Introduction to the Political IQ

Pundit Politics is a politically-oriented website with the primary goal of promoting a fact-based approach towards politics and political debate. Pundit Politics features a variety of elements, including a factually oriented political blog, a wide range of political knowledge tests, political graphs and statistics, and more. The informational Pundit Politics Blog publishes articles and commentary which approach a diverse range of political issues from factually-oriented perspectives.

In additional to the blog, Pundit Politics features numerous political knowledge tests presented in the form of ‘Political IQ tests.’ These informative and engaging 25 to 60 minute examinations test Pundit Politics users’ for knowledge of politically-relevant facts – as opposed to their political opinions. These Political IQ tests are not only designed to test how informed you are, but also to be educational in the process.

Pundit Politics also features fascinating political IQ statistics and figures for a massive number of political questions and topics. These statistics offer insight into what percentage of individuals are actually qualified to hold their political opinions – that is, assuming one ought to know at least a minimum amount of relevant factual knowledge in order to form a valid political opinion.

On the whole, Pundit Politics is an excellent resource for anyone who engages in political discussion or debate, from the casual conversationalist to the hardcore political enthusiast. Whether you’d like to weigh in on the articles and posts in our blog, or discover your Political IQ, Pundit Politics is happy to continue advancing the cause of a politically-informed and knowledgeable citizenry.

One of our goals here at Pundit Politics is to help you discover your Political IQ. Your Political IQ is a measure of how inherently qualified – or, in some cases, unqualified – you are to hold a given political opinion. Of course we recognize that everyone is entitled to have political beliefs and to feel strongly about them. However, we also believe that in order for a political opinion to be valid it should be grounded in relevant facts, as opposed to being the sole product of uninformed, emotionally-based thinking.

Pundit Politics encourages individuals to hold political beliefs, but we also believe that political opinions must be supported by cold hard facts, at least if you want to be taken seriously. Just to be clear, your Political IQ has nothing to do with how you lean on a given political issue, or with who you voted for in the last election. It has nothing to do with which political party you belong to. Your Political IQ is instead a measure of how informed your political opinions are relative to the average person’s.

At Pundit Politics you will be able to determine your Political IQ by taking tests on a wide variety of political issues. Pundit Politics features tests and quizzes on subjects ranging from the Iraq War to environmental policy to prominent political figures. We have assembled an editorial review board of highly distinguished and qualified professors, professionals and experts to review our tests – not only for accuracy, but especially for relevance to the topic on which a test is given. Therefore, regardless of your particular political persuasion, we are confident that you’ll be tested on facts that you ought to know if you are to consider yourself a true political pundit. For a more detailed discussion on fact relevancy, please take a look at our testing methodology below.

Pundit Politics takes pride in offering the best, most detailed political knowledge tests online. We view each of our tests as a valuable resource for promoting political informedness and informed political debate. Each test focuses on a particular facet of American and/or world politics, on topics ranging from government and law to the more overarching issues that have recently occupied the political media spotlight, such as the situation in Iraq or the economic downturn. The political tests approach each topic from a variety of relevant angles, attempting to simultaneously test and inform the user. Each test randomly selects questions from larger topical databases, ensuring that a wide variety of relevant questions of varying difficulty may be asked. Therefore, a 20-question economy test might randomly select five questions out of a pool of ten easy questions, ten out of a pool of 20 ‘medium’ questions, and similarly five out of a pool of ten hard questions. Currently there are 22 tests to choose from. However, the Pundit Politics Team is always working on new content and updating current tests, so visit frequently!

Test Format

Every test at Pundit Politics is entirely comprised of multiple-choice questions presented in a ‘click-to-choose’ format. Our tests range anywhere from 12 to 50 questions in length, and feature 25 to 60 minute time limits. The time limits are not designed to create ‘time pressure,’ and should allow even the most ponderous of pundits enough time to complete the test without feeling rushed. We also divide our tests, as well as our test questions, into approximate difficulty classifications. Our novice tests will be challenging for a casual political buff, whereas our advanced and expert tests will be a challenge for all but the most expert hardcore political junkies. And our Expert Political IQ tests are obscene and borderline-sadistic in their depth and difficulty. A general breakdown of the tests is included below.

U.S. Politicians Tests

• Short quizzes, each focusing on the background, policymaking and views of any of ten prominent U.S. politicians.
• 12 to 15 questions in length.
• 25 minute time limit.
• Easy to Moderate difficulty.
• Maximum Political IQ score: 160.

Novice Tests

• Short quizzes that serve as a good introduction to the topic of interest, though not necessarily easy.
• 15 questions in length.
• 25 minute time limit.
• Moderate difficulty.
• Maximum Political IQ score: 160.

Advanced Tests

• More challenging tests designed to thoroughly gauge one’s knowledge and understanding of the topic of interest.
• 20 questions in length.
• 35 minute time limit.
• Challenging.
• Maximum Political IQ score: 175.

Expert Tests

• Full-length Political IQ tests that will explore the true breadth and depth of one’s political knowledge. Undoubtedly challenging for even the most rabid political pundits.
• 50 Questions in length.
• 60 minute time limit.
• Very Challenging.
• Maximum Political IQ score: 190.

