# If a man or woman did well on this short general knowledge test what would it tell you about them?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [April 22, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618 "2012-04-22T19:41:06Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/1 "2012-04-22T19:41:06Z")
It’s not all that difficult. If someone did well on on the test does that tell you anything about them?
> **[blogthings.com](http://ww38.blogthings.com/doyouhavegapsinyourknowledgequiz/)**
>
> This domain may be for sale!
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### Author:  [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/2 "2012-04-22T19:46:17Z")
Doesn’t tell me squat. I didn’t miss a question, and I have _huge_ gaps in my bank of knowledge. Although missing the majority of the questions might indicate a “less-than-inquiring” mind. Not stupid by any means, but unexposed or more particularly focused.
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### Author:  [@Gagundathar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gagundathar)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/3 "2012-04-22T19:47:47Z")
I got “There Are 0 Gaps in Your Knowledge”.
Does that mean I got all 21 questions right?
The questions are rather widely scattered among various branch of knowledge, and if someone did well on this test, I would assume that they were well read and interested in many different kinds of things.
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### Author:  [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/4 "2012-04-22T19:48:28Z")
Count me in as also getting a perfect score.
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/5 "2012-04-22T19:49:27Z")
Arrrgh! It won’t tell me which one I got wrong?! Diediediediedie…
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### Author:  [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/6 "2012-04-22T19:49:53Z")
It tells me that I know that I am a hell of a Trivial Pursuit player and that I would have the potential to do really well at Jeopardy!
It wasn’t hard. What should that say about me?
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/7 "2012-04-22T19:50:40Z")
I was not certain about the last two, but still got all 21 correct.
I’d say anyone who got 18 or more correct is probably decently educated or fairly well read. I’d suspect your average American would get 12 or fewer correct.
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### Author:  [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/8 "2012-04-22T20:01:29Z")
21 out of 21. Ironically, the only question I had to guess on was the only one that was in my field. :o
But yea, the questions aren’t particularly difficult. I imagine anyone thats intellectually curious and reads a decent amount would get most of them correct.
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### Author:  [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/9 "2012-04-22T20:02:02Z")
I’m a braniac
BRANIAC
On the floor
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### Author:  [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/10 "2012-04-22T20:05:54Z")
I got a perfect as well, and I’m not prepared to say that I’m well-read. I am prepared to say that I have a strong memory for dates and people and that the quiz is really geared toward rote memorization rather than understanding and knowledge.
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### Author:  [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/11 "2012-04-22T20:06:32Z")
> [@astro](#):
>
> It’s not all that difficult. If someone did well on on the test does that tell you anything about them?
> [http://www.blogthings.com/doyouhavegapsinyourknowledgequiz/](http://www.blogthings.com/doyouhavegapsinyourknowledgequiz/)
It strikes me that the test is composed primarily of questions that focus on Western art, history, and philosophy. I think creating a test this way and then purporting that it will identify gaps in one’s knowledge is meant subtly to indicate that these are the only subjects that count when it comes to calling oneself well-rounded. That is, the origin of this test seems to come from the same place that deprecates the need to do things such as study, say, African-American literature (“Did you hear, Allan, Harvard is having its students read something call _The Bluest Eye_ by some Anthony Morrison fellow. And they’ve stopped assigning Thomas Carlyle’s _Sartor Resartus_! What is the world coming to!” These are also people who say things like _A Separate Peace_, a novel about rich boys at prep school in the 1940s, has a universal message, but _Things Fall Apart_ is limited in its humanism.)
So yes, a person could get a perfect score (as I did) and still have plenty of gaps in their knowledge of what today ought to count as the canon for well-educated citizens of the world.
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### Author:  [@Tabithina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabithina)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/12 "2012-04-22T20:07:28Z")
I got them all right. I have no college education, but I read a lot and try to pay attention and learn new things. The test was relatively easy. I never watch Jeopardy or play Trivial Pursuit, but maybe I should try that out sometime.
I wonder if all the years I have spent reading the Dope have anything to do with my score. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Jake\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake_Jones)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/13 "2012-04-22T20:28:03Z")
> [@Gagundathar](#):
>
> I got “There Are 0 Gaps in Your Knowledge”.
> Does that mean I got all 21 questions right?
