SPiN's impressions on taking the Wonderlic test

Five CBS SportsLine.com and SPiN staff members took an eight minute, 30-question Wonderlic test. Here's their impressions:

College Football Producer J. Darin Darst:

The first half of the test was a breeze, but as the test went on, the questions required more and more thinking. The biggest challenge was trying to actually finish the test in time. There just wasn't enough time to figure out the last five questions, especially the math problems. As soon as I saw "How much would it cost to build a 240-foot bridge, if each pipe was 7 feet long and the price is 19 cents a foot" I was screwed.

I actually scored a 30 and Callans said I did "very well" and would be "overqualified" for many jobs. My freshman English teacher at Broward Community College said I had the worst writing of anybody she had every seen and I would never amount to anything. Take that Mrs. Chain Smoker Whatever Your Name Was. I just scored better than a chemist!

After taking the test, I also thought "If I were going to be a top 10 draft pick, would I really care about some IQ test?" Probably not, but Callans has a different opinion.

"I would find it hard to believe that any athlete wouldn't take it seriously. I've been at the Combine for four years now and I've been able to observe the players going into the testing room and I'll tell you -- everyone there takes it seriously," Callans said. "You have this 250-pound lineman walking in and I'm 5-foot-7 and they look at me like I'm an executioner."

SPiN Producer Roland Liwag:

If you graduated from high school and have a four-year college education, the Wonderlic test shouldn't be a problem for you. On the other hand, I know a lot of people who didn't do well in school for several reasons, but exceled on standardized exams because they were well-read and could compute basic arithmetic and logic problems.

What does that say about the Wonderlic and other similar exams? I'm not sure, but I don't think intelligence can be quantified. Everyone is "smart" on different levels. For example: "Friend A" graduated from an Ivy League school with a 4.0 GPA but can't change a light bulb. "Friend B" barely graduated high school, but can tear down and rebuild an engine from scratch. So, who is smarter? The debate is endless.

I think standardized tests only measure how well you take standardized tests. If you can add, subtract, divide and multiply and have a moderate grasp of English grammar, you will do well ... if you take the test correctly. In my experience, the biggest challenge of the test wasn't the questions, but the ticking timer at the top of the screen. We weren't expected to finish all 30 questions, but when you have exactly 16 seconds to spend per question, the test turns into a time-management task.

The pressure of seeing a clock slowly ticking as you read a simple word-association question is unbelieveable. Multiply that by 10 if it's a basic compound math question. Add a couple more points for good measure if the question is ridiculously easy and obvious. "Wait a minute, this is too easy ... what's wrong here?" Bam. Twenty seconds spent on the question. That means you now have 12 seconds to spend on the next question to stay on pace, etc. etc. etc.

Despite all of what I've said, getting a single-digit score on the Wonderlic is still no excuse.

Senior Fantasy Writer Dave Richard:

After being so closely involved with the Wonderlic exam for the last five-plus years, I almost felt obligated to take it and measure myself against those in the NFL who have tested.

I was definitely nervous before the exam, but once it started and I found the questions to be less than impossible, I calmed down and actually had fun with it. I wound up surprising myself: I had three questions to answer with two minutes left, and had answers for every question with 20 seconds left.

What was more nerve-wracking was waiting for my score. When the e-mail came and I saw my score -- a 31 -- I felt a little disappointed that I didn't top Gregg Doyel's 32, but was happy to not be in the single digits. Moreover, it feels good to know that if I had tried to get drafted by an NFL team, I would have done well at SOMETHING at the Combine.

SPiN columnist Clay Travis:

That ticking clock is merciless. I didn't finish the test and about halfway through I started thinking, "Oh no, I'm going to be hearing about this performance for a long time." I'd imagine it was the same feeling Rex Grossman had as he watched his interception returned for a touchdown.

I'm expecting ETS to reopen my perfect 800 score on the GRE Verbal for further investigation. In fact they probably should.

Brian Griese reportedly got a 39. This is 10 points higher than my score. And he went on the disabled list after tripping over his dog. If I don't file a column for Friday, it's because I slowly waded into the pool outside my condo to embrace the blessed nothingness of drowning.

This test is much harder than the sample Wonderlic tests you can find online. Also, knowing everyone is going to see your score is a little bit intimidating too, I'm already getting e-mails from friends featuring NFL players who are much smarter than me.

I'm thinking about hiring Vince Young's agent so we can make the mis-scored test argument.

CBS SportsLine.com editor and SPiN columnist Eric Kay:

There's an episode of The Sarah Silverman Program where she goes to get an AIDS test just because she wants some good news (she knows she doesn't have the disease).

That's what it feels like taking this joke of an exam. Yes, I still haven't received my answers, but I can confidently say the test was cake (I know, I'm now doomed to finish with the worst score).

But really, it was pretty easy, and this bloating behavior is coming from a guy who routinely gets beat by spider monkeys in mathematical aptitude tests. Yes, I keep spider monkeys at my house. Yes, I take math tests in my spare time. Wanna fight about it?

Seriously though, I'm guessing this thing was easy for most of us SportsLiners because anybody who's been to college has taken a plethora of tests similar to this. It's pretty easy to become a good test taker if you do it enough times. Conversely, I bet Vince and all the other semi-tards who finished with scores on par with their shoe size didn't really hit up the Kaplan SAT classes in high school or the Princeton Review LSAT prep classes too often en route to becoming a stud athlete.