Future first-round draft pick Claiborne scored a 4 on test
The Wonderlic is back in the news, so you know it must be April. The cognitive ability test, created in 1936, is still used today by NFL teams as a form of pre-draft assessment. It consists of 50 multiple choice questions to be answered in 12 minutes. A score of 20 is intended to indicate average intelligence. Thousands of college football players have taken the test over the past four decades, and scores have run the gamut from the 4 reportedly posted by Louisiana State’s Morris Claiborne a few months ago to the perfect 50 achieved by Harvard’s (surprise, surprise) Pat McInally in 1975.
Claiborne’s 4 has created a firestorm of controversy. Everyone seems to have an opinion on Pro Football Talk’s decision to make public what was supposed to be confidential information. And while I’m OK with what PFT did, I can understand the other side of the argument. But this post isn’t about journalistic ethics; it’s about the test itself. Is it easy? Is it hard? The only way to know for sure is to try it yourself. So hit the link and see how you do on a mini version of the Wonderlic:
How’d you do? Are you closer to a Claiborne or a McInally? For what it’s worth, I wasn’t thrilled with my score (33). I didn’t go to Harvard, but I do have a BA in Journalism and a Master’s in English (I suppose there needed to be more questions about iambic pentameter and fewer questions about fractions). Taking the test definitely made me appreciate what the players go through. I was mentally exhausted after answering 15 questions in 3 minutes and 36 seconds. I can only imagine the stress of having to answer 50 questions in 12 minutes. That said, there’s no excuse for scoring a 4. I realize LSU isn’t the Harvard of the South, but I don’t think it’s the Bridgeport of the South either.