How does one even get into college and get a 4 on the Wonderlic?

Submitted by mGrowOld on

There was much debate yesterday after RDT posted Claiborne's alleged Wonderlic test score of a 4.  Having spent the better part of the past 20 years actually giving this test to prospective applicants at my firm I can feel safe in saying to achieve a 4 you have to either purposively answer questions incorrectly or be just about as stupid as a human can be. 

To prove my point I give you four actual Wonderlic questions that appear on a version of their current test.  To understand what a 4 represents - Claiborne would have to answer two of these incorrectly and then answer all remaining 46 questions wrong as well.  A four means he got 2 of the 50 right and that's it.

Take a look at these questions and ask yourself exactly how someone can get admitted to college if they cannot answer all four correctly.


Which of the following is the earliest date?

A) Jan. 16, 1898 B) Feb. 21, 1889 C) Feb. 2, 1898 D) Jan. 7, 1898 E) Jan. 30, 1889


LOW is to HIGH as EASY is to ? .
J) SUCCESSFUL K) PURE L) TALL M) INTERESTING N) DIFFICULT


What is the next number in the series? 29 41 53 65 77 ?
J) 75 K) 88 L) 89 M) 98 N) 99


One word below appears underlined. What is the OPPOSITE of that word?


She gave a complex answer to the question and we all agreed with her.
A) long B) better C) simple D) wrong E) kind

FreddieMercuryHayes

April 4th, 2012 at 12:55 PM ^

Kind of ridiculous; I think you actually have to try to get those wrong.  Anybody who doesn't even know that wrong is the opposite of complex should be returning for another year of high school.

BlueZoo

April 4th, 2012 at 2:20 PM ^

I can understand how someone can panic under this situation, but it seems like your agent should get you some coaching for the test.  "If there are 2 minutes left, just mark B for the rest of them".

snoopblue

April 4th, 2012 at 12:59 PM ^

I feel like the players don't even give a shit about the test and just put whatever letters down as the answers. Why should they give a shit? They are there for their athletic ability and they KNOW that. The thing I want done is a survey given to players that asks them if they really even try on this test.

BlueWing

April 4th, 2012 at 4:17 PM ^

What I don't understand is why they don't care. They should have at least some pride and try on the test.

Say at an interview with a company they ask me to run a 40 or broad jump. My performance in these probably won't affect the likelihood I get hired, but I'm still going to bust my ass rather than just walking or hopping.

ChopBlock

April 4th, 2012 at 2:01 PM ^

Can you imagine the trouble someone with dyslexia would have with the first question in particular? I had to look twice as it, and I am by no means dyslexic. I think that dyslexia or another learning disorder, combined with an "I don't care" attitude, nervousness (because it's timed pretty aggressively) and below-average intelligence, makes it very possible that someone could get a 4. 

One factor by itself (say, low intelligence or dyslexia) probably isn't sufficient to explain such a terrible score, but a number of factors could.

jmblue

April 4th, 2012 at 1:20 PM ^

I believe the law requires "reasonable accommodations" to be made.  If a kid literally can't read, I don't think that falls within the "reasonable" spectrum (unless you're talking about a kid who is visually impaired - but even then, I think he/she would be expected to be literate in Braille).  

Carcajous

April 4th, 2012 at 2:42 PM ^

You have to make reasonable accommodations and are not required to substantively alter the academic program (this is important).  It means you do not have to alter your curriculum or alter the expectations re: mastery of subject matter.  You simply must make accommodations to put the disabled student on an equal footing with non-disabled students (somtimes easier said than done, but...).

 

julesh

April 4th, 2012 at 3:34 PM ^

If a kid can't read due to severe dyslexia, a school can provide someone to take notes for them and alternate testing options. That seems reasonable. In this day and age, the reading part of the curriculum can be handled with ebooks and text readers.

Asgardian

April 4th, 2012 at 1:06 PM ^

If there are 5 choices and you randomly guess, doesn't probability say you should expect to get 10 questions correct?

Am I missing something here?

CRex

April 4th, 2012 at 1:06 PM ^

They had an excellent pro day, a half dozen teams really high on them, and they didn't care about the Wonderlic.  It was the same reason my final essay in high school English was a poorly drawn sketch of a penguin dressed like Vincent Vega.  I was going to Michigan no matter what at that point, just like Clairborne is getting paid no matter what.  

I didn't feel like doing five paragraphs on Ezra Pound, he didn't feel like answering stupid questions.  

mGrowOld

April 4th, 2012 at 1:12 PM ^

I would agree with you IF they had already been drafted and were asked to take the test.  But they havent been drafted and some teams, believe it or not, place a value on a person's intellegence along with their physical skills so tanking a test like this on purpose is crazy.

You were already accepted into Michigan.  Would you have drawn funny pictures if you were still waiting on admissions to make a decision?

CRex

April 4th, 2012 at 2:37 PM ^

My counter argument is that Clairborne could already have talked to some GMs and Scouts and impressed them.  If I'm a GM, I sit down with a player and go "Wow, this guy really knows the game" I will asusme he is a smart guy even if the Wonderlic comes back with a 4 on it.  

Frankly if I was going through the combine, the Wonderlic would be the first thing I'd blow off.  I'd rather have great work outs and one on one talks with NFL personnel over a score on the Wonerlic.  If I needed a power nap before my next interview, I'd hand in a blank test with an imprint of my face on it from sleeping on it.  

My high school example would be taking less intense English classes so I'd have more time/room for AP Physics, AP Calc, AP Programming, etc.  I was headed for College of Engineering, so I always cared more about my science grades than my humanities grades in high school.  

snarling wolverine

April 4th, 2012 at 4:36 PM ^

William of Ockham suggests that you're overthinking things here.  It's likely that his thought processes were a little different than those an Engineering student at Michigan would have.  The most likely explanation: he genuinely isn't that bright to begin with, and panicked, making things worse.

 

jmblue

April 4th, 2012 at 8:38 PM ^

If that score is at all indicative of his intelligence, someone else in his family better handle his money.

Maybe we shouldn't be so surprised at the number of ex-pros that are broke a few years after retiring, when we see the Wonderlic scores many of them have.  

MaizeNBlu628

April 4th, 2012 at 1:23 PM ^

The test is also timed, so you have 12 minutes to answer as many of the 50 questions as possible. But you also get penalized for wrong answers, and nothing for unanswered questions. Although I don't quite remember whether it was -.5 or -.25 for wrong answers.

So it's possible he answered like 10 questions right, and then got 12 wrong.

It's not quite as easy as you think, those sample questions are def the easiest ones. And they throw in hard ones randomly (not easiest to hardest).  So you may have gotten a really hard questions for like #5, and if you dont know to skip it, waste 4/5 minutes on it, and that's basically half your time.

A consulting job I intereviewed for a couple years ago had us take the Wonderlic, so that's just from my experience.

jmblue

April 4th, 2012 at 2:07 PM ^

Are you sure you took the Wonderlic?  It sounds like you took some other kind of test.

On the Wonderlic, there is no deduction for incorrect answers.  It's a straight-up measure of how many of the 50 questions you get right, so you're actually encouraged to answer as many as you can.  A score of four means he answered four questions correctly.  Also, the questions are intended to get harder as you progress through the test - they don't throw random hard questions in there.

You are correct that it's a 12-minute test, but honestly, most of the questions should be a breeze for almost any adult who has attended college.  Here are some more sample Wonderlic questions:

http://www.efplfp.stealingisgood.com/wpt.html