Friday, 15 October 2010
So, I spent some time today making sure I still know the basic. I did it via Sporcle’s quizzes.
Have you ever been to Sporcle? If not, go visit right now. They put up four or five new quizzes every day, so I check back all the time. Some of the quizzes I don’t really care for, others are insanely difficult, but some are really awesome.
It probably goes with out saying that they exhausted all the basics of human knowledge long ago, but I thought I’d dig back into their archives and see how I did on stuff that I think I should know.
Name all the Elements. I scored 102 out of 118. Don’t be an idiot and forget lead (like I did).
Name all the Presidents of the USA. I got 44 out of 44. You can type just the last names, if you want. The great thing about that is it will cause two answers to pop up on multiple occasions.
Name all the nations of Europe. I got 47 out of 47. It’s a little easier than just randomly naming off countries, because the map fills in as you go. So, if you can’t think of anymore, at least you can see the outlines of the countries you’re missing. (“Hmm…what’s that one in between Norway and Finland…”)
Name all the teams in Major League Baseball. I got 24 out of 30. Don’t forget about that Canadian team!
Name all the teams in the NFL. I got 28 out of 32. This was a little easier than the last one, ’cause I just started right off typing in ‘Giants’ and ‘Cardinals’ again. My main problem with these sports teams quizzes is that I start typing in teams that I know exist, but that must play a different sport…
Name every motion picture that’s won the Academy Award for Best Picture since 1970. I got 38 out of 40. That’s annoying, because I know I’ve seen them all (I make a point of ensuring that I see every Best Picture winner). The two I missed were two of the most recent, too: 2004’s and 2008’s.
Name the parts of your body that have three-letter names. I got 9 out of 10. Again, this is annoying because, unless you get a perfect score, you’ll feel like an idiot once the answers are revealed. By the way – there are no crass terms, so don’t bother guessing “ass” or “tit.”
Have fun, and let me know how you did.
Of those you listed, the three-letter named body parts quiz was my only perfect score. “Rib” was the last one I thought of.
I only missed a few of the sports ones, but for those that I missed I had heard of them before. That is, there were no “there’s a team called the Hoobastanks?”
My worst result was for Best Picture Academy Award movies. I actually hit the “I give up” button on that one.
For the rest, I failed on spelling. After the elements quiz debacle, I decided I’d write down my misspelled version of the answers. That way I could take solace in the fact that I would have done better on an oral version of the test.
And before you consider this excuse reasonable, I should point out that many of these were not for difficultly spelled names, but were more of a spelling mind-block. Like not being able to figure out why “Nickson” wasn’t considered a President. I’m not joking. Although I did figure that one out before the buzzer, it’s a great example of how much the spelling was tripping me up.
Although pronunciation would have cost me as well.
Bosnia and Hertsa…
Bosnia and Hertza…
Bosnia and Herza…
Yeah, spelling can be a real doozy on some of those quizzes. There have been debates on some of the threads there in which poor spellers argue for greater leniency and good spellers argue “Yes, but technically Richard Nickson was NOT the President.” I agree with the strict spellers. This has cause me to lose points on quizzes in the past, but it’s improved my spelling in many areas. For example, I can say with certainty that I can correctly spell every nation on the planet. That’s something I couldn’t have done two years ago.
Toughies include:
Kyrgyzstan
Kazakhstan
Colombia
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Kiribati
I’m with the strict spellers as well. I’ve noticed that some tests accept incorrectly spelled names/words. I don’t like this because, for me at least, it reinforces my incorrect spelling. Where before I might have been unsure of how to spell something, I might now think the incorrect spelling is right!
I think this is the second time you’ve turned me on to the site. I don’t know how I forgot about it — it’s so fun.
Here are some interesting tests I recently tried:
http://www.sporcle.com/games/world_chess_champions.php — 15/18
http://www.sporcle.com/games/worst_movies.php — 6/100
http://www.sporcle.com/games/originallost.php — 21/21
http://www.sporcle.com/games/samuraiSTAK/yes_or_no — 47/100
David-
Your ‘excessive’ number of links caused this comment to get caught in my spam filter. Lucky for you, I decided to be kind and let this comment slide through.
I wonder if, what you perceive as incorrect spelling, might have a reasonable explanation. In a recent space shuttle quiz, they accepted “Endeavor” for “Endeavour” because in the USA, we leave out that U when spelling ‘endeavor.’ I know they accept ‘East Timor’ for the nation of ‘Timor-Leste,’ too, since that nation did accept ‘East Timor’ as their name for a few months some years ago.
Anyway, here’s how I did on the quizzes you listed:
Chess Champions: 2/18
Worst Movies: 7/100
Lost: (Not gonna bother taking it, since I know I’ll get zero.)
Yes or No: 57/100