Vocabulary Test

[Mr. Lothario]

     A difficult and unusual vocabulary test. Try it out. I scored 169.

[|MP|Nomad]

aww man way too long  

[kami]

Excuuuuse me buut that just makes me feel really stupid, gives me a headache too.

[KoS Ultimo]

I ended up getting 120, I'm stupid

[bronto]

i saw the first three words and decided not to take it.

[PsYcO aSsAsSiN]

Don't have time for such a test, but the guy's assertion that the test has anything to do with IQ is absurd. If you really wanted to, you could sit your ass in front of a dictionary and memorize the definitions to all those words, take the test, and get all of them right.

[Mr. Lothario]

     Sure, and you could practice logic and spatial relations puzzles for days at a time, then score 400 on standardized IQ tests. The ability to break the test does not automatically mean that the test is invalid. Someone who could score 200 on the vocabulary test off the top of their head has an impressive mind, any way you look at it. Besides, the test is not simply measuring knowledge of the words, but understanding of them. To me, that requires more than just knowing the dictionary definitions.

[|MP|Buccaneer]

Kosher and Tref?  Now that isn't fair to those not exposed to at least jewish reading.

Only a 157 for me.

[tasty]

I got 157. That was a tough test, especially since after I took it I tried looking up some of the words in an online dictionary and a lot of them weren't even in it (either that or they were archaic). Does it matter whether or not you click "wild guess"? I wasn't sure what the function of that was.

Haha, just saw that bucc got the same thing. Yeah, I agree that test definetely has some serious cultural expectations of the taker, since it had Jewish, French, and latin phrases that I wouldn't exactly consider common knowledge.

[cookie]

162... catching up on ya loth  
actually that was like the hardest test i've taken in a long long long long time. A few words in there were SAT words!!

[jn.loudnotes]

Heh. . .I didn't have the energy to go all the way through it either, but I thought it was interesting.  First of all cookie, most of those words are harder than SAT words.  The SAT is overrated.

But I didn't really like the method of comparison.  Same or opposite?  Most of the questions were very inexact synonyms and/or opposites. . .I think that test, as assassin suggested, measures more rote knowledge.  Memorization would be effective for that. . .The test doesn't take into account any contextual meanings of the words.

I read through the first 25 or so of them, and found that by the end I was mixing up opposite and same. . .I don't know.  Since that doesn't happen to me on other tests, I would consider it just a flaw in the test itself.

[Mr. Lothario]

     Or you could just be stupid, Loud.    I had no such problem; after all, it's only two columns to keep track of. As for the inexact synonyms/antonyms, IMO that's testing two different things: the ability to consider concepts and decide whether they are alike or different (rather than, e.g., pairs of diametric opposites like hard/soft, up/down, etc., which require no thought); and whether the testee has a real sense of what the word means. There were several pairs of words that I noticed which seemed to be specifically chosen to confound people who knew a somewhat common but incorrect meaning of one or both of the words. It's entirely possible that I'm reading too much into it, but to me, there seems to be a deeper purpose to the specific words and style of test which were chosen.

[Geek USA]

arrggg, SAT flashbacks...

[Flame]

Woot I got a 20, 100 or so questions left unanswered.

[Shade]

lol, Im half asleep and I got a 125.

[jn.loudnotes]

That's entirely possible Loth:D  But read my tirade on SAT tests, and you'll see that I'm just not a big fan of generalized intelligence measures.

It just doesn't seem like a very intelligent use of time to analyze your intelligence instead of working to improve it.  Or, doing something useful with it.

[kami]

I'll explain my ignorance relating to this matter with three words; I'm Swedish. I bet none of you guys know what ?pimpelfiske? means!

[Mr. Lothario]

     Isn't that a fish that rents female fish to other fish for the purposes of sex?

[kami]

Haha, right on the fish part atleast.

[Mr. Lothario]

     Well, I've heard of lutefiske (lutfiske? I know I'm spelling it wrong), and I know that it's a fish dish, so figuring out that the suffix -fiske means "fish" is not a big conceptual leap.