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Post by whdean on