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>> What else would you call one of the top math students at cambridge? I would call him a good, hardworking student. (At least that's what we'd call it in Sing

>> What else would you call one of the top math students at cambridge? I would call him a good, hardworking student. (At least that's what we'd call it in Singapore ;) Coincidentally me and Xu went to high school at the same time in Singapore) If we labelled everyone who did well in the undergraduate curriculum as prodigal - the word itself starts loses its meaning. Let's take the top 20 universities across the world (harvards,mits, tsinghuas, iits etc.) and take the top 10 graduating students from each class (math, physics, etc.) => are we saying that the world is producing 500-1000 prodigies every year?

liftbigweights 8y ago
> I would call him a good, hardworking student. (At least that's what we'd call it in Singapore ;) How many singaporeans are top math students at cambridge? If hard work is all that it took, we'd all be studying math at cambridge. > Coincidentally me and Xu went to high school at the same time in Singapore) "Coincidentally Xu and I..." > Let's take the top 20 universities across the world (harvards,mits, tsinghuas, iits etc.) and take the top 10 graduating students from each class (math, physics, etc.) => are we saying that the world is producing 500-1000 prodigies every year? I'd say there are far more prodigies than that being produced every year. You do realize that there are 7 billion people on earth right? You don't have to be newton or einstein to be a prodigy. Most prodigies never live up to their expectations. Maybe you use the word differently in singapore than in the US.