How can I get cleverer?

I'll put the kettle on.

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The licking dog screen cleaner is back!

Lynne, looking at your birthday, August 28, if it's correct then you were probably disadvantaged from the start.

You will have been the youngest in your class when you first went to school and were having to compete against children almost a year older in your class. Because of the age difference the older kids appeared brighter so you were probably given less teacher attention.

Either that or if you have kids then being a mother will have turned your brain to mush.

Do a science degree then you thicko.

Bollocks to that!

My daughter has the blessed grace to share Lynne's birthday and to make sure she wasn't behind we, as her parents, worked with her on reading and writing and creative stuff all before she started school last September.

So despite being the second youngest in the whole school (there is one girl two days younger than her in her class), she is at the top of the class, was (with her best friend) the first to come home with word bags and be reading in the class. She's as bright as a button and has the vocabulary of a much older child. Just because you are one of the younger children in the year shouldn't be an automatic excuse for being behind the rest of the kids!

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For those of you who don't know me I should perhaps point out that on paper I don't look like a mouth breather, but I really feel like it!
I have 13 (proper) O levels, 3 A levels, RGN, post grad nursing quals in theatres, a degree in photography, Chartered Management diplomas, project management quals, diplomas in Beauty Therapy, aromatherapy, and I run my own beauty salon.
I do like Sudoko but I'm not sure whether I do them right because I use a process of elimination to work them out (is that how you're supposed to do it?). I used to be amazingly good at mental arithmetic but after my blow out in March 08 I can't add 2 and 4 without a calculator to hand!
As for being born at the end of August it didn't really affect my schooling because I went to private school and took all my exams a year early.
I like Mr Dazzle's idea, and FA, I'll get a puzzle book on my way to the accountant this afternoon.
Cheers all!

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http://www.calla-salon.co.uk

Don't forget about this little boy

Being slow on the uptake is more of a common sense thing than intelligence. My missus is the same. 2 degrees to PhD and still one of the dizziest people I know.

As far as I know there are no courses in common sense tho.

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I was always the youngest/second youngest in my class, and I was often top of the class too (although not for French, damn Frogs).

After the first couple of years at school it all evens out anyway, everyone who finishes year 5 for example will have been in education for 5 years (or is it 6? Do they have reception now?), so any difference in age is probably cancelled out.

Buy the Economist on a Friday and read from cover to cover. It's an opinion based magazine so you don't have to agree with what they write but it certainly keeps you up on current affairs.

as the old saying goes: To be cleaver, Think of something stupid to say... then keep your mouth shut.


IMHO, Puzzles, "In Our Time" radio shows, upmarket mags, etc. are all very well; but I find that the difference really comes with Focus and Concentration.

People make better use of their brains and knowledge when they take their time, think things through, don't get distracted etc.
And the reverse works as well... really quite cleaver people can come across as daft because their minds are all over the place.

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ZEN#234, TWO#

As my Boss is fond of saying: "When you're gonna say something, STFU for 5s then say it".

I always thought you of you as daft

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I know loads of people like that - really high IQ but no common sense at all.

Shame there isn't a course for it - I know at least one person I would happily spend a fortune on for them to have a modicum of common sense

Oh - Lynnes always seemed quite bright everytime I've met her

More or less is good though Lynne - you can get it on podcast

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A quick test - Just for Lynne, so we can see how thicky she is.. (or isn't, more likely)

You have three jars of sweets that all look the same (the sweets & the jars look the same). One contains orange-flavoured sweets, one contains peppermint-flavoured sweets and one contains both flavours in a 50/50 mix. They are labelled "orange", "peppermint" and "mixed" but all of them are incorrectly labelled.
You have to correctly label the jars and the only info you can go off is by tasting the sweets.
What is the minimum number of sweets you can eat to correctly identify the contents of each jar and correct the labels?

As a cleaver chap once said

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ZEN#234, TWO#