# Are you smart enough to be a football player? Find out with a 5 minute mini-Wonderlic test **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 3, 2011, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931 "2011-12-03T06:23:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/21 "2011-12-03T22:07:19Z")
I missed 18. The rest were ridiculously simple. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2011, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/22 "2011-12-03T22:32:50Z")
I was too lazy to actually do #10 and 11 even though I knew how. Missed the punctuation thing in #4 and didn’t understand #18. ---
**Author:** ![panamajack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/47e85d/32.png) [@panamajack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panamajack)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/23 "2011-12-04T00:28:15Z")
Like others, I dislike questions like the shapes or numbers one. I ran out of time coming up with possible solutions. For #14 Shape 1 is wider than it is tall. Shape 2 has vertices on an angled edge connected to straight edges on both ends. Shape 3 has one more side than the others. Shape 4 is much narrower than the others (smallest in area, too). Probably the least remarkable, and thus the correct answer. Shape 5 has more than one interior angle not equal to or supplementary with any of the others. For #17, I chose 3017, as it’s the only one that is not either prime or has one of the first three primes as a factor. But I saw a good argument for 9 as a perfect square. ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/24 "2011-12-04T00:48:35Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I missed 18. The rest were ridiculously simple. This. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/25 "2011-12-04T03:56:38Z")
#10 made my head asplode. For one thing, I don’t do math. For another thing, I am an editor. They are either using type too small to read or pages too big to handle. Sorry. I DQ this question and therefore the whole test. Did they miss a zero somewhere? Listen, moron, if you can get 48,000 words into 21 pages, you can put a whole Stephen King novel into a 50-page pamphlet… Okay. I’ve calmed down now. It’s just a test. \*\*It’s just a test. \*\* _A test I don’t have to take!_ ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/26 "2011-12-04T04:19:40Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > #10 made my head asplode. > > For one thing, I don’t do math. For another thing, I am an editor. They are either using type too small to read or pages too big to handle. Sorry. I DQ this question and therefore the whole test. > > Did they miss a zero somewhere? > > Listen, moron, if you can get 48,000 words into 21 pages, you can put a whole Stephen King novel into a 50-page pamphlet… > > Okay. I’ve calmed down now. It’s just a test. \*\*It’s just a test. \*\* > > _A test I don’t have to take!_ Out of curiosity How small would a font like arial or helvetica have to be to fit 48,000 words onto 21 pages with 1 inch margins and standard single line spacing all around? ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/27 "2011-12-04T04:34:17Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Out of curiosity How small would a font like arial or helvetica have to be to fit 48,000 words onto 21 pages with 1 inch margins and standard single line spacing all around? Single-spaced, in 4 point type, it’s 47 pages with 1-inch margins. I can’t actually go lower than 4 pt (nor could anyone read it without a magnifying glass–I think that’s smaller than the type in my compact OED). If I put it in Futura Lt condensed it’s 33 pages. (Still 4 pt type, but skinnier). ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/28 "2011-12-04T04:41:34Z")
Too late to edit–actually, this is 6 pt type. It turns out that I can tell it to go down to 4 point, but it won’t do it, at least not in this font. ---
**Author:** ![Cato\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Cato\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cato_Major)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/29 "2011-12-04T06:30:01Z")
I got 'em all. But until the one about the pages to be printed in small type, I couldn’t shake the suspicion that the test was a parody! ---
**Author:** ![Cato\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/58f4c7/32.png) [@Cato\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cato_Major)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 7:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/30 "2011-12-04T07:11:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Like others, I dislike questions like the shapes or numbers one. I ran out of time coming up with possible solutions. > > For #14 > Shape 1 is wider than it is tall. > Shape 2 has vertices on an angled edge connected to straight edges on both ends. > Shape 3 has one more side than the others. > Shape 4 is much narrower than the others (smallest in area, too). Probably the least remarkable, and thus the correct answer. > Shape 5 has more than one interior angle not equal to or supplementary with any of the others. > > For #17, I chose 3017, as it’s the only one that is not either prime or has one of the first three primes as a factor. But I saw a good argument for 9 as a perfect square. > [@](#): > > For that matter - even though I knew what answer they wanted on #14 (shapes), I can think of other answers too - #5 could be the odd one because it’s the only one that doesn’t have 3 sides parallel to the X or Y axis. Yes, but I believe it is reasonable that the simplest answer should be preferred as a matter of parsimony. I would submit that the given answers to #14 and #17 pass this heuristic. ---
**Author:** ![Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b38774/32.png) [@Swords\_to\_Plowshares](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swords_to_Plowshares)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/31 "2011-12-04T07:22:28Z")
Got 18 right. Didn’t get the “count the number of same words” because I glanced over it too fast. Didn’t get the “what letter goes here” for question 18 either. I didn’t time myself so I don’t know if I would have solved the printing math problem (#10) in time or not. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/32 "2011-12-04T19:39:52Z")
I think #19 is a matter of opinion. I think April is more like summer than September, which I consider fall. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [December 4, 2011, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/33 "2011-12-04T19:52:56Z")
> [@Cato\_Major](#): > > Yes, but I believe it is reasonable that the simplest answer should be preferred as a matter of parsimony. I would submit that the given answers to #14 and #17 pass this heuristic. But simplest is context specific. Not arguing against these particular answers, but I have encountered answers to these types of questions that I would consider arbitrary. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/34 "2011-12-06T00:12:20Z")
> [@Cato\_Major](#): > > I got 'em all. But until the one about the pages to be printed in small type, I couldn’t shake the suspicion that the test was a parody! This isn’t a test to find really really smart people. On a test like that you want lots of hard questions, and the ones who can answer the most hard questions you know are really smart. This is a test to find out if a football player is really dumb. On a test like that you want lots of easy questions, and the ones who can’t answer the easy questions you know are really dumb. Ask a bunch of smart people easy questions and they’ll get them all right, and you won’t be able to tell which are smart, which are supersmart and which are ooper-doopersmart. Ask a bunch of dumb people hard questions, and they’ll get them all wrong, and so you won’t be able to tell which are dumb, which are superdumb, and which are ooper-dooperdumb. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/35 "2011-12-06T01:25:12Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > #10 made my head asplode. > > For one thing, I don’t do math. For another thing, I am an editor. They are either using type too small to read or pages too big to handle. Sorry. I DQ this question and therefore the whole test. I’m fine with math, and I’m fine with design, and I got an answer of 20 for that question (which is, to the test’s credit, given as an alternate answer.) After reading the answer, I could see what they were going for, and I’m a bit irritated that I couldn’t figure this out for myself, but a poorly posited problem. ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/36 "2011-12-06T01:33:03Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > This isn’t a test to find really really smart people. On a test like that you want lots of hard questions, and the ones who can answer the most hard questions you know are really smart. > > This is a test to find out if a football player is really dumb. On a test like that you want lots of easy questions, and the ones who can’t answer the easy questions you know are really dumb. > > Ask a bunch of smart people easy questions and they’ll get them all right, and you won’t be able to tell which are smart, which are supersmart and which are ooper-doopersmart. Ask a bunch of dumb people hard questions, and they’ll get them all wrong, and so you won’t be able to tell which are dumb, which are superdumb, and which are ooper-dooperdumb. The Wonderlic Test isn’t about football players. It had been around for thirty years before the NFL began to use it. It was developed for businesses as a way to evaluate and place workers. If you aren’t doing it as a timed test, then the results are meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/37 "2011-12-06T01:49:29Z")
It is hilarious that they mention Ryan Fitzpatrick as having scored 50 out of 50. ---
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/38 "2011-12-06T01:57:39Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > A boy is 16 years old and his sister is twice as old. When the boy is 22 years old, what will be the age of his sister? > > say what?? if sis is twice is old then 22x2=44 Is this answer wrong they gave? > > the ratio doesn’t change. she’s twice as old. whatever the brothers age is x 2 I’m sorry, **aseplace** , but that literally made me laugh out loud. mmm ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/39 "2011-12-06T02:29:26Z")
Even though it was clear what the correct answer was supposed to be, Question 19 seemed odd to me. I’d have thought that a ‘typical city in the Southern Hemisphere’ doesn’t get snow in any month. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2011, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931/40 "2011-12-06T02:49:26Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I’m fine with math, and I’m fine with design, and I got an answer of 20 for that question (which is, to the test’s credit, given as an alternate answer.) After reading the answer, I could see what they were going for, and I’m a bit irritated that I couldn’t figure this out for myself, but a poorly posited problem. My experience, particularly my recent experience, really got in my way here. A couple of months ago I had a 90,000-word book, which for various reasons the publisher wanted in 400 pages or less. It was a challenge, and it ended up in Garamond narrow about a point and a half smaller than we usually do them. So the idea of getting a little more than half that in 21 pages was…unsettling. I saw what they were going for, too. If they had said 2400 glophyls per potrzrebi I probably wouldn’t have had a problem (but in a timed test I wouldn’t have worked it until I’d done the rest of them, either, and I probably would have made some dumb division error anyway). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-smart-enough-to-be-a-football-player-find-out-with-a-5-minute-mini-wonderlic-test/604931.md?page=3)