Originally Posted by Val
This idea also applies to standardized testing. Gifted people may overthink the answer choices and pick the "wrong" one (I'm thinking specifically of verbal questions with no objectively right answer.). I suspect that the same thing happens in the classroom. Gifted students may not accept the teacher's explanation, especially in math class where the approach may just be memorize and regurgitate.
This is one of the things my son does all the time. He will make a problem more difficult than necessary. He did this just last week in his Algebra II homework. He insisted in making his combinatorics word problems more difficult than necessary, and got himself stuck. I couldn't convince him that his interpretation wasn't what was intended, but did suggest he check with the teacher before the test the next day.