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« Centennial Challenge Report | Main | Sparse Posting »

I'm A "Little Red"

According to this test.

It was more than a little irritating, though, because all (not just a few) of the questions should have had a "No Clue" option.

I generally do well on multiple-guess tests, but I don't think they're a useful gauge of knowledge, and I particularly dislike those that don't have an "I dunno" option.

Posted by Rand Simberg at July 15, 2004 08:13 PM
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Guess I Could Be From Anywhere
Excerpt: I scored exact center on this red/blue test , which I agree with Rand about. The questions and limited "I dunno" options are somewhat lame. It's trivia, nothing more.
Weblog: Accidental Verbosity
Tracked: July 16, 2004 06:01 AM
Comments

Sheesh, that quiz seemed to point out more about the author than a participant: 'More than a little blue'.

Only the questions at the very end were anything vaguely oriented towards actually figuring out actual positions as opposed to 'do you fit a stereotype'. And even those questions (would you own this movie ones) don't begin to ask if you identified with the moral/theme/protagonist etc.

Posted by Al at July 15, 2004 10:05 PM

Cute, but bogus. It's a trivia test, measuring what you know, not how you behave.

For example, I know when Rush comes on because I'm often in my car when that happens and I reach over and hit the off button.

Posted by billg at July 16, 2004 03:08 AM

What an annoying exersize. I can see their point -- the whole red/blue thing is more cultural than political, and these cultures come complete with a host of different icons, which this test is trying to test your exposure to. But as someonw who stays out of the mainstream (ie, no TV), most of their questions are incomprehensible to me (then again, so is the whole red/blue thing). Here are the answers I couldn't give:

Lee Greenwood: I don't know
LIRR: I don't know
The Big 12: I don't know, and probably wouldn't care even if I did.
Winged #3: I don't know.
"How do you like me now": No idea.
Quad Cities: don't know
White pantyhose: none of my goddamn business.
Brisket: Never heard of it.
Jed Bartlett: No idea.
Door Country: No clue.
Women's Jewelery: Is generally too expensive, and is either tastefully difficult to notice, or garishly obnoxious.
Larry Kramer: Beats me.
Jim Caviezel: Dunno.
Limbaugh's airtime: I'd rather have a root canal than know the answer to this first-hand.
Avenue Q: No clue.

With my completely random answers to these questions, the test ranked me as "in the middle".

Posted by Nathan Koren at July 16, 2004 09:17 AM

You don't respond to the question if you don't know the answer. It's a ratio test. You skew the result if you guess. I could answer only 1 out of 3 questions and it said I am not either red or blue. Thank goodness.

Posted by Jardinero1 at July 16, 2004 09:23 AM

What the heck was that?? I looked up "LIRR" - Long Island Rail Road. So the fact that I didn't know it proves what? That I haven't been there?
Now ask me about BART and I can tell you, but again, what does that prove?

I gave up in disgust after about the tenth "I don't have a clue" answer.

Posted by VR at July 16, 2004 01:18 PM

I found the whole thing pretty irrelevant. I've been a red stater my whole life, predominantly in the southern U.S., but I lived up north for a number of years. The fact that I was aware of northern culture makes me a blue stater? I have Michigander friends. Should the fact that I know what the UP is count me as blue?

Posted by Rev. Mike at July 16, 2004 08:45 PM


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