What makes a person smart?

There are WAY too many types of smart to actually answer that question completely. But probably of all the things that do contribute to one's "smartness" is the life that person led. Some people go through eye opening encounters and have their world turned around. Some people read tons of books and are smart academically. Then there are those who just have great common sense. Or how about the ones that were "smart" enough to pull themselves out of a bad environment and see what truly matters in life. It's a tough question.

50% for the company of people and books you keep, 50% for your determination and common sense. i'm not smart, but people call me smart. my iq is below 200, my records in high school are not what you call 'academically prefered', but somehow i get to be with other students on top. i do take brain supplements, but that's all. i was never a genuis baby, and sometimes i get more F's than B's. but my parents say that if you want to excel in studies, it's not being smart that can help you but the things you do to excel. i read lots of books, some of my friends belong to the cream of the crop and i find that we learn lots of things together, and i don't sleep until i'm well and satisfied with my assignments and reports, and that's about it. beingsmart doesn't mean you have to be like leonardo da vinci. just being yourself and knowing where you are and where you're going is smart enough. =)

seeing their bank balance? ho ho.

do you mean how it is we come to define someone as smart or what contributes towards their being smart?

my belief is that there are lots of different types of smart. i think all too often smart is confused with academic. some of the smartest people i've ever met couldn't sit an exam or even read a novel without great difficulty but that in no way diminishes their intelligence. i would say there are many individual areas that you can be smart in. the lucky people, and possibly the most outwardly intelligent, are the ones that excel in a few different areas.

i definitely feel, however, that smartness is entirely innate. you are born with your abilities. but i also feel that these abilities are nothing without nurture.

a smart individual is somebody who can think of many strategies to a issue. The IQ does not accurately describes a individual's intelligence. a individual's intelligence is all situational . might a scrawny promptly A pupil get away sparkling from a war of words of a gang ?

I think a smart person is someone who uses their knowledge and mental facilities to make their lives better.

There are many people who can store a vast wealth of information but not make use of it and there are others who can solve problems easily but to me a smart person is someone who knows how to get the most of life by using their brains.

Thinking on the toes... smartness is a quality of the mind.

When you know the right thing to do, do it and you will instantly be smart(because it's a smart thing to do)

Some people say it's in the genes, but a student that spends his schooldays studying and paying attention will in turn leave the school much smarter than his colleagues.

Their intellectual facilities come from their capacity to draw within themselves. This no institution can give and this is what true education is all about, drawing within yourself. Education comes from the latin "educo" which means to draw without (from the within). Smarts I pair with enlightenment, although their are degrees of enlightenment, the facilities of such enlightenment is deprived dwells on ones ability to draw within and increase that capacity at which they do.

A certain amount of education combined with innate intelligence, a command of the native language, a sense of humour combined with a sense of the ridiculous, and a cutting tongue. It helps to have been brought up in Liverpool.

The company you keep.

If those around you have a high regard for your mental ability then you could consider yourself smart.