# In your family, is the oldest the smartest? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 22, 2007, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025 "2007-06-22T17:19:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/22080_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/61 "2007-06-23T11:15:51Z")
My mom is definitely smarter than her brothers and sister. Hard to tell about my dad - he was the youngest, but when he and his sisters were growing up, the girls would have been encouraged to marry and have families, not pursue academic endeavors. Dad was the only one of the 4 to go to college. I’m the firstborn of 5. My brother (#3) and I are the only 2 to have graduated college - he is a CPA who is currently a CFO and even has his MBA, and I have a bachelor’s in Aerospace Engineering. My 3 sisters never pursued higher education or particularly challenging or technical jobs. I don’t know how much that has to do with intelligence and how much with personal motivation. My husband is the oldest of 3, and he’s definitely more intelligent than his brothers. Of course, the study is basing this conclusion on 3-4 IQ points, so it doesn’t carry a lot of weight in my book. ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/62 "2007-06-23T12:26:13Z")
Unless you want to solve complex mathematical equations or play Scabble, no. Anything useful in real life, the youngest is definitely better at. (I have one brother.) ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/63 "2007-06-23T13:47:10Z")
No. Not that she’s not smart. As for my kids, the oldest is quite smart-honor student etc, but the middle one is considered “gifted”. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/64 "2007-06-23T14:40:28Z")
My younger brother’s smart in a different way to me. I’m not sure how you could measure which of us is smarter but I think he’s got a faster wit than me. I’m just bookish, while he’s sporty. ---
**Author:** ![Tranquilis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tranquilis/32/3639_2.png) [@Tranquilis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tranquilis)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2007, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/65 "2007-06-23T14:49:05Z")
Well, no. Oldest was born with Downs Syndrome. But that’s just a really crappy roll of the dice. Of the next three, we have a National Director in one of the largest Accountancy/Consulting firms in the world, a Biomedical Devices Software Validation Engineer, and a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine. Huh. Which is smarter that the others? Beats me - I doubt you could find any practical distinction. ---
**Author:** ![Lynne\_kilii](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d26b3c/32.png) [@Lynne\_kilii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynne_kilii)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2007, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/66 "2007-06-24T00:03:39Z")
How do twins factor in for “first child”. I have a twin brother, and I was born two minutes before him. I’d have to really stop and think which one of us is smarter, truly, but I think I’d edge out by just a tiny bit. But the spread between him, me and my little brother is probably very very small. ---
**Author:** ![Layla01](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/layla01/32/15552_2.png) [@Layla01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Layla01)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2007, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/67 "2007-06-24T04:57:12Z")
Not in my case - I’m the oldest and my younger sister has about 20 points on me on IQ tests. I figure she got the brains, I got the commonsense… ---
**Author:** ![monavis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@monavis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monavis)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2007, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/68 "2007-06-24T11:49:46Z")
I raised 7 children and the ones with the highest IQ was the 4th,6th and 7th. All though my eldest is very intelligent the 6th one could read at 18 months. Monavis ---
**Author:** ![Delly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/85f322/32.png) [@Delly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Delly)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2007, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/69 "2007-06-24T20:37:24Z")
The only major testing that children in Ireland do is the Leaving Cert (determines points for college). Based on this, sister 2 would be seen as the most intelligent, then me, then sister 1 and last would be sister 4. Sister 1 being the oldest and 4 being the youngest. I would agree that sister 2 is the most intelligent, but sister 3 has a degree in chemistry and works for a pharmaceutical company and knows all sorts of stuff that none of the rest of us do. Myself and sister 4 are twins, and my family would agree that Im more intelligent then she is, weve both done well academically though, she has a degree in nursing and Im nearly finished a masters in business. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2007, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025/70 "2007-06-24T22:23:27Z")
I’m more “book smart” than my older brother and have a more professional type of career, but I consider him to have a lot more street and social smarts than I do. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-your-family-is-the-oldest-the-smartest/409025.md?page=3)