Advice on high IQ and lower school performance
Asking on behalf of my younger cousin, who is 16 (about to start A-Levels) with an IQ of ~160 (I believe), I don’t see her a ton but we text pretty often, so I know her well. I figured this could be a good place to look for some help
My cousin is quite clever and ambitious but not so good at school. She scores well (mostly As and a few Bs) but we all believe could do a lot better. I think most of this is down to a lack of focus and drive, combined with a hard time doing difficult things. She has almost no problem grasping concepts, picking up things very quickly in and outside of school, but struggles immensely to do things such as revision and homework, which is reflected in her grades.
I’m a little confused because she can work very hard when related to her interests. She moves through obsessions and is currently very obsessed with figure skating. She can recite facts and figures about it for hours, and has spent many hours working on related projects , and I think it might actually be hindering her school work a bit? She described it as being “the only thing I could think about” during various points, especially during exam season. She tried to use it as motivation during exam season to revise but she gave in a little too easily.
As school ramps up, we all (her included) are a little worried about her ability to adapt to the new demands academically and the self directed environment of sixth form. I was just wondering if anyone or their children/family had similar issues of being very knowledgeable on certain subjects (in this case figure skating, general trivia etc.) and very able but struggling to do the work. I think it’s quite distressing for her as she can see her friends and classmates able to do the self-directed work while she struggles. So yeah, if anyone has any advice lmk, I can ask her if you have any questions (although she is a very slow replier so no guarantees she’ll answer me)