Wonderlic Test
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The Wonderlic Personnel Test is an intelligence test primarily known for being administered to prospective employees for the purposes of recruitment, placement, development and retention[1]. The Wonderlic is a twelve-minute, fifty-question exam to assess aptitude for learning a job and adapting to solve problems for employees in a wide range of occupations. The score is calculated as the number of correct answers given in the allotted time. A score of 20 is intended to indicate average intelligence (corresponding to an intelligence quotient of 100; a rough conversion is accomplished via the following formula: IQ = 2WPT + 60).
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The Wonderlic test has become best known for its use in NFL pre-draft assessments of prospective football players.
This assessment roughly corresponds to examples from Paul Zimmerman's The New Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football. According to Zimmerman, examples of average scores for each position are:
- Offensive tackle - 26
- Center - 25
- Quarterback - 24
- Guard - 23
- Tight end - 22
- Safety - 19
- Linebacker - 19
- Cornerback - 18
- Wide receiver - 17
- Fullback - 17
- Halfback - 16
Pat McInally, a graduate of Harvard University, is the only football player to record a confirmed perfect score of 50.
Ryan Fitzpatrick, a Harvard graduate like McInally, had also been rumored to have scored a perfect score of 50, in only nine minutes [2]. However, he later claimed to have left at least one of the 50 answer spaces blank [3], leading the media to question his perfect score.[3]. The Wall Street Journal later reported that Fitzpatrick's actual score was 38 (still considered excellent), but that Fitzpatrick's claim of completing the Wonderlic in only nine minutes was accurate.
While an average football player usually scores around 20 points, The Wonderlic, Inc claims a score of at least 10 points suggests a person is literate [4]. Furthermore, when the test was given to miscellaneous people of various professions, it was observed that the average participant scored a 24. Examples of scores from everyday professions included:
- Chemist - 31
- Programmer - 29
- Journalist - 26
- Sales - 24
- Bank teller - 22
- Clerical worker - 21
- Security guard - 17
- Warehouse - 15
Similar to other standardized tests, the Wonderlic Test presents its questions in an open response and multiple choice format with increasing difficulty. For example, a simple question may ask a participant to observe a set of words, and select one that is irrelevant to the others. In addition, the test may require one to solve a word problem by utilizing various algebraic and geometric techniques [5].
A fan-made abbreviated version of the test is available [6]. While the test is not nearly as complex as the original Wonderlic Test, it follows most of the same concepts. After finishing the test, one can compare one's results with those of NFL players.
A condensed version of the Wonderlic test appears in newer editions of the Madden NFL video game series. The Madden version of the test plays a major role during the "Super-Star" portion of the game, to add a deeper sense of realism to the game.
The Weston Review published a guide that took a mutually exclusive, collectively exhaustive approach to deconstruct the elements of the test items in the Wonderlic.