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by Byron
The recent BBC1 Leonardo series was a thousand times more effective, subtle and entertaining approach to this than lobbing around a bunch of dubiously obtained raw IQ scores.

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Leonardo was excellent and certainly a hundred times better than Test the Nation... but how many people do you think actually watched it?

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by Incandenza
Leonardo was excellent and certainly a hundred times better than Test the Nation... but how many people do you think actually watched it?

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At present, I've no idea, as I don't think the viewing figures have been released yet. But it was heavily trailed and screened on BBC1, so I'm optimistic (perhaps vainly) that it'll be a cut above the usual "arts" audience. Whatever Leonardo’s viewing figures, it added something to the cultural landscape, Test The Naiton did not.

What we're getting at here is the perennial issue of quality vs quantity. You have to make compromises with both -- BBC4's After Dark is simple and brilliant, but screen it in primetime and it'd be a disaster -- but you can only compromise so far before the original intent of the programme becomes diluted to meaninglessness, as I believe has happened with Test The Nation.

Best accept such programmes are never going to have the appeal of the faux working-class histrionics of EastEnders and Coronation Street and put out a decent product than squander resources on meaningless and instantly forgettable populism. Better have fewer viewers who actually take something worthwhile away with them than millions who forget the programme the moment the credits roll.

Most of it seemed to be fairly smoothly until I saw the score of 122, sure this is down on my attempt last year. My brain must be dying!

www.bbc.co.uk/testthenation/takethetest/

Language 8/12
Memory 12/12
Logic 19/22
Numbers 10/12
Perception 11/12

So was I marked down for being a woman, from the east who doesn't drink any alcohol then