Question: What makes some people smarter than others, and what makes some people work harder?

Sam Geen answered on 24 Jun 2013:

A combination of things – sometimes it’s just genetic. Often people are brought up in a certain way – their parents put more importance on their education, talk to them about science or history or whatever, or give them books to read from a young age. Or maybe they have good teachers and a good school.

People are motivated to work hard for various reasons – if you’re good at something, it’s not frustrating to work hard because you see results. It’s really hard to persevere with something you aren’t naturally good at, although with time and practice you usually can get better. Sometimes, again, your parents make you work, rather than hanging out with friends or playing games all the time (note that neither of these things is bad if you work as well!).

If you have trouble with a subject, or find it hard to focus, it’s hard to know what to do – if it’s before GCSE, it’s best just to keep at it until you can drop certain subjects you aren’t that good at. But don’t just give up if you don’t understand something immediately – often you have to just keep practicing until you get it! Often people who understand things just didn’t give up when they didn’t understand it at first. If you give up as soon as you hit something you don’t understand, you’ll never get anywhere. It’s only worth thinking about changing subjects when you consistently don’t get anywhere even after working hard to understand it. And that’s fine – everyone has different things they’re good at.

Understanding is often just being familiar with something – no-one knows why gravity exists, but we all know that when we let go of a cup it’ll fall on the floor (something astronauts have to relearn after they come back from the space station, apparently). It’s the same with maths – if you don’t understand how a certain technique or formula works, don’t worry – just keep practicing it, and hope that eventually you understand why you do it! Maths is often about being sneaky, so don’t be afraid to experiment with things.