[LadyMartel]

I also went through most of middle/high school not having to really study things but somehow ending up with pretty stellar grades. To be honest, it made me arrogant and caused me to not appreciate the value of hard work in general. The more effortless an achievement, the more I respected it. Those who worked really hard were "try hards." Besides, I got better grades than them anyways.

In general there was an attitude among my circle of friends to try and show off how little work they can do to still pull off a high score. I would say yes, most of the people I know who are considered "gifted" in general do work harder in the background than they let on. They themselves probably want to believe that they can effortlessly achieve in the classroom (and probably in life).

I think for me, at least, what happened was that I would really get into things and work extremely hard for a short period of time (sometimes without realizing it) and then coast for a while and appear as though I'm super talented and naturally good at many subjects. I don't think I was consciously planning any of this, but it just happened that way.

Looking back now, I do think that the attitude was pretty immature and obnoxious.