I was the person in undergrad who aced the quantum exams in 15 minutes and all that. People called me a genius yada yada. The secret? I just worked through the book the semester before lol. Not as sexy that way but I brute forced my way through material out of pure obsession.

I scored a 129 on the Wais 4 taken for unrelated reasons which is above average but not even 99th percentile. Mensa would never take me.

My point is people who come off as way ahead of the curve have an interest in making it seem like they’re just that smart because ego but it’s usually not the reality. There are people who really are that smart in this world but they are rare. If you go to MIT or Stanford, there’ll be a couple in your department. The rest will be like me. They combine hard work with being a bit above average.