Doesn't even have to be 3 sigma. Even in a "tiered" secondary school system like in Germany (students are split up to three different levels of school after ele

Doesn't even have to be 3 sigma. Even in a "tiered" secondary school system like in Germany (students are split up to three different levels of school after elementary, about 50% in the highest tier), you maybe have a handful of 2 sigma students per regular year of around 100-150 students per school. Getting bored and actually having worse grades for these students is a real thing. Especially in classes that need effort and not intellect. On the other hand, forcing intellectual challenging activities (like solving math puzzles, playing chess or building robots) isn't fun for a lot of people that do not like to challenge their brain for fun. Personally my school grades skyrocketed from slightly above average to the 95% percentile in the last two school years, which was at the same time as I was allowed to participate in a junior student program and was spending one day per week at campus instead of school. I wasn't doing more for school, based on attendance actually less, I was just more inclined to listen and interested in learning, while I was being challenged by my university lectures (basic algorithms, data structures, databases and data modeling).