Suppose this just happened. You've just failed to get into your university of choice. Imagine you are one of these two people:
You're a very intelligent person. All throughout your life, good grades have come to you with very little effort and through this, you've become slack with your work. You want the place at this university, but you don't want it so much that you'll make a serious change in your working life to get it. You've not put in much time and yet what you want has still come easily until you. Until now. Suddenly, the work is much harder than you remember it being but, old habits dying hard, you're still not putting in enough effort. You think you can do it all at the last minute so you keep waiting until a few days before the exam. Then you realise that the mountain you've presented yourself with is much too large for someone of even your intelligence - you simply can't handle it. You fail the exam and you've not been able to get where you want to be, not because of any sort of lack of intelligence, but because you were not dedicated enough to using your ability. Although you are very capable, your confidence in your abilities and your slack work ethic have led to you not being where you know you should be.
or...
You aren't an intelligent person and you know that you have to work hard to reach your goals. Through hard work you've found that you can just about achieve what you need to move forward, but the content this time is more difficult. You want the place at this university more than anything to date in your educational life and you work harder than you could have ever imagined working for this goal but, despite the endless hours of study, you still find yourself struggling to keep up. The content you're trying to handle is simply too much for you and, despite your best efforts, you are unable to understand all of it. Come the exam, you do not get the grades you need and the university does not accept you. Although you pushed yourself as much as you possibly can, you still failed the exam. You were the best you could be, but you are simply not good enough.
So basically - which of these situations would you feel worse being in? The more intelligent person who did too little work, or the less intelligent person who worked hard but couldn't handle the task? Why? Have you ever been in, or known someone in, either of these situations?
You're a very intelligent person. All throughout your life, good grades have come to you with very little effort and through this, you've become slack with your work. You want the place at this university, but you don't want it so much that you'll make a serious change in your working life to get it. You've not put in much time and yet what you want has still come easily until you. Until now. Suddenly, the work is much harder than you remember it being but, old habits dying hard, you're still not putting in enough effort. You think you can do it all at the last minute so you keep waiting until a few days before the exam. Then you realise that the mountain you've presented yourself with is much too large for someone of even your intelligence - you simply can't handle it. You fail the exam and you've not been able to get where you want to be, not because of any sort of lack of intelligence, but because you were not dedicated enough to using your ability. Although you are very capable, your confidence in your abilities and your slack work ethic have led to you not being where you know you should be.
or...
You aren't an intelligent person and you know that you have to work hard to reach your goals. Through hard work you've found that you can just about achieve what you need to move forward, but the content this time is more difficult. You want the place at this university more than anything to date in your educational life and you work harder than you could have ever imagined working for this goal but, despite the endless hours of study, you still find yourself struggling to keep up. The content you're trying to handle is simply too much for you and, despite your best efforts, you are unable to understand all of it. Come the exam, you do not get the grades you need and the university does not accept you. Although you pushed yourself as much as you possibly can, you still failed the exam. You were the best you could be, but you are simply not good enough.
So basically - which of these situations would you feel worse being in? The more intelligent person who did too little work, or the less intelligent person who worked hard but couldn't handle the task? Why? Have you ever been in, or known someone in, either of these situations?