Kiwis rate bottom of the class for IQ

By ALAN PERROTT and CHARLOTTE WINSTONE

Go to the back of the class, New Zealand, you don't measure up in the international IQ stakes.

Results from the more than 10,000 people who sat the TV One IQ test on-line on Monday evening have been broken down on the Test the Nation website.

They fall short of those obtained from similar televised IQ tests in Australia and Britain. These results can also be found on the net, as can summaries of tests in Germany, France and the Netherlands.

After dividing up this country's test entrants regionally, only the north of the South Island registered an average IQ of 100 or more - 100 is in the middle of the average IQ range of 90 to 109.

The other regions struggled from 90 in the Chatham Islands to Auckland, Canterbury and Taranaki, with a mediocre 99.

In contrast, southern New South Wales finished bottom in Australia with 102, and Canberra scored 115.

The top Aussie score of 151 went to schoolteacher Terry Ymer.

A TVNZ spokeswoman said this country's top scorer was "Joel", a student in Wellington who finished with a score of "more than 127".

Even Australian Footy Show presenter and former rugby league player "Fatty" Vautin can claim an IQ of 127.

Just to twist the knife, New Zealanders featured in the Australian test as one of the contestant groups, along with blondes and builders, and finished last, getting only 44 per cent of the questions right on average.

We fared little better against Britain, where regional results ranged from a low of 103 in the West Midlands, Wales and southeast England up to 107 in southern England.

One of the creators of the New Zealand test, Professor John Hattie, said the reason for the transtasman gap was obvious - "They cheated. Of course they did, they are Australian."

He suspected that the Australian test was too easy and was very happy with how his test performed as the results almost perfectly matched the expected average national IQ of 100.

Former quizmaster Hamish McDouall agreed that the test was not plain sailing, despite scoring an impressive 130-plus IQ.

The 34-year-old won Sale of the Century in 1989 and Mastermind in 1990.

He refused to disclose his exact score, but did admit he was stumped by the spatial questions.

So did the test really prove New Zealanders are dummies?

Dr Vivian Robinson, head of Auckland University education department, said it was impossible to tell unless all participants in every country were asked the same questions, under the same conditions.