It is usually not too hard for smart kids to perform well in schools; just excel in what you are told to do, such as taking courses.
This is a deterministic process with well-defined goals and tasks that reward smartness and hard working.
However, real world is chaotic and ambiguous. You have to figure out what to do, with shifting targets and ever-changing environments.
This is why school performance does not directly translate to real-life performance: the required mentality and skills are not the same.
This is also why being a good student might not be a good thing for you. You are so used to this deterministic input-output process that you might be very frustrated by the non-deterministic nature of the real world, when starting your first job or research project.
In contrast, not-so good students might adapt better to the real world, because they already have enough failure experiences and are not yet cast into conformity.
PS
I was lucky to be a student who was considered good in performance and bad in behavior.
🙂
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