Best by Test

The questions went like this:

Pick out the item which violates a positive rule or characteristic of the other five:

alumni data errata saga sori strata

Cadman Foster McDowell Nevin Sibelius Sousa

adjacent conform deprive liken oblivious prior

Ayrshire Guernsey Hereford Jersey Merino Shorthorn

Deuteronomy Exodus Ezekiel Genesis Leviticus Numbers

Arthur Coolidge M. Fillmore Monroe T. Roosevelt Tyler

femur fibula humerus patella tarsal tibia

brace dozen gross quart quarto quire

Complete the following sequences :

90 30 26 27 9 5 6 ? from 1 2 3 4 5 7

50 43 37 31 26 21 17 ? from 12 13 14 15 16 20

bare dare fare pare rare ? from care hare mare tare ware yare

elk fill gem hen fro ? from jog pop fig but sill ray

There are two quantities such that twice the larger is one less than four times the smaller, and ten times the smaller exceeds four times the larger by seven. What is the smaller quantity?

6 4 1/2 3 2 1/2 2 insufficient information*

There were 87 more questions to answer, and 90 minutes to do them all in. At the same hour one March morning, 5,580 nervous seniors in high schools all over the U.S. bent heads and pencils to the questions. There were $300 college scholarships for the ten winners.

The fiendish test had been devised by the National Association of Secondary-School Principals. Contestants were top students in 1,362 U.S. high schools.

Last week the N.A.S.P. announced the ten winners. Highest scorer: 16-year-old Patricia Pilliard of Milwaukee, who got 84 of the 100 questions right (median score: 53.6).

Patricia, a cheery, blue-eyed blonde, is a girl who likes to play the piano, sing mezzo-soprano, play golf and watch the Milwaukee Brewers baseball team. She hopes to go to Milwaukee-Downer College. She doesn't date much ("I've concentrated on scholarship"). When Patricia got word that she had won, her mother was more excited than she was. "Golly, was she excited," says Patricia. "I suppose I won't get excited until tomorrow."

* Answers: saga, Sibelius, adjacent, Merino, Ezekiel, Monroe, humerus, quart, 2, 13, tare, pop, 2 1/2.

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