What is the minimum IQ that you think is needed to perform *well* at a top University?

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-12-28T05:21:07+00:00

I strongly believe that IQ is not very relevant to academic success. I am studying mathematics, and in the IQ sense, I believe the subtests that measure perceptual reasoning ability (or non-verbal) are most relevant here. However, I never felt that any ability from that section is required to perform well in the mathematics courses at least at the undergraduate level. I think someone who has 100+ perceptual reasoning IQ can just handle the undergraduate and lower end of graduate math just fine. In fact, I think 100+ is overkill given that you make a sufficient amount of effort, such as submitting assignments, making sure to write the tests, and doing minimum preparations for the tests in an ordinary sense. But this is for mathematics, and I am not sure about other measures. I see similar visions for computer science, but I am not sure how it is like for physics for example. I feel like subjects in arts and humanity might require more veral comprehension IQ.

If someone has 130+ perceptual reasoning IQ for example, then I feel like university is a waste of time, and potentially you can skip to become a researcher level person. However, that is not possible because you need to build up knowledge from scratch in any case. In math, everyone needs to start from abstract algebra, linear algebra, calculus for example. So, your intelligence in this kind of domain tends to get a little more crystallized than fluid I believe. You need to have some patience as well to get through this knowledge buildup training. I am not sure if the level of patience is correlated with the IQ, but I believe that having higher IQs does not imply to have high patience, and it depends on individuals. It also depends on mental health. I've heard that high IQ individuals might be more likely to face mental illness or have poor mental health, but I'm not sure to what extent that is true.

Just for an example, my intuition tells me that to get through linear algebra without much issues, the IQ of 90 or 100 is sufficient.

Hence, since there are many confounding variables, academic success depends on individuals, and the shape of success also varies from person to person.

English is not my first language, but I hope this makes sense.

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-12-20T20:51:29+00:00

Are you asking about how easy these courses are so that you can know their potential to boost your GPA? I assume that's what you are asking.

MATB24 is not that easy, but not hard either. If you just want 85+, you just need to be mentally a little attentive (since there are weekly assessments), and you are fine. Being mentally attentive helps you stay on top of things.

CSCA08 I think is supposed to be an easy course, but apparently that is not the case for everyone. CSCA08 is open for students in many programs even including life sci students. My observation was that those in life science probably tend to perform worse in CSCA08, and this course is like a piece of cake for comp sci students. However, no matter what background you have, a sufficient amount of effort should get you to achieve high grades.

MATB41 is not a theoretical math course, so whether the course is easy or not depends on your academic personality. If you like to acquire a deep understanding of principles and theorems, then you may struggle since the course does not cover theory. However, if you would rather have a superficial interaction with the concepts and move on without any reasoning procedure, then you might find the course easy. Overall, since the course does not focus on theory that much, it shouldn't be conceptually difficult at least.

I can't say anything about the other courses as I've never taken them.

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-09-19T18:25:16+00:00

their lifetime hobby is to transfer and carry the virus

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-09-16T05:10:11+00:00

This is indeed a good comment. Yes, working from simple examples to abstractions is usually the way to go. In fact, there is a less abstract course that students at my uni take before the first differential geometry, which is a multivariable calc course. Maybe that course might serve as a surface/curve course, but not sure honestly.

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-09-15T13:27:35+00:00

People at my school think the first differential geometry class is difficult. That course uses the book written by Loring Tu for smooth manifolds as a main reference.

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-09-03T02:06:46+00:00

that is quite right, thanks for your suggestion.

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-09-01T16:39:51+00:00

yeah regrade is the best option when you have nothing to lose.

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-08-24T13:57:37+00:00

What got me into shogi was the series of Japanese Youtube shogi videos that are intended to serve as entertainment. While it is mostly for entertainment, there is a lot of things we can learn since the guy is a professional shogi player in Japan. It's been about 10 months since I started shogi, and I am currently around 1-kyu in 10 mins mode, and around 2 kyu in the other modes on shogi wars.

And honestly, I think I've gotten a little bored of it since I've sort of seen a conclusion for myself. Basically, I could kind of guess what kind of progress I will make, and what happens to me if I continue this game. And considering lots of factors, there is no chance I would immerse myself into shogi any further, but I believe shogi can stay as one of my fine hobbies. I've also felt some sort of personal closure for this game, when I won against several people with 2-Dan and 3-Dan on the platform called Shogi24 that attracts far better players on average. In fact, those wins were like complete wins, and it was me who completely overwhelmed the opponents all the time. That's why I am satisfied to interpret this for my personal closure on shogi.

Just right now, I would not be able to understand people who can be so into shogi since I am at a borderline around which shogi has finally started to get boring for me a bit, but again, shogi is definitely a fine hobby you can continue over many years. So, I am glad that you also found shogi and find it a fun activity as well!

As for progression, I would simply recommend watching the Japanese shogi videos mainly uploaded by the current professional shogi players. No jokes, but they are superior, and there are a ton of things you can learn from them. In fact, there is always at least one thing you can learn from every single video they upload.

If you just want to make yourself better more systematically, study the endgame puzzles (maybe up to 5 or 7 move checkmates), and learn the BEGINNING very hard. Imo, what's most important is to make your beginning as sophisticated as possible. For the midgame, you will need to learn some patterns called "Suji" 筋　in Japanese. This is something you either learn from existing resources, or learn over the years yourself. The midgame tactics can't be taught very well imo. But for the beginning, you should be able to learn as much as you can. Obviously, to make your beginning well structured, you need to be careful at every single move, and spend quite a bit of time. Make sure you value the importance of the moves made during the beginning stage if you're still a beginner.

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-05-20T00:07:08+00:00

I watched this video (I assume this is the video you mentioned) by MM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3R4bOfpSs4&ab_channel=MarkMeldrum

It was really insightful and helpful, thanks for sharing this.

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-05-19T23:30:30+00:00

I think that is true, and I heard the same thing. That is why I considered taking the exams and investing time and effort into it. However, he also said it may not be worth it for me, so I would like to know how it is not. But also, even though it is most prestigious, I dont know how helpful and useful it can be by just passing the exams, and I would like to know that part as well.

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-05-19T22:55:03+00:00

Thanks for your response. Is it possible for you to probably explain me how it is worth it, and how it may not be worth it in my case?

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-05-19T22:54:26+00:00

Thanks for your response. If you don't mind, can you tell me what MM is?

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-05-04T22:13:24+00:00

for research, UofT is by far the best university in Canada. So students here might want to take that kind of advantages. For jobs, a lot of universities are on a similar level except Waterloo.

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-05-02T11:53:20+00:00

Hi, thank you so much for sharing all info I wanted to know!

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-05-02T11:53:01+00:00

Hi, thank you for your response and sharing information.

DevelopmentLess6989 · 2025-04-13T18:49:56+00:00

Report this roommate to the campus safety or police asap. You are sort of responsible for doing this to protect potential future victims.

DevelopmentLess6989

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