There are two types of people who have received 4.0 GPAs and very high SAT scores. 1. Geniuses. They can look at a calculus text book for 30 minutes and unders

There are two types of people who have received 4.0 GPAs and very high SAT scores. 1. Geniuses. They can look at a calculus text book for 30 minutes and understand calculus and get an A on a calculus test. 2. Reasonably smart people who think that getting a 4.0 is very important, for whatever reason. So important that it becomes their identity. They spend every minute trying to get that 4.0. I was probably in middle school or high school when I realized that I'm not nearly as smart as #1, but just as smart as #2. It just isn't that hard to realize that the effort to outcome ratio isn't good on being a #2 type person. And more importantly, long term if you go down that path you will be working some shitty job making less 400k a year at 80/hours a week. Because your identity is being someone who is #1, even if #1 means billing the most hours doing tax accounting in the basement of some old building on a Friday night.