Phrases like “Einstein got bad grades in mathematics and physics” often try to convince people that school grades do not affect anything in life. Let's check whether the great physicist was really an ordinary loser in childhood.

One of the most popular ways of arguing in a dispute is an example from the life of a celebrity. We encounter similar arguments throughout our lives. “Gaidar commanded a regiment at the age of 16”, “Lomonosov walked to Moscow”, “Napoleon and Hitler also thought that they would conquer Russia” - these arguments are difficult to object to, because the hero of the example is well known. However, we don’t always think: is everything true here? If we heard from childhood that the great Albert Einstein did poorly at school, then that was probably true... Or not?

Einstein's first place of study was a Catholic primary school in Munich (1885–1888). Albert left it at the age of eight, so this period of his studies is not particularly indicative. Much more interesting is his success at the Luitpold Gymnasium, which today bears the name of the scientist. At the end of the 1880s, the gymnasium stood out for its level of teaching mathematics, natural sciences and ancient languages, as well as its modern laboratory.

What was Einstein's performance at this advanced school? The world learned reliable information about this only in 1984, thanks to publications in the New York Times. Her conclusions are clear: Einstein was a child prodigy.

By age 11, he had mastered college-level physics and played the violin brilliantly. Among his classmates, he had a reputation as a crammer and a big bore, although he was quite friendly with his peers. At the age of 12, I voraciously read a textbook on geometry and literally fell in love with this science. And at 15 he dropped out of high school to go to his parents in Milan. At the same time, he tried to enter the Swiss Higher Technical School of Zurich.

Where did it come from? legend about Einstein's poor academic performance? The fact is that young Albert failed the entrance exams to a higher technical school. Yes, he passed physics and mathematics perfectly, but failed biology and French. Which was no wonder given his biography.

However, this is not the only reason. The second basis for the birth of the legend appeared six months later. 16-year-old Einstein decided to get a high school diploma and graduated from a local school in the canton of Aarau. Let's take a look at this certificate:

We see that the young man has the highest grades in algebra, geometry, physics and (suddenly) history. Otherwise, Einstein lived up to expectations: a C in French, a B in geography and drawing. Where does the myth come from? The fact is that the German grading system was ten-point, and against its background Einstein’s six points looked like a three. But in Switzerland it was maximum grade. In addition, it is known that in the first two trimesters the rating scale was inverted - from six to one, which could also confuse journalists who saw the “shameful” sixes.

Thus, Albert Einstein studied brilliantly in his core subjects, at least. Although, as journalists write, he had many complaints about the education system.

And finally, let’s give the floor to the genius himself. The misconception to which our study is devoted arose during Einstein’s lifetime. They say that when the father of the theory of relativity was shown one such newspaper article, he burst out laughing:

I never made mistakes in mathematics, and I mastered differential and integral calculus by the age of 15.