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View Poll Results: What was your score range? (you can post the exact number below)
36,000+ 4 11.43%
30,000-35,000 (general range, so my score goes here) 7 20.00%
25,000-30,000 (general range) 13 37.14%
Less than 25,000 11 31.43%
Voters: 35. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 08-16-2012, 01:49 AM   #1
Shuckle
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Your Vocabulary

How good is it?

The topic came up when I used the word "obstreperous" in conversation today, and I was curious if anyone had some basis for comparison and I'm a genius/live around idiots.

Now, this test is not for the faint of heart. If you happen to suffer from acute hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, I would suggest you avoid the test. As soon as you see the word "oneiromancy", you know they aren't playing around.

My score: I apparently know 29,300 words. I'm going to take their word for it.

Just for neatness' sake, I have this poll here to know UPN's score range.
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Old 08-16-2012, 02:20 AM   #2
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22,200 ;;

I'll go cry in a corner now
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Old 08-16-2012, 03:04 AM   #3
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29,800

Not bad for a Bio major with a narrow range of focus, I suppose? I do read quite a bit, though I don't generally inject many obscure or specialized words into conversation, unless it's a discussion about a passage involving them or a topic that necessitates it (for example, attempting to give a lecture on the sexual dimorphism and social behavior of Anolis lizards requires at least a basic understanding of biological terms, and a final presentation on research results generally requires that, a basic understanding of statistical terminology, and an understanding of the scientific method, simply because it would be nigh impossible to adequately discuss them without the use of such things).

This sort of thing is better with context though. (I know education systems differ in other countries, so fair warning, all of my examples are US based.) If you have a degree in English, then chances are you know a wider range of words than someone in High School. Level of education is an important factor. So with that in mind: I'm going into my final year of college with a major in Biology and a minor in Sociology. Take that and my number of words as you wish.
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Old 08-16-2012, 03:24 AM   #4
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I actually knew more of those words than I thought I did \o/

Very interesting either way, thanks for sharing this Shuckle~
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Old 08-16-2012, 03:48 AM   #5
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27,200

Some of those words towards the end were definitely made up. Tatterdemalion, I mean, honestly. Chrome's even underlined it in red...
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Old 08-16-2012, 03:49 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Rangeetsuper View Post
22,200 ;;

I'll go cry in a corner now
That's alright 'geet. Look on the bright side, we're in the higher ranks for people who don't have English as their native language... ESPECIALLY at our age.

@Shuckle, thanks for sharing this~
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Old 08-16-2012, 05:23 AM   #7
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30,300 apparently. I suspect less, but my English teacher at GCSE had a habit of drilling weird words into us which helped in the latter sections. Read quite a lot as well.
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Old 08-16-2012, 05:40 AM   #8
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I suspect anyone with a specialist degree like yours Dave would actually be a bit higher as you probably know an awful lot of very specific technical terms that aren't really covered by a test like this.
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Old 08-16-2012, 06:28 AM   #9
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Tatterdemalion

The last words were painful to read D;
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Old 08-16-2012, 08:29 AM   #10
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10,700

I don't many words.
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Old 08-16-2012, 08:34 AM   #11
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26,900.

I agree with Elsie. Some of those were totally made up.
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Old 08-16-2012, 08:59 AM   #12
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15,700.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyranidos View Post
I don't many words.
This.
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Old 08-16-2012, 09:57 AM   #13
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I swear "Imbroglio" is a spell you learn at Hogwarts.
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Old 08-16-2012, 10:12 AM   #14
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I got 31,300. I few of the words I recognized but couldn't recall the definitions to, and some of them they definitely made up.
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Old 08-16-2012, 10:19 AM   #15
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Okay, so back up here a bit.

The people who made the quiz are trying to find how many words you know without making you list them all. So if you have 20 categories, you need a common, uncommon, rare, and obscure word for each category for a total of 80 words to test you on. The test clearly has more categories and I'm not inclined to think of them now, or maybe they just have more levels of difficulty for words, or something. (2 for rare, 1 for obscure, 1 for general, etc.)

So it's just a guess. It is possible to know all the words for "stubborn" except for intractable, obstinate, and belligerent, and by some fluke the test happens to have those three words as your category for describing a specific kind of person; but you know what obstreperous (unruly, difficult to control, often noisy or loud) means.

So don't take it too seriously. The test is pretty accurate in that it chooses words that, should you have an insane vocabulary, you would know, but doesn't make the middling ones too hard and wreck the bell curve.

