The Penultimate I.Q. Challenge

By William F. Bultas
I encourage you to use any reference materials you think might help on the following 10 I.Q. puzzles. Some of the titles for the puzzles may provide a valuable hint, although some may mislead you. I have placed the answers on a separate page to keep you from looking until you're ready. The ranking scale below is designed for entertainment purposes only, but should give you a general idea of how well you have performed. Be aware that some of the puzzles may take a while to solve, so the more time you spend working on the puzzles, the higher your score is likely to be. If you enjoy this puzzle intelligence test, be sure to try the other tests & puzzles at PUZZ.COM. Have fun!


Number Correct                 IQ & Rank
     0-1                   IQ  90 / Below Average
      2                    IQ 100 / Average
      3                    IQ 110 / Above Average
      4                    IQ 120 / Superior    
     5-6                   IQ 130 / Gifted
     7-8                   IQ 140 / Highly Gifted
     9-10                  IQ 150 / Genius

180 DEGREES
1. Sometimes our first impression is right, but occasionally it isn't. Is the following equation correct? If so, how?

8 + 8 = 91

ABANDONED MINE
2. Searching for some gold rumored to have been left behind in the Saltmarsh Mine, Jake the treasure hunter seems to have gotten lost in the interconnected tunnels. Of the 2 entrance tunnels, he chose the 1 going north, which extended for 30 feet, then turned & walked 15 feet, turned again & went 12 feet, changed direction & walked for 7 feet, & changing direction each time before travelling each distance, walked 11, 10, 8, 2, 13, 7, 27, 5, 5, & 2 feet before emerging through the other tunnel at the entrance. Jake has no recollection of which directions he was going in those tunnels, & is just glad he made it out. If Jake was headed either north, south, east, or west for each distance, & never walked in or through the same tunnel twice, what directions did he travel in the tunnels, & in what order?

BUSINESS PSYCHOLOGY
3. All of the students at a college are majoring in psychology, business, or both. 73% of the students are psychology majors, & 62% are business majors. If there are 200 students, how many of them are majoring in both psychology & business?

PHILOSOPHICAL RIDDLER
4. My name consists of 8 letters.

A. My 6, 5, 8, 1 is a trick.
B. My 1, 2, 3, 4 is a type of poem.
C. My 4, 5, 6, 1 is a parish priest.
Who am I?

ROAD MORE TRAVELLED
5. I am a type of road, but if you separate me in a certain place, you will have 2 new words. 1 of these words is 8 letters in length, & the other means 'eat.' What am I?

3 X 3
6. A chess knight is placed on the center square of 1 side of a 3 x 3 section on a chess board. Determine how many moves the knight could make, provided that it obeyed the following 3 rules:
1. The knight cannot land on the same square twice.
2. The knight has only made a move when it lands on a square by making a valid move for a knight in a chess game.
3. The knight can land on the square that it begins on.

SIGN LANGUAGE
7. Twins, Lion, Balance, Archer, Water Bearer, ?

Replace the ? with one of the following words, so that the series is correct:

Cheetah Knight Moon Ram Fire Dice

CURRENT EVENT
8. In training for a competition, you find that swimming downstream (with the current) in a river, you can swim 2 miles in 40 minutes, & upstream (against the current), you can swim 2 miles in 60 minutes. How long would it take you to swim a mile in still water?

ECCENTRIC ED
9. Farmer Ed refers to cattle as vobs, bears as srus, horses as uqes, & pigs as crops. What in the world does he call sheep?

NUMBER OF NUMBERS
10. What is the minimum number of numbers needed to form every number from 1 to 7,000? Example: To form 3232, you would need 2 3s & 2 2s. 4322 requires a 4, a 3, & 2 2s, but you would not count the numbers again that you had already counted from making 3232.

Answers