DD14, reading a problem on an AP stats quiz, which provided the normal distribution for 13yo SAT scores for Duke's talent-search.


Wow-- so, um-- is 400 like an 'average' SAT section score?? I thought that was, like, REALLY bad...


She seriously had no idea that most 13yo's wouldn't even score that well, and that this is like a "MG" population to begin with. NO. clue that her scores at 13yo were at or beyond TIP's top reported scores.

So what does it mean that my scores were over 700, then? Is this normally distributed data? {calculator punching}

{gasp}

NO. WAY!!!


blush

I think that someone just figured out that she's, like, REALLY different from her MG friends who got those scores at 17yo.

In related news, I think that she just figured out that she's several standard deviations from the mean.

It's not like we've hidden this from her, or that she wasn't aware that she was brighter than the average (bright) bear, or anything-- just that the combination of running into this problem, THIS particular data, in THIS particular context made her come face to face with a stat that suggests that she's probably at the 1:10000 mark. This epiphany only happened because 13yo wasn't that far in her own past, and because she's in AP statistics-- in other words, as a result of being HG+ and grade-accelerated.

I think it shocked her. She seems to be more than a little bit surprised by how far out it places her-- and yes, I'm well aware that since she was grade-accelerated, it's less meaningful since at 13yo, she was a high school junior already, and not a 7th grader...

it's just wacky to me that she sees herself as "pretty bright, I guess" but doesn't necessarily assume that she's brighter than others, or really all that extraordinary as a result.

I'm not sure how I feel about that, honestly. I guess I'm glad that her ego is not tied up in being "smartest person" in the room, but at the same time, it feels as though she has an unrealistically low impression of her own cognitive ability.




Schrödinger's cat walks into a bar. And doesn't.