This "creativity test" (and its answer key in a later thread) are taken from a
1978 issue of National Lampoon magazine. It is a satirical magazine.
Note: I have tried to type the text from the magazine as it appeared, with its
various spellings, punctuations, spacing, etc. The actual text from the magazine
begins immediately below the bold horizontal line. These are bogus questions
(and so are the answers to them to be found in a later separate thread).
____________________________________________________________________
How do you know if you are a creative thinker? There is no foolproof method for
quantifying creativity, although many standardized tests administered to school-
children, the armed forces, and other pre-adult level minds often can achieve a
rough breakdown of types of creativity. There are also no known ways to see if
you have a certain outlook or tendency to think creatively -- and, if not, to
enable you to see where you might have taken the ordinary route instead of the
creative one.
Try your hand at this test, and remember: In most cases, the correctness of the
answers you arrive at is not as important as the way in which you arrived at the
answers themselves.
Creativity Test
1. Here are five matches. Using two matches, and without picking your pencil up off
the paper, can you make these five into seven?
|||||
2. Your friend hands you two bags of marbles. One contains eight black marbles, and
one contains eight white marbles. The next day he calls you on the phone and says,
"Put the marbles into one bag," and you do so. The next day he calls you and says,
"I need three white marbles, please bring them over to my house." How many times
must you reach into the bag of black and white marbles before you can be sure of
delivering the three white ones he has requested?
3. Look at this complex numeral for only three seconds. Now, without looking at it
again, recite the numeral correctly.
\(\displaystyle \text{2747364875894859600558575645534231}\)
4. An old man is sitting under a tree. A man walks up to him and points to another
man chopping down a different tree some yards away. The man asks the old man,
"Who is that other man chopping down the tree?" The old man smiles and says,
"Brothers and sisters have I none, but that man's father's son's the one/Whose
brother's sister had some fun/With my grandmother's other son/And when his wife,
who hadn't done/What that man's mother told her son/She went and got a Gatling
gun/And shot his sister in the bun/And thus was that man's life begun."
Who is the man chopping down the tree?
5. This sum consists of a series of letters in place of numbers.
Can you make sense of it?
\(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ C \ R \ A \ N \ K \)
\(\displaystyle \ + \ \ O \ K \ R \ A \ S \)
_______________
\(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ \ \ S \ \ P \ \ I \ \ T \ S \)
6. Tom has three apples. Mary comes along and says, "Say, Tom, why don't you give
me one of those apples, and I'll give you one of my oranges?" Tom says,
"Wait a minute, Mary. If I give you one of my apples, you'll probably take it to Jim and
trade it for one of his pears. Then you'll have a pear and some oranges. I'll have some
apples and an orange, and Jim will have one of my apples."
Mary says, "So? What's wrong with that? Do you dislike Jim for some reason, Tom?"
Tom says, "You bet I do, Mary. Last year my girl friend had an incurable disease,
and Jim came over to her house and said, 'If I give you two peaches, will you give one
to Tom so he'll give me one of those apples he's expecting to get within the year?'
"So my girl friend said, 'Please leave me alone, Jim, I have an incurable disease.'
So Jim left her house, and shortly thereafter [she] went into a coma, and was
unconscious for two weeks. Then suddenly one afternoon she woke up, and told us she
had been in a beautiful place full of kind spirits and feelings of pleasantness, and that
now that she had come back from this state so close to death itself, she could truly
appreciate life and would from now on live each moment to the fullest."
7. Look at this pattern of dots. Can you connect all of the dots with one straight line,
without picking your pencil up off the paper?
\(\displaystyle * \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ *\)
\(\displaystyle \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ *\)
\(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ *\)
\(\displaystyle \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ *\)
\(\displaystyle * \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ *\)
1978 issue of National Lampoon magazine. It is a satirical magazine.
Note: I have tried to type the text from the magazine as it appeared, with its
various spellings, punctuations, spacing, etc. The actual text from the magazine
begins immediately below the bold horizontal line. These are bogus questions
(and so are the answers to them to be found in a later separate thread).
____________________________________________________________________
How do you know if you are a creative thinker? There is no foolproof method for
quantifying creativity, although many standardized tests administered to school-
children, the armed forces, and other pre-adult level minds often can achieve a
rough breakdown of types of creativity. There are also no known ways to see if
you have a certain outlook or tendency to think creatively -- and, if not, to
enable you to see where you might have taken the ordinary route instead of the
creative one.
Try your hand at this test, and remember: In most cases, the correctness of the
answers you arrive at is not as important as the way in which you arrived at the
answers themselves.
Creativity Test
1. Here are five matches. Using two matches, and without picking your pencil up off
the paper, can you make these five into seven?
|||||
2. Your friend hands you two bags of marbles. One contains eight black marbles, and
one contains eight white marbles. The next day he calls you on the phone and says,
"Put the marbles into one bag," and you do so. The next day he calls you and says,
"I need three white marbles, please bring them over to my house." How many times
must you reach into the bag of black and white marbles before you can be sure of
delivering the three white ones he has requested?
3. Look at this complex numeral for only three seconds. Now, without looking at it
again, recite the numeral correctly.
\(\displaystyle \text{2747364875894859600558575645534231}\)
4. An old man is sitting under a tree. A man walks up to him and points to another
man chopping down a different tree some yards away. The man asks the old man,
"Who is that other man chopping down the tree?" The old man smiles and says,
"Brothers and sisters have I none, but that man's father's son's the one/Whose
brother's sister had some fun/With my grandmother's other son/And when his wife,
who hadn't done/What that man's mother told her son/She went and got a Gatling
gun/And shot his sister in the bun/And thus was that man's life begun."
Who is the man chopping down the tree?
5. This sum consists of a series of letters in place of numbers.
Can you make sense of it?
\(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ C \ R \ A \ N \ K \)
\(\displaystyle \ + \ \ O \ K \ R \ A \ S \)
_______________
\(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ \ \ S \ \ P \ \ I \ \ T \ S \)
6. Tom has three apples. Mary comes along and says, "Say, Tom, why don't you give
me one of those apples, and I'll give you one of my oranges?" Tom says,
"Wait a minute, Mary. If I give you one of my apples, you'll probably take it to Jim and
trade it for one of his pears. Then you'll have a pear and some oranges. I'll have some
apples and an orange, and Jim will have one of my apples."
Mary says, "So? What's wrong with that? Do you dislike Jim for some reason, Tom?"
Tom says, "You bet I do, Mary. Last year my girl friend had an incurable disease,
and Jim came over to her house and said, 'If I give you two peaches, will you give one
to Tom so he'll give me one of those apples he's expecting to get within the year?'
"So my girl friend said, 'Please leave me alone, Jim, I have an incurable disease.'
So Jim left her house, and shortly thereafter [she] went into a coma, and was
unconscious for two weeks. Then suddenly one afternoon she woke up, and told us she
had been in a beautiful place full of kind spirits and feelings of pleasantness, and that
now that she had come back from this state so close to death itself, she could truly
appreciate life and would from now on live each moment to the fullest."
7. Look at this pattern of dots. Can you connect all of the dots with one straight line,
without picking your pencil up off the paper?
\(\displaystyle * \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ *\)
\(\displaystyle \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ *\)
\(\displaystyle \ \ \ \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ *\)
\(\displaystyle \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ *\)
\(\displaystyle * \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ * \ \ \ *\)