I agree... I consider myself pretty academic, and fairly intelligent (i hope), however, among the folks around me in the academic setting, many of them don't know shyt, except for how to take tests (ie, what to study for, have copies of old tests, etc).

intelligence should not be represented by degrees or GPAs, but rather by communication skills, reasoning skills, etc... I've met some really academically accomplished people, but talking to them is like talking to a brick wall. Intelligence to me means being able to hold an interesting conversation (about things other than tila tequila or what's on E! network), and also, being able to hold your own in an intelligent debate without getting flustered.

I find that the most intelligent people I've met have not necessarily been through crazy amounts of school, but they do tend to be well read. I think reading is the key to being intelligent, and you don't have to be in school to read, obviously. Not that academics aren't smart; especially in the maths and sciences, there are BRILLIANT people. You kind of have to be a nerd if you are in it for this long .

Oh and btw, if you're talking about the Georgia high school graduation test, that shyt is like made for 8th graders- seriously. If you do poorly on the that test, you probably should have never made it out of middle school. The high school I went to had like a 99% pass rate or something like that. They ask shyt like "what is a cell" and also really simple math problems (addition, multiplication) - that should tell you how easy it is.