Does Anyone Else Do Worse in your "Easy" Classes Compared to the "Hard" Ones?

I don't know why, but somehow, I always end up doing worse in my "easy" classes compared to my hard classes. Like, I took a quiz in Intermediate Accounting, supposedly one of the hardest classes at my school, and got 100%, but I took a quiz in my joke econ class and marketing and only got Bs on them. I've noticed that consistently I've underperformed in the classes that people say are easy, but do well in the "legitimate" classes. Has anyone else ever had this problem?

 

same here. reason is because you overestimate the difficulty of the hard class and therefore spend inordinately more time and effort on it. however at the same time you underestimate the difficulty of the easy class and/or generally not give a fuck, which results in lower grades

 

OMG dude same. I got straight A's in my Intermediate Microeco/Macro classes & Bio classes, but I got a B in my Psych, so I made it Pass/No Credit. WTF, you know. Hoping for a 4.0 this semester.

 

Because the majority of people out there are not "mathematically" competent. As a result, "math" or "logic" heavy classes are often classified as the most difficult ones. The fluff ones, where you have to answer questions based on your "opinion," are generally classified as easy.

Smart people tend to be very math/logic oriented. It is easy for these people to get A's in the "difficult" classes -- the difficult classes have questions with concrete right/wrong answers. On the other hand, they struggle with consistently acing the easy classes. This is because they lose a lot of their competitive advantage (smartness) when doing things such as writing essays. In these situations, a less intelligent person is harder to identify than an intelligent person.

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CompBanker:
Because the majority of people out there are not "mathematically" competent. As a result, "math" or "logic" heavy classes are often classified as the most difficult ones. The fluff ones, where you have to answer questions based on your "opinion," are generally classified as easy.

Smart people tend to be very math/logic oriented. It is easy for these people to get A's in the "difficult" classes -- the difficult classes have questions with concrete right/wrong answers. On the other hand, they struggle with consistently acing the easy classes. This is because they lose a lot of their competitive advantage (smartness) when doing things such as writing essays. In these situations, a less intelligent person is harder to identify than an intelligent person.

That's a part of it, but the other half of the story is that it's really hard to meaningfully study about some random star a billion light years away when you really couldn't give a shit and are only taking the class to satisfy bullshit 'required electives'.
 
noway:
That's a part of it, but the other half of the story is that it's really hard to meaningfully study about some random star a billion light years away when you really couldn't give a shit and are only taking the class to satisfy bullshit 'required electives'.

Whereas it's easy to meaningfully study the differences between lyapunov and structural stability? Really depends on where your interests lie.

 
CompBanker:
Because the majority of people out there are not "mathematically" competent. As a result, "math" or "logic" heavy classes are often classified as the most difficult ones. The fluff ones, where you have to answer questions based on your "opinion," are generally classified as easy.

Smart people tend to be very math/logic oriented. It is easy for these people to get A's in the "difficult" classes -- the difficult classes have questions with concrete right/wrong answers. On the other hand, they struggle with consistently acing the easy classes. This is because they lose a lot of their competitive advantage (smartness) when doing things such as writing essays. In these situations, a less intelligent person is harder to identify than an intelligent person.

If you can't write essays does that not make you "not smart?". Is someone who's a brilliant writer, yet terrible with even basic arithmetic, "not intelligent"? Not saying you're doing it in you're post, but I feel too many people ascribe intelligence to mathematical or scientific ability when intelligence can just as easily be evidenced through ability in social science and the arts as well.

 
Best Response
lm-1993:
CompBanker:
Because the majority of people out there are not "mathematically" competent. As a result, "math" or "logic" heavy classes are often classified as the most difficult ones. The fluff ones, where you have to answer questions based on your "opinion," are generally classified as easy.

Smart people tend to be very math/logic oriented. It is easy for these people to get A's in the "difficult" classes -- the difficult classes have questions with concrete right/wrong answers. On the other hand, they struggle with consistently acing the easy classes. This is because they lose a lot of their competitive advantage (smartness) when doing things such as writing essays. In these situations, a less intelligent person is harder to identify than an intelligent person.

If you can't write essays does that not make you "not smart?". Is someone who's a brilliant writer, yet terrible with even basic arithmetic, "not intelligent"? Not saying you're doing it in you're post, but I feel too many people ascribe intelligence to mathematical or scientific ability when intelligence can just as easily be evidenced through ability in social science and the arts as well.

The problem with judging someone based on their essay writing ability is that the quality of one's writing is entirely based on the opinion of the reviewer. There is no "right" answer when writing an essay. One reviewer may consider an essay an "A" while the next will consider it a "B." With mathematics, there is only one correct answer. 5 + 5 = 10 and you're either right or you're wrong. As such, I believe it is much easier for smart people to consistently succeed in environments where the "opinion" variable is removed.
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i did, but i never went to my easy classes cause i got bored. I remember sitting in a stats class, and they asked me the probability of getting a jack in a deck of cards....last time i went to that class. Got a B. Meanwhile I had an A in Quantum Mechanics, Measure Theory etc.

Plus, when a class was boring I could usually find a partner in crime to go to the bar with

 

Have you thought of it differently? Ask yourelf instead that maybe you are better at hard classes and worse in easy classes? Maybe you are a person who enjoys the hard or difficult aspects of life, while not caring about the easy aspects of life. Or most probably, your just lucky in the hard courses? BTW, most people prefer the easy aspects of life. The people who enjoy the hard aspects of life are rare. So make you know something about you self before droping a course.

 

Definitely took what was supposed to be a BS "financial math" class. Keep in mind I'm a finance major... I couldn't be fucked to actually apply formulas to problems because I know how to do it in Excel. Led to a worse grade than I expected going in.

MM IB -> Corporate Development -> Strategic Finance
 

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