Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Identification, Testing & Assessment Gifted students cheating to get higher grades.

I'm going to respond to various components of your post, individually.

1) These are fairly common test instruments, however it is unknown what criteria was used, and with what frequency students were identified and added to any gifted programming. A teacher recommendation can be used in different ways, for example, to cast a wider net and gather in pupils who may not have received qualifying scores... or to identify and screen out pupils who would not be a good "fit" for the school's gifted program.

2) - A valedictorian is typically the Senior who had the highest grades at the end of Junior year. If there is a tie, this may be resolved in a different manner at various schools. Valedictorians are sometimes known to "coast" once they have received their title/label.
- According to recent US News College Rankings, Princeton is #1, Harvard #2, Columbia #3, MIT & Yale tied at #4.
- While PolarisList does not specifically track feeder schools for Yale, it may be of interest to see whether your alma mater high school is a feeder for Harvard, Princeton, MIT.
- Overall, there may be nothing unusual about a valedictorian receiving an offer to attend their State flagship and/or one or more top national colleges/universities.

3) This is a strong allegation or accusation to make. Casting aspersions on someone's academic integrity by hint, rumor, and innuendo of cheating and/or plagiarism could backfire with counter-measures such as accusing you of libel, slander, or defamation. There are various degrees of "help from other students to get higher grades on tests by asking them what will be the test questions and how to answer them and such," some of which may be considered ethical and a sign of healthy relationships and teamwork, some of which may be considered a gray area, some of which may result in expulsion and/or charges. For example: attending and/or discussing a test-sponsored prep session is a positive and shares detailed questions and answers from previous versions of an achievement test (which have specifically been released for study purposes); by contrast, stealing a teacher's test answer key is verboten. Meanwhile, measures exist to counter common gray-area exchange of answers (such as creating multiple versions of tests).

4) Whether your concerns about events you may have witnessed are just surfacing belatedly now that you are no longer in the potentially intimidating school situation... or whether you may be emulating others by engaging in a bit of a smear campaign which seemed to work for them, enhancing their power, influence, and status... or whether you are stuck and unable to move on... it is best for your sake if you are aware of the impact of your words on others you encounter and/or interact with. This story sums it up well:
5) To a casual observer, it would seem that one would not typically have access to data and information needed to reliably assess another's IQ. You've made several posts with conjecture on other's IQs. This may be an unhealthy obsession with others' lives. A few other members have previously suggested this, with differing degrees of sensitivity and bluntness. I have attempted to show that it is not realistic to beat your former classmates in every area of life as this sets up several goals with inherent conflicts to each other.

6) There is no one definitive answer as to giftedness. However, in some contexts, anything over the average 100 IQ may be considered gifted. Here are some examples of gifted IQ ranges:
- Ruf, 5 levels of gifted - https://www.nypl.org/blog/2015/04/02/booktalking-5-levels-gifted (120 +)
- Hoagies - IQ depends on the test instrument utilized - https://www.hoagiesgifted.org/highly_profoundly.htm (124 +)

7) As you've previously posted about attitude, that may suggest it was not test scores, but rather questions/issues as to "fit" with the program.