Publish at January 23 2006 Updated October 09 2024
Self-discipline is a better predictor of academic success than even IQ.
"Bad teachers, boring textbooks or overcrowded classrooms are often blamed for the poor academic success of young Americans . We suggest another reason why students succeed far below their intellectual potential: their failure to apply self-discipline."
300 American eighth-graders (sec.1 (Qc), sixième (Fr)) were tested on their self-discipline (ability to delay short-term pleasure for more diffuse long-term benefit) in relation to their academic success.
Findings showed that highly self-disciplined adolescents far outperformed their more impulsive peers on all academic variables, including grades, standardized test scores, class attendance, etc.
Previously measured self-discipline more accurately predicted variances than did IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and, unlike IQ, self-discipline predicted gains in academic performance over the year.
But don't expect self-discipline tests (it's so easy to "self-discipline" the length of a test), nor any single criterion... other factors can prove important once self-discipline is in place.
What is certain is that self-discipline is a factor on which an individual can act and control much more easily than the quality of a book, a teacher or an overcrowded classroom... What's more, self-discipline is one of the fundamental conditions for success in distance learning, and we have every interest in seeing it developed in students.
For the full article: " Self-Discipline May Beat Smarts as Key to Success" By Jay Mathews, Washington Post
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