The first standardized test was administered to aspiring civil servants in imperial China, circa 600 A.D. Which topics were covered during the multi-day exam?

(a) “Four Principles” and “Three Skills.”

(b) “Five Techniques” and “Four Disciplines.”

(c) “Six Arts” and “Five Studies.”

(d) “Vase-making” and “Wall-building.”

[Answer: (c). The Arts included music, arithmetic, writing, archery, horsemanship, and ritual knowledge, while the Studies focussed on military strategy, civil law, revenue and taxation, agriculture and geography, and the Confucian classics.]

True or false: According to authorities and experts, there are slightly more “true” than “false” answers on the average true/false test.

(a) True.

(b) False.

(c) True.

(d) True.

(f) False.

[Answer: (a), (c), or (d). Note: As this fact becomes more widely known, some test-givers may reverse the imbalance.]

Research suggests that roughly fifty per cent of answer changes on multiple-choice tests go from incorrect to correct, while only twenty-five per cent go from correct to incorrect. Most people, though, believe the opposite to be the case. In their seminal paper, Justin Kruger and Derrick Wirtz ascribe this misconception to which of the following?

(a) Counterfactual thinking, in which past switches from correct to incorrect answers are recalled more readily than their reverse, leading to the belief that first instincts are more accurate than they really are.

(b) In other words, switch if you think this is the correct answer.

(c) Or this one.

(d) Hey, over here! What about me?

[Answer: (a). The phenomenon is known as the “first-instinct fallacy.”]

Which letter appears most frequently in the standard Snellen Chart, developed in 1862 by the Dutch ophthalmologist Herman Snellen to test visual acuity?

(a) E

(b) E

(c) E

(d) E

[Answer: (a), (b), (c), or (d). The fifth letter of the alphabet appears ten times, with “P” a close second with nine appearances.]

What did President Dwight Eisenhower refer to as “a terrible thing to do to the American people”?

[Answer: (c); the nineteen-fifties national outrage involved several conspiracies to provide contestants with correct answers to questions ahead of time. It led to congressional hearings, an amendment to the Communications Act of 1964, and a 1994 Robert Redford-directed feature film.]

The Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, progenitor of modern I.Q. testing, has undergone many changes since its début in 1916, most notably an evolution in the language used to describe those falling on its lower end. Match the original classification with its modern equivalent:

(a) Idiot.

(b) Moron.

(c) Imbecile. Mild retardation. Moderate-severe retardation. Profound retardation.

[Answer: (a)-3, (b)-1, (c)-2. Note that the original Binet-Simon intelligence test, upon which the Stanford-Binet test improved, originated in France, where “moron” is pronounced “cretin.”]

In 1903, Prussia became the first government to require testing for all automobile drivers. What was the first U.S. locality to do so?

(a) New Hampshire.

(b) New Jersey.

(c) The District of Columbia.

(d) Daytona.

[Answer: (b), in 1913. In 1910, New York was the first state to require any testing—but only for professional chauffeurs.]

No. 2 pencils were required for most standardized-exam takers after the 1938 introduction of the IBM 805 test-scoring machine, which detected the electrical current flowing through graphite markings. The continued use of pencils today, however, is a historical holdover, unnecessary for what reason?