Richard Moore: Knowledge tests a site for sore eyes

Test yourself on the countries of the world.

There are very few things I enjoy more than a really good workout of the brain cells.

I've killed off a fair few of them over the years, but I reckon what's left is more than a match for anything I care to pit them against.

I love Sudoku - the terribly addictive Japanese numbers game - and strategy games, but most of all I love quizzes.

Always have and always will - for as long as the good Lord allows me to keep my faculties.

I enjoy military and history tests the most - those being my favoured subjects, but will give geography, politics, the arts, movies and literature a whirl as well.

Just don't ask me anything to do with recent celebrity TV as I have not a clue.

As an example if I were asked who are the most annoying mob on TV at the minute I would have to say anyone involved with that ridiculous Cowtrashian family.

But back to quizzes.

Unfortunately I don't get out to quiz nights that often as my editing work tends to destroy evenings out but, boy, if I get into one I'd have my money on my side to take the prize.

My university-ensconced daughter recently put me on to a great quiz site called Sporcle.com that contains some absolutely fabulous tests for just about everyone.

You can test your knowledge on all manner of things but the major ones are sports, music, history, TV, geography, literature, science, language and movies.

It is US-weighted, which stuffs me in a lot of sports quizzes, but I reckon if you want to check out how much your grey matter has soaked in over the years have a go at a subject you don't think you know much about.

For example I took on the challenge of naming US presidents. Now there were 44 of them and I battled my way to the time limit and managed to name 32 of the blighters.

Then it was American states. Yes, there are 50 but go on - you have a go.

I forgot two, which disappointed me greatly. Must have been a mind block.

Feeling somewhat cocky I took on US state capitals and came an absolute cropper managing to miss more than 40.

Chastised, I hopped into "R Movie Actor Match" where you need to put 19 thespians into the R movies they starred in.

In my three minutes I only got 16. Righto, Shakespeare Plays. List 38 within 10 minutes.

Um, first 10 went down easily enough. So did the second lot. Um, okay, getting there 28 Coriolanus 29 The Winter's Tale 30 Twelfth Night 31 um, errr, ummmmm Measure for Measure blank.

Missed obvious ones like Cymbeline, Troilus and Cressida, Pericles and Timon of Athens.

Still, there's only one bloke I know who would have got all 38 and I hope you are not subbing this column Paul!

Crikey, I need a confidence boost so let's delve into the history section.

This Means War sounds good. Can I pick the war from the name of a battle. Should be able to ... 25 answers in seven minutes. Righto. Two minutes later all solved and ego firmly back where it belongs.

How about Women and War. Five minutes to cross match famous (and not-so-famous) women with the wars they were made famous by. Starts off okay Joan of Arc, Boudicca, Florence Nightingale ... but a warrior queen in ancient Babylon and the choices include Semiramis, Amina Sukhera and Zenobia. Well, sometimes you have to guess a little in these things so Zenobia was clicked and turned out to be ... incorrect. Poo. It was Semiramis.

Ah well ...

If you want another really good test take on naming the countries of Europe. Easy you think? Well come up with all 47 then smarties.

If you manage that then try the countries of Asia (49 to do), or the absolute brain crusher of getting all 54 African nations. I got two-thirds of the way and then half my brain seized power in a bloodless coup and the other bit was forced to flee for Burkina Faso.

The beauty of a site like Sporcle is you can always do the test again. I usually leave them for a week or so and then see how I can improve.

I now can name almost every African nation, including the annoying little ones in the west.

For more fun try naming the world's 197 countries in 15 minutes. The first time I got about 150 before I wanted aliens to invade to put me out of my misery.

On a second go - and going by continent rather than naming things at random - I reached 170, although fingers were flying over the keyboards and the Sporcle site is unforgiving on spelling errors.

My best score is 177 - it's the islands of the Caribbean that really stuff me up.

So go on, take the world test ... I dare you.

And I double dare those wanting to change New Zealand's flag to beat the challenge of matching flags with countries. There are 197 to get through and I hauled up the white flag after 52. Boy, the world is very different from the days of my boyhood studies.

Richard@richardmoore.com

-Richard Moore is an award-winning Western Bay journalist and photographer.