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March 19, 2007
Test the nation? O RLY?
Last night CBC's Test the Nation was on the air. It pitted teams of surgeons, millionaires, fitness instructors, mayors, radio DJs, tattoo artists and celebrities against each other. I returned home after a day of drinking and revelry, and Rose insisted that I take the test before watching the show. I did, and according to this test, I will probably be the smartest of any random sampling of 50 Canadians. Top 2% isn't bad. The show itself was fun (the hosts didn't seem to take anything all that seriously, which I liked) and I would like similar things to happen in the future. The CBC has a good thing going on here.
My biggest criticism here is that although the show claims to be pan-Canadian, it clearly excluded francophone Quebeckers. The questions were aimed at English audiences, and for language reasons alone most people living in Quebec are at a major disadvantage. Even if a person is bilingual, some of the expressions used are very anglo-centric. It's as commenter mathieu put it, another example of how Canada excludes or forgets about Quebec. This is simply unacceptable, and the rest of Canada really needs to understand this if there is to be any talk of really accepting Quebec into the Canadian family. (I may sound like a separatist here, but I am not.)
Take the test, just for fun, and show your score. I got a modest 130, and I suspect that the readers of this blog and the other Montreal blogs would score around that much. Post any comments about the test as well as your score here. I think that the next time they do this, they should add a French version as well as a new team: topic-oriented bloggers.
Posted by JonasParker at March 19, 2007 1:56 PM
Comments
Just as I suspected - I am a nit-wit! 110 was my score.
*dons dunce cap and blinks*
Posted by: Me: The Sequel at March 19, 2007 4:37 PM
I got 122, which is exactly what I guessed I would get.
I don't think it was a very accurate test, but it was fun. A lot of pattern recognition made it a great test for me, because I know I'm good at that, but for someone with different strengths it would have been a lot different.
Posted by: Kerry at March 19, 2007 6:28 PM
I completely agree with the accuracy thing. This is actually a joke. One guy got a 106 on this thing, but 147 on a real test. What's interesting is that we got pretty much the exact score across the country.
The perception and pattern recognition are always my weaknesses. That's where I really stumbled.
Posted by: JonasParker 
at March 19, 2007 7:50 PM
Well this is annoying, I got 108, but in my defense, I was exhausted and also distracted by the TV. Heh. Sigh.
Posted by: zura at March 20, 2007 9:58 PM
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