DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum What's your Wonderlic

A year ago this week, Vince Young sat down in a room in Indianapolis, grabbed a No. 2 pencil, took a test, and made headlines.

For the first time in his entire life as a football player, those headlines were negative.

Word had leaked out. The Texas junior and Rose Bowl MVP reportedly scored a "6" on the Wonderlic test, one of the lowest recorded scores in the history of the exam. Administered every February since 1970 at the NFL Draft Combine, the average score had been a 19. Young, a quarterback — the one position where a test of this nature may actually matter — scored 13 points under the mean.

Naturally, the bloggers had a field day. Deadspin posted on it here, and here, and here, and here. What exactly happened on that February 2006 afternoon is still a bit of a mystery. Did Vince blow it off? Was he distracted by something else? There never was much closure. A few days later, it turned out that Young's exam was scored incorrectly. He got to take the test again. Redemption!

And then he went out and put up an underwhelming 16. Ugh. The talking heads on TV got their yuks in, the draft gurus had him slipping to the Raiders at No. 7 overall, and the Internet message boards were abuzz with jokes and jabs.

Of course, in the end, it really didn't matter at all. Young got the last laugh. Come April, he was still the first quarterback selected in the draft; by January, he was accepting the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year award; and in February, he was dressed in a Hawaiian shirt, taking pictures at the Pro Bowl, selected to the squad as an alternate in his first year in the NFL.

But Young's Wonderlic score, like Maurice Clarett's 40 time the year before, will forever live in infamy. When a player of that stature errs that much at the combine — in arguably the sporting world's slowest week of the year — it makes news.

This year? It's anybody's guess as to which high profile player's score everyone will be abuzz over.

Of course, the Wonderlic test scores at the combine are supposed to be kept confidential.

But leaks occur.

How else would we know that in 2004, Central Missouri linebacker Roderick Green scored a 3? Or that a few years earlier, Iowa State scat back Darren Davis checked in with a 4? Or, that Sebastian Janikowski once breezed through the exam, finishing with a mind-blowing final score of 9?

Some other notable Wonderlic scores from the past? These come from both draftscout.com and sportsline.com. These scores may or may not be 100 percent accurate:

Alex Smith — 40 (2005)
Ryan Fitzpatrick — 50 (2005)
Eli Manning — 39 (2004)
Philip Rivers — 40 (2004)
Ben Roethlisberger — 25 (2004)
Ell Roberson — 11 (2004)
Drew Henson — 42 (2003)
Tee Martin — 11 (2000)
Heath Shuler — 16 (1994)
Drew Bledsoe — 37 (1993)
Jeff George — 10 (1990)
Dan Marino — 14 (1983)

The NFL Network will be devoting 24 hours of coverage to the combine this week. They'll be showing the 40-meter dash, the bench press, even providing live player interviews throughout. Unfortunately, there will be no cameras on the Wonderlic exam room. What goes on in there will remain an enigma to the general public. Is there a proctor like the SATs? Do you bring a banana and a bottle of water? Is it run through a Scantron machine afterwards? Valid questions. Ones that there are few answers to.

Of course, the one question everyone at home wonders when they hear of scores like Young's or Janikowski's is the obvious: "How would I do on it?"

Ryan Fitzpatrick made NFL history with his Wonderlic score. (Doug Benc / Getty Images)

Well, let's dig out the ol' sample Wonderlic and give you a chance to find out. Used by the NFL since 1970, the Wonderlic has been evaluating the mental capacity of draft prospects for the past three decades. Twelve minutes long and made of fifty questions, it's scored on a 1-50 scale. Where do you fit in? Would you be a Ryan Fitzpatrick, the Harvard grad who scored one of the only perfect scores in Draft Combine history? Or would you be a Jeff George, finishing up with a mind-boggling 10?

Thankfully, there's a moderated sample test available at Wonderlic.com. (Of course, these are sample test questions and are intended for demonstration purposes only. And it's worth noting that the Wonderlic Personnel Test is published by Wonderlic, Inc.)

Take a stab at it below. Grab the stop watch, set it for 2 minutes and forty seconds, and break out a banana.

Ready?

And with that ... begin:

1. Assume the first 2 statements are true. Is the final one:

1. True
2. False
3. Not certain

The boy plays baseball. All baseball players wear hats. The boy wears a hat.

2. Paper sells for 21 cents per pad. What will 4 pads cost?

3. How many of the five pairs of items listed below are exact duplicates? Nieman, K.M. Neiman, K.M.
Thomas, G.K. Thomas, C.K.
Hoff, J.P. Hoff, J.P.
Pino, L.R. Pina, L.R.
Warner, T.S. Wanner, T.S.

4. PRESENT, RESENT — Do these words: 1. Have similar meanings
2. Have contradictory meanings
3. Mean neither the same nor opposite

5. A train travels 20 feet in 1/5 second. At this same speed, how many feet will it travel in three seconds?

6. When rope is selling at $.10 a foot, how many feet can you buy for sixty cents?

7. The ninth month of the year is: 1. October
2. January
3. June
4. September
5. May

8. Which number in the following group of numbers represents the smallest amount?

7
.8
31
.33
2

9. In printing an article of 48,000 words, a printer decides to use two sizes of type. Using the larger type, a printed page contains 1,800 words. Using smaller type, a page contains 2,400 words. The article is allotted 21 full pages in a magazine. How many pages must be in smaller type?

10. Three individuals form a partnership and agree to divide the profits equally. X invests $9,000, Y invests $7,000, Z invests $4,000. If the profits are $4,800, how much less does X receive than if the profits were divided in proportion to the amount invested?

11. Assume the first two statements are true. Is the final one: 1. True
2. False
3. Not certain

Tom greeted Beth. Beth greeted Dawn. Tom did not greet Dawn.

12. A boy is 17 years old and his sister is twice as old. When the boy is 23 years old, what will be the age of his sister?

Time's up.

How'd you do? Check the answers below, and multiply the amount you got right by 4.16.

1. True 2. 84 cents 3. 1 4. 3 5. 300 feet 6. 6 feet 7. September 8. .33 9. 17 10. $560 11. not certain 12. 40 years old

Ace it? If so, nice job.

Fail it? Eh, it's not the worst thing in the world. Maybe that just means you're destined to win Offensive Rookie of the Year and make the Pro Bowl next year.

Doubtful, but it's happened before.


I took it and got a 41.60 its not easy when those word problems come along and the clock is ticking. Its not the questions its the doing it in 2min 40 sec. Dont cheat!!

Missed one.

Looks to me like its a standard IQ test which would mean a score of 100-120 would mean average intelligence.

Has anyone ever taken one here? what's your score?lolol

41.6 on this wonderlic... I've taken several IQ test with results ranging from 138-155... really depends on the test.

Missed one.