Are Firstborns Smarter?

In this contemporary world, people would have to compete and become better than others in order to survive. Who does not want to survive in this world? Who does not want to be like Steve Jobs who was the co-founder of Apple Company? Who does not want to be as smart as Albert Einstein? Who does not want to be rich and enjoy life? However, money do not fall from the sky. We must work hard to earn for our position in this world. Some people claim that success is only for the smart people and normally first born are the smart one. For example, Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein. Researches show that most of the parents think that first born are smarter than later born, yet there are some exceptions, that is the later born are smarter than the first born. Question left with answer not revealed. Are first born smarter? Or vise versa?

If we use Albert Einstein as the example, we can easily find his achievement through the internet. In 1901, Albert Einstein's paper "Folgerungen aus den Capillaritätserscheinungen" was published in the prestigious Annalen der Physik. On 30 April 1905, Albert Einstein completed his thesis with Alfred Kleiner, Professor of Experimental Physics, serving as pro-forma advisor. Einstein was award a PhD by the University of Zurich. His dissertation was entitled "A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions". In 1908, he was recognized as a leading scientist and he was appointed lecturer at the University of Bern. The following year, he quit the patent office and the lectureship to take the position of physics docent at the University of Zurich. He became a full professor at Charles-Ferdinand University in Prague in 1911. During 1911, he had calculated that, based on his new theory of general relativity, light from another star would be bent by the Sun's gravity. In 1921, Einstein was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his explanation of the photoelectric effect. He also received the Copley Medal from the Royal Society in 1925. However, seldom people have interest in knowing his younger sister, Maria Einstein. The only explaination is that, Albert Einstein as the first born is too smart than people are only concern about him.

There are also some people saying that the reason for the first born to be smarter is because of the involvement of parents in the academic performance of first born children and enforcement of strict rules like harsh punishment for getting bad grades in schools. According to the statistic, 33.8% of mothers said that their first born child was one of the best students in the class and the percentage dropped consistently for each new born child.