In addition, if you never read (whether by choice or because of some condition like dyslexia), you'll obviously know far fewer words than a Harvard-graduate bookworm. It's all a matter of experience. And honestly, if you can make out a general meaning from context, you can carry on a smooth conversation even if you have no idea what the fuck "terpsichorean" (of or relating to dancing; see Terpsichore the Muse of Dancing) means. You can nod politely and understand that Charleston was an important terpsichorean innovation.

If you're dissatisfied with how low your score is, read literature or talk to someone smart.
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Old 08-16-2012, 10:22 AM   #16
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I'm dissatisfied with my score, but I don't really care. I "knew" most of the words I checked, but I didn't know what they meant/couldn't remember at the time.
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Old 08-16-2012, 10:33 AM   #17
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28,100.

I feel disappointed about this.
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Old 08-16-2012, 10:37 AM   #18
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21,700

I don't many words either. ;~;
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Old 08-16-2012, 10:38 AM   #19
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EDIT: I'm an idiot.
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Last edited by Tyranidos; 08-16-2012 at 10:42 AM.
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Old 08-16-2012, 10:40 AM   #20
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The test is poorly designed insofar as it actually tests the following:
Do you think you know what this word means?
Rather than testing what the researchers would really need to test if we're to assess a good vocabulary which is:
Do you actually know what this word means?
In fact, you might even say that the test doesn't test whether people think they know the meaning of the word: because as you're flying through this list, it's far too tempting to tick off words you've heard many times but couldn't actually define.

A better way to have designed this test would have been to take a page out of the GRE's book and to have done the following:
  1. Keep Part 1 the same if you like in the interests of time. (The GRE does not but this is an Internet poll where people losing interest is the #1 reason these pollsters wouldn't get feedback.)
  2. Once the test subject has seeded you with their initial presumed vocab level, start giving them analogies suited to the highest level they claimed knowledge in. For instance, if I claimed to know what obstreperous meant, the very first analogy you should present me with is one which asks "hot : cold :: obstreperous : __" and then you provide four words of equal difficulty only one of which is its antonym. You could say "Well that's not fair! What if I knew what obstreperous meant but not the antonym? " but that brings us to ...
  3. When they get a question right, bump them up to the next highest level. When they get one wrong, bump them down to the next lowest level. Keep this up until they fail to fluctuate more than one level in either direction past a particular level for n turns, where n is a number whose value I don't claim to know but is probably something in the range of 5 to 9
By doing this, you'd actually test their vocabulary competency rather than their (claimed) vocabulary familiarity. The latter simply says "I (claim to) have encountered many words." The former is what properly says "I know the meanings of many words."

Anyway, 30,900. Not too bad but I certainly think it'd have been higher had they tested for more scientific and medical terms. (I did appreciate seeing bruit show up. )

Last edited by Talon87; 08-16-2012 at 10:42 AM.
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Old 08-16-2012, 10:45 AM   #21
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Ok, I thought you had to leave the words you didn't know unchecked. New score is 24,300, which seems about right.
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Old 08-16-2012, 10:47 AM   #22
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I just noticed something with the categories:
Quote:
30,000-35,000 (general range, so my score goes here)
Oh fuck off. I agree it's a general range -- I also agree it's a poorly-designed test of true vocabulary competency -- but even had you scored 29,999 you wouldn't have deserved to place yourself in the 30,000 to 35,000 range. I see Schala's voted honestly and he's technically scored 500 words higher than you. Either next time arbitrarily define your score windows such that they won't bruise your ego to begin with or else man the fuck up and admit you just barely missed out on the score range you should have liked to have landed in.

Or best of all: accept that this test is fundamentally flawed and don't sweat that it underscored you.
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Old 08-16-2012, 10:47 AM   #23
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41,900...

This test blows. Just because I know quite a number of those words offhand (I blame reading a library worth of books) does not mean I know that many words. At all.
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Old 08-16-2012, 10:47 AM   #24
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Tyranidos View Post
Ok, I thought you had to leave the words you didn't know unchecked. New score is 24,300, which seems about right.
You are supposed to leave the words you don't know unchecked. (No? That's what I did. I only checked words I felt I could define. I did not check off words I recognize from reading but could not tell a child what they meant.)
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Old 08-16-2012, 10:51 AM   #25
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Tyranitar

Quote:
Originally Posted by Talon87 View Post
You are supposed to leave the words you don't know unchecked. (No? That's what I did. I only checked words I felt I could define. I did not check off words I recognize from reading but could not tell a child what they meant.)
Fuck. I meant I thought you were supposed to check the words you didn't know, which is what I did the first time. I left the words I did know unchecked.

Today is clearly not the best day for me to take a test.
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