I am confused by something though. I have only (to my knowledge) known one person that got a perfect score on the SAT. The reason is that it requires both reasoning as well as 'stamp collecting'--(i.e. book knowledge). If you didn't bother to learn all the obscure vocabulary words used on the SAT that most high schoolers don't know--(extol, capricious, etc.)--then you must've been an exceptional reader. Where did you get this other knowledge? Did you just read a lot?
If you 'barely graduated' high school and got dismissed with university, then you must've simply not done the work. I've known plenty of people that were smart, but lazy.
If you are gifted at a young age, it's easy to get relaxed... become lazy and satsified with the easy victories. The only way you can break this cycle is to endeavor to place a hurdle in front of yourself, one that you can't easily jump.
I also got 1600. I read a lot. In high school (many years ago) I made a game of starting my math homework when the teacher started collecting it, and usually finished in time. I got very used to skimming by. I did graduate from university, but it was by the skin of my teeth. Other than that, OP's experience was very similar to my own. Depression played a huge role in all of this.
(I'm doing fairly well now, but it was a bumpy road.)
Did the same thing with homework in one math class, but my teacher would start at random positions in the classroom...overall, didn't work out to a very high grade for me :)
My college GPA ended up at 3.1. During the last two years, I got into a pattern of signing up for a full-time courseload and then completely ignoring (and failing) one of the classes (if this happens to you, I can only advise formally shifting to part-time status). I can provide some observations on particular things that got me through some classes:
One class I failed because I showed up on the first day, determined accurately that the subject material was quite easy, and stopped going for a while. I showed up again in the fourth week of class, and learned that I had already managed a failing grade for myself -- one component of the course grade was a series of four pop quizzes, of which two had already happened, and to pass the course overall it was necessary to pass each component.
Since that class was required for a CS degree, I had to retake it. Having failed it on a technicality pissed me off, so I showed up regularly and was quite vocal in class, and the professor (not the same one) became very familiar with me. When late in the term I finally flaked on a homework assignment, I felt enough of a connection to him that I spoke to him after class, saying I had been a little busier than usual and hadn't done the assignment (I made no offer to get it in late). He whacked me on the arm with the papers he was holding and said "do you need more time? Take another day!", at which point, obviously, I had to complete the assignment. I never missed another one.
So one lesson is: you will do work for a personal connection that your work ethic would not have motivated you to do. Wounded pride helps too.
I had a class in which I was one of four students. No real problems there either; it would have been too embarrassing.
Lesson: close oversight can keep you working.
In one class, I was already established in a flaking pattern when a girl in the class came to me and asked to be my partner (our university encouraged pair programming). From that point on, I had nothing better to do with my time than work on the class assignments. Impressing a professor didn't register with me, but impressing a girl did.
This one is kind of a special case of the first "lesson", so I'll say it helps if the reason you're working is something you find compelling.
This last point is something I have no personal experience with, but I imagine having friends who thought working on something potentially productive was a fun way to spend time would help me a lot. "Hey, let's take a udacity course together!" "Hey, let's learn rails and set up a website!" That kind of thing. Peer group matters too. :/
This tracks pretty much exactly with my college experience, ugh. The worst part was that I always used to think of myself as a very independent person who didn't need anyone else to get things done. When I finally came to realize the important of social motivations, I had to face the fact that I was just in denial for years, making myself miserable for no reason to live up to some ridiculous individualistic ideal.
I also scored 1600 as a senior (during the 2003-04 school year). As an 8th-grader in 1999-2000, I took the SAT and scored "only" 790 verbal, so high school wasn't good for much in the way of verbal points.
I also got a 1600 in SAT Math and Reading. I took a few practice tests, but other than that I didn't specifically prepare for it. I did read books a lot in childhood, but I switched to spending most of my free time on the computer by late middle school and high school. I guess I still did a ton of reading on the computer, though, especially Wikipedia - Wikipedia was just taking off when I was in high school - I think most of my most knowledgeable friends also got their knowledge mostly from Wikipedia.
Part of my score did feel like I got lucky - I usually hit upon one or two words I didn't know in practice tests, but I knew all the words in the one I took officially.
As for your specific examples: "extol the virtues of" is an idiom that comes up a lot on the internet; "capricious" is less common, but I still remember reading it quite a few times.
I've known plenty of genuinely earnest, hard working people who really know how to put the time in. I'd rather work with people who can hit the high notes, as the saying goes.
I am confused by something though. I have only (to my knowledge) known one person that got a perfect score on the SAT. The reason is that it requires both reasoning as well as 'stamp collecting'--(i.e. book knowledge). If you didn't bother to learn all the obscure vocabulary words used on the SAT that most high schoolers don't know--(extol, capricious, etc.)--then you must've been an exceptional reader. Where did you get this other knowledge? Did you just read a lot?
If you 'barely graduated' high school and got dismissed with university, then you must've simply not done the work. I've known plenty of people that were smart, but lazy.
If you are gifted at a young age, it's easy to get relaxed... become lazy and satsified with the easy victories. The only way you can break this cycle is to endeavor to place a hurdle in front of yourself, one that you can't easily jump.