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Test your digital IQ

Test your digital IQ.

Reader Comments
36 comments
Tom Dolan says:

That's pretty scary, I scored 189 and I'm sure there will be people that will kick my ass.

» by Tom Dolan on Nov 22, 2003 at 10:13 AM
heather says:

168. could have done better -- shouldn't have talked through math class. they really need to have another scoring bracket. 170+ "you need to get out more."

» by heather on Nov 22, 2003 at 10:33 AM
dowingba says:

I was disappointed. Just because I don't use a cellphone to access my email doesn't mean I don't know how to. And how do I avoid the RIAA? I don't, I'm Canadian.

» by dowingba on Nov 22, 2003 at 10:42 AM
Tom Harpel says:

196! I scored a 196! Full-blown nerd-dom is mine. Incidentally, anyone who posts a comment here should automatically add 10 (20?) points to their final score.

» by Tom Harpel on Nov 22, 2003 at 10:45 AM
chris says:

sad to say 199 but i am a bofh so its to be expected ...

» by chris on Nov 22, 2003 at 11:53 AM
lia says:

159! A nerd, but only a middle range nerd. All you guys scoring in the 180+ range frighten me.

» by lia on Nov 22, 2003 at 11:56 AM
Maria says:

131! Does that mean I'm cool (as opposed to, well, a nerd)? I'd like to think it does. All thanks to my WAP-less cellphone and my non-existent PDA. And the RIAA can't catch me either, I'm Norwegian.

» by Maria on Nov 22, 2003 at 12:11 PM
Tom Dolan says:

Can some ultra-geek figure out the perfect score? (what's BOFH, chris?) I'm a designer and reluctant nerd who needs to know how my computers work in order to stay in business, but I did scare myself when I knew that Bluetooth was a Viking. I know I must have gotten 5-10 questions wrong tho ...

» by Tom Dolan on Nov 22, 2003 at 12:51 PM
chris says:

BOFH = B*st*rd Operator from H*ll - people who make company networks work. (or not work depending on how much we like you ;) See www.theregister.co.uk/content/30/index.html.

Some of the questions are PC biased which will result in mac users getting a lower score

» by chris on Nov 22, 2003 at 01:29 PM
Joerg says:

79. I think that's a good sign. Answering this on a Saturday afternoon, +70 = 149.

» by Joerg on Nov 22, 2003 at 02:07 PM
margaret says:

i scored a 121, and i'm 14, so i couldn't answer the ones relating to work and coworkers. and i don't have a cell phone or a PDA, so i think i scored pretty darn well.

» by margaret on Nov 22, 2003 at 02:23 PM
Lacy says:

160. I'm proud to be called a nerd ... and agree with Heather. (about it needing another scoring bracket).

» by Lacy on Nov 22, 2003 at 02:38 PM
R. says:

167.

» by R. on Nov 22, 2003 at 03:47 PM
Pierce says:

41. Hah. And I'm in the final year of a computer science degree. It makes me obscurely proud, somehow.

Definately biased towards those working or with money though (laptops, PDA, etc).

» by Pierce on Nov 22, 2003 at 05:04 PM
Shane Cavanaugh says:

91. I'm happy with that. Not bad for a computer hobbyist.

» by Shane Cavanaugh on Nov 22, 2003 at 05:51 PM
Edward says:

Answering honestly I got 219. Then I saw all the Microsoft flash ads all over the page and realized what it was and re-took it and scored 234. [Hint: click YES to any feature of Windows XP and Office XP and newer and you too will score high.] Some of the heuristics seemed, though normal for a tech-savvy person, strange for the average user. Like not gaining points for alphanumeric passwords or not having anyone's name/dob as password, but losing points if it weren't the case. Same for opeing file attachments from strangers. No points if you don't, but losing points if you do. I wonder why they gave points for writing a virus. Same for blogging and googling.

» by Edward on Nov 22, 2003 at 08:17 PM
Jerry Kindall says:

Major problems with this. The biggest problem is that you can't select more than one answer to a question like "Do you read your personal e-mail at home or at work?" Well duh -- both! The fact that the UI element used for this is a checkbox leads you to believe that you can select multiple answers.

But I abandoned the test when I saw they knock 5 points off for opening files sent to you by people you don't know. This is basically harmless on a Mac, which is why I do it, and in any case they didn't say what kinds of attachments. (I wouldn't open an executable.) I should get 5 points added for using a platform nobody writes worms for, rather than having 5 points knocked off because they assume I'm using Windows.