No, it doesn’t. Since the back button was not disabled, I took a few minutes to play around with the answers. There are three questions in each of seven categories:
[ul]
[li]Philosophy[/li][li]Religion[/li][li]Economics[/li][li]Literature[/li][li]History[/li][li]Science[/li][li]Art[/li][/ul]
You are allowed to miss one question in each category for the lowest possible percentage score of 67% while maintaining zero gaps in knowledge. Sorry to rain on the parade of all of you who thought you achieved a perfect score, but it’s likely that you didn’t.
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### Author:  [@gracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gracer)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/14 "2012-04-22T21:04:12Z")
> [@Jake\_Jones](#):
>
> No, it doesn’t. \
> You are allowed to miss one question in each category for the lowest possible percentage score of 67% while maintaining zero gaps in knowledge. Sorry to rain on the parade of all of you who thought you achieved a perfect score, but it’s likely that you didn’t.
Whuuh? :mad: Well, I still got them all. Pff.
Well then bearing that in mind, doing well on the test means that you get to live, for now… _cue ominous music_
But really, I think it’s shows up interesting gaps in someone’s knowledge if they do badly. It might make you wonder why they have those gaps, if they seem otherwise intelligent. Do they just not care? Are they only interested in one particular thing? Maybe they have trouble reading, and never absorbed information that way? Maybe they went to a bad school? Or maybe they were raised by crazy religious people and they were never allowed to know half of those things?
Knowing how someone else did on that would just raise questions for me, no conclusions really.
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### Author:  [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/15 "2012-04-22T21:04:44Z")
I got them all right. I think every question on that test is pretty basic knowledge. I don’t think you even have to have gone to college to pick up most of the answers.
If someone did well on this test I would think they paid attention in life.
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### Author:  [@Jake\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake_Jones)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/16 "2012-04-22T21:08:24Z")
To add a bit of humor, I achieved “There Are 0 Gaps in Your Knowledge” with the following answers:
1. Who said “Je pense donc je suis”… meaning, “I think therefore I am”?
Michel Foucault
René Descartes
Friedrich Nietzsche
\*\* Ayn Rand\*\*
2. What do you call a religion that believes in multiple deities?
Monotheistic
Polytheistic
**Polyamorous**
Godful
3. When prices are mostly going down, this is known as:
Inflation
\*\* Holiday blues\*\*
Stagflation
Deflation
4. Who wrote “A Christmas Carol”?
**Jim Henson**
Mark Twain
William Shakespeare
Charles Dickens
5. From the mid 19th century to the mid 20th century, what empire was India a part of?
The Byzantine empire
\*\* The Catholic empire\*\*
The British empire
The Ottoman empire
6. How many legs does an insect have?
2
8
\*\* 4\*\*
6
7. Who painted the Mona Lisa?
**Andy Warhol**
Leonardo da Vinci
Claude Monet
Vincent van Gogh
There are no gaps in my knowledge and I have the internet score to prove it!
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### Author:  [@Blkshp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blkshp)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/17 "2012-04-22T21:20:05Z")
The question about which planet is closest to the Earth could have been either Mars or Venus.
I don’t think the test says much other than high scorers are reasonably well read and that my liberal arts degree finally helped me.
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### Author:  [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/18 "2012-04-22T21:35:04Z")
> [@Blkshp](#):
>
> The question about which planet is closest to the Earth could have been either Mars or Venus.
I suspect that there are times when Mercury is the closest planet, when Venus and Mars are on the other side of the Sun.
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### Author:  [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/19 "2012-04-22T21:36:01Z")
I don’t think doing _well_ necessarily says much about a person, given that most of the questions are things I’d expect a reasonably educated person to know, but doing _badly_ would suggest that they either weren’t very well educated or just weren’t paying attention.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2012, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/if-a-man-or-woman-did-well-on-this-short-general-knowledge-test-what-would-it-tell-you-about-them/619618/20 "2012-04-22T21:38:06Z")
> [@Blkshp](#):
>
> The question about which planet is closest to the Earth could have been either Mars or Venus.
I assumed an unstated, “at its closest…” This is the only question I hesitated on, but guessed correctly based on inference based on their appearance in the sky.
If someone does well on this test I would assume they managed to stay awake during grade school.
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