to dinner and realize that you are not a unique snowflake.

You are you.  Be you.  Don't be me.  Don't be someone else.

Namaste

D.O.U.G.

Look, people are generally smart(ish) in banking but we aren't sending humans to space or curing cancer. Being a good junior banker requires some level of critical thinking and common sense, but it really comes down to being able to get a lot of shit done in short periods of time. I've always felt that I would prefer someone of average intelligence that works really hard over someone that is borderline genius but is lazy. Also, bankers aren't as smart as you probably think they are. The really really smart individuals that I knew in college went to med school, did a phd or were engineers that actually help create physical items or experiences. Bankers aren't idiots but we aren't geniuses either.

Bump

3.2 GPA self-professed terrible test taker and generally awful at math in general (probably because I hated doing homework/studying as a kid and got by on general intelligence, which works in qualitative fields but not something like math where knowledge compounds). Anyways, I'm a 2nd yr at a BB and just got off zoom teaching a 1st yr who was summa cum laude at HYP how to format a freaking chart and he literally couldnt do it. I'm here to tell you that nobody knows what they are doing, and everyone is winging it - from the 1st yr analyst to the VP to the MD to the CEO of the firm. The sooner you figure this out, the better your life will be. Out work your competition and read and practice as much as you can and you will get where you want to be.