On the other hand, I got 5 points because my OS has a firewall built-in. I don't use the firewall, since there's really no need to, but I do have one, which is what they actually asked. So I guess it's a wash.

» by Jerry Kindall on Nov 22, 2003 at 08:59 PM
Ginkgo says:

I got a 210 the first time I took it, and answered honestly (Using Wintel at work helped a good bit). Second time I got a 240. It is a pretty poorly designed survey.... Doesn't even record the actual scores, the only record keeping is a second form that's highest number is 110. Why not just submit the score after the survey is taken?

» by Ginkgo on Nov 22, 2003 at 09:52 PM
Dave S. says:

Jerry: Holy over-analysis, Batman.

» by Dave S. on Nov 23, 2003 at 02:58 AM
Trevor says:

39. beat you all

» by Trevor on Nov 23, 2003 at 07:41 AM
Caroline says:

106. You... men and your PDA's. Pah.

» by Caroline on Nov 23, 2003 at 08:59 AM
L says:

One thing I don't get is why I didn't get extra points for *not* having my homepage set to msn/yahoo/aol. My homepage is a home-brewn, dynamically generated php page with rss feeds from my friends blogs, webradio, search fields and the likes. I tought I should get nerd points for that. Anyway, I got 205. I'm a nerd. Yeah

» by L on Nov 23, 2003 at 01:13 PM
Jerry Kindall says:

Believe me, I have not begun to overanalyze! ;)

» by Jerry Kindall on Nov 23, 2003 at 01:21 PM
Ben says:

186......personalising a portal should be replaced with hand coding php or perl for your web site

» by Ben on Nov 23, 2003 at 04:40 PM
Ben K. says:

Well, it looks like the highest score possible is a 240. They actually got one of their answers wrong: they give you points for saying that Mac files can be read and written in Windows and vv, but they seem to have forgotten the fact that Mac files have a resource fork and a data fork; if you pass a Mac file around a win or unix network, it's quite likely that the file you get back won't be the one you sent out.

» by Ben K. on Nov 23, 2003 at 04:42 PM
Matt says:

240 is the highest? Now I feel better about my 195. I'm nowhere near as hopeless as I thought.

» by Matt on Nov 24, 2003 at 12:43 AM
CH says:

sad to say that i used .net on my mac to sort out my home page ... just to see if could be done ... Happy to report it was possible ...

» by CH on Nov 24, 2003 at 11:08 AM
Beth Ringsmuth says:

Aside from Pierce, I think I tanked out with a 78. This is definitely skewed results, though, based on the fact that it's an internet test. Obviously more people who are tech-savvy are going to use than internet than those who don't. Also, I'm in agreement on the PC/Mac thing. I can use a PC but have used Macs since age five, so who cares if I know how to get rid of Clippy? My OS doesn't treat me like a 3-year-old.

» by Beth Ringsmuth on Nov 24, 2003 at 12:28 PM
Rich says:

186

» by Rich on Nov 24, 2003 at 06:08 PM
Don Shave says:

141 on 1st try which ain't not too bad for a 48+ English guy who lives in the scorching northern US-of-A!! Searched MSNBC site in vain (digital iq test) for this d*mned quiz after spotting commercial (Newsweek rag) -- went after it on Copernic...Kottke's blog pages popped up as #8 (of dozens) which led me here...FYI, try Google which quickly pops up several pages (as usual) with a preferred link to an "Einstein" IQ test which may be a chuckle!!

» by Don Shave on Nov 28, 2003 at 08:00 PM
chan says:

i got 82 .. -82 that is

» by chan on Dec 03, 2003 at 10:09 PM
o[ says:

what?

» by o[ on Dec 31, 2003 at 04:16 PM
davelo says:

I was disappointed. Just because I don't use a cellphone to access my email doesn't mean I don't know how to. And how do I avoid the RIAA? I don't, I'm Canadian.

» by davelo on Jan 06, 2004 at 12:29 AM
Hornick Andrea says:

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.

» by Hornick Andrea on Jan 25, 2004 at 10:14 PM
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» by Melissa on Feb 18, 2004 at 06:36 PM
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» by Sarh Gray on Feb 24, 2004 at 07:55 PM

 
This thread is closed to new comments. Thanks to everyone who responded.

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