This is the part where thinking in a new way comes in. A student who always gets the basic idea on the first pass may have no concept that it's even possible to look at something that's completely baffling and figure it out by simply staring at it and thinking. This is very different from the idea of "studying," which, to a HG+ kid, can mean "cram it in" or "do the worksheets as quickly as possible." There's a subtle difference between studying and thinking in a new way, but it's a savage one. Until a person actually groks the idea of "stare and think in order to understand," he'll be hindered by misconceptions about his abilities. And yet, once he gets the idea, he'll have made a huge cognitive leap. See? Subtle, but savage.*
I sometimes tell my DD5 "if you focus and try hard, you become smarter and difficult problems become easier."