Political IQ Test Questions

You might be wondering - or at least we hope you are - what criteria Pundit Politics uses to determine which questions are asked and which facts are deemed significant. How do we decide? Unfortunately, there is no golden rule for determining which facts are considered the most relevant to a given political issue. However, at Pundit Politics we have spent an enormous amount of time pouring over newspapers, journals, academic papers, encyclopedias, political blogs and other online resources of every kind searching for important facts and themes that underlie many of the most prominent political issues in America. The facts that have been selected relate both directly and indirectly to the political issues at hand, so as to test both one’s breadth and depth of knowledge on the subject. For example, in any discussion of environmental policy, knowing the facts relating to the trends in climate change over the last 100 years is clearly essential to an informed opinion on the topic. On the other hand, being truly informed goes beyond simply memorizing the “textbook” facts. Facts that indirectly relate to a political issue can also be important. For example, the fact that as of 2008 the Earth’s atmosphere contains approximately 385 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide is rather trivial piece of information on its own, but this fact becomes much more relevant in combination with the fact that there exists a direct correlation between atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and global temperature - and even more relevant if one knew that 385 ppm is by far the highest concentration experienced in the last 600,000 years. And that this concentration is steadily rising. Therefore, we have carefully designed our questions to test users on a blend of both direct and indirect political knowledge. To double check our work, we have recruited some of the most qualified individuals to help us refine and/or provide input on our questions, including top university professors and other distinguished scholars, experts and general content advisers.(Visit our Expert Review Board).

Political IQ Scoring Details

Upon the completion of a Political IQ test, the test-taker will receive a Political IQ score and title, as well as a brief description of their relative performance. The scoring system is simple and much like a classical IQ test, thus scoring is based on a bell curve distribution, but with some minor modifications to account for our smaller test sizes. Political IQ scores range from 0 to 160 for our novice and political figures tests, from 0 to 175 for our advanced tests, and from 0 to 190 for our Expert Political IQ tests.

Along with one’s Political IQ score, test-takers earn an appropriate Political IQ title or description.

• 0-30% - Political Cro-Magnon
• 30-40% - Political Novice
• 40-50% - Politically Competent
• 50-65% - Politicall Proficient
• 65-80% - Political Scholar
• 80-90% - Political Powerhouse
• 90-99.9% - Political Genius
• Perfect - Test-Specific Title

Your Political IQ score depends both on the percentage of questions answered correctly, and the difficulty level of each of those questions. Our question databases aggregate questions topically and then those questions are sorted into tiers of relative difficulty, with the hardest questions being given the most weight. Political IQ tests with mainly high difficulty questions are adjusted to have a higher maximum Political IQ score, while tests with mainly novice to moderate difficulty questions feature a lower maximum Political IQ score.

Pundit Politics features commentary, news, Political IQ tests, blog ramblings, statistics and analysis on a wide range of political test topics. These include everything from the Iraq War and other foreign policy realms, to the economy, domestic policy, science and the environment, governmental structure and even individual politicians. Obviously not all politically-relevant topics can be covered, but the Pundit Politics Team strives to continually refine and expand the site’s content. For a list of the topics currently explored on Pundit Politics, check out our complete list of tests and the Blog topics List.

The Pundit Politics blog publishes commentary, analysis and the occasional informed rant on all sorts of political issues. (See the Blog Topics List). The Pundit Politics Team includes writers and contributors from a wide variety of academic and professional backgrounds, each publishing content on political issues relevant to their particular fields of interest and expertise. The unifying theme of the Pundit Politics blog, however, is a heavy focus on concrete, politically-relevant facts as a foundation for exploring particular political issues. For example, most posts and articles on the Pundit Politics blog will frame the political issue or topic at hand in terms of relevant facts and a general contextual background before launching into an opinion or an argument.

While neither Pundit Politics’ editors nor contributors portend to one-hundred percent accuracy and flawless logic in their offerings - or even mild relevancy and/or competency, for that matter - it is always our goal to be educational and thought-provoking when it comes to some of the most important political issues of our day. That is why we encourage comments and debate in response to each of our articles and posts, and why we never shy away from admitting an error or oversight, or from stubbornly driving a point home in the face of uninformed emotion and political sentiment.

It should be noted that the Pundit Politics blog and its staff have no partisan political agenda, and may often not even be in agreement on the relevant facts or issues. However, the common ground here at Pundit Politics is that without certain relevant facts and truths to support one’s political points, it becomes much harder to be taken seriously.

Although the Pundit Politics Forums are currently not in use, they will be a place to discuss everything from the Political IQ tests, scores, recent political developments, political facts and issues, as well as a place to leave suggestions, comments, adulatory praise and, of course, brutal criticism. Currently, if you wish to post a comment about a particular political test or anything else Pundit Politics feel free to leave a comment on the main blog.

One of the unique features at PunditPolitics is the gathering of statistical data on political informedness and awareness as it relates to a vast array of specific politically-relevant questions and issues. Each time a question on our Political IQ tests is answered, the result is anonymously recorded for subsequent analysis and presentation based on a spectrum of useful demographic data. Thus, a relative idea of how many people know the answer to a particular question is available to the public, which PunditPolitics views as helpful to understanding what facts people base (or do not base) their political opinions on. Of course, while these statistics do not meet the criteria necessary for rigid scientific validity, given sampling biases and the like, we feel that the results are interesting and potentially valuable nonetheless. Perhaps more so as a starting point for further inquiry, rather than an authoritative finding.

Our Political Testing Area is accessible to Pundit Politics members only, membership is free, if you wish to sign-up click here. Once inside, users can access any of our many Political IQ Tests, adjust personal settings, and browse their own personal political IQ testing records. To access the testing area directly, click here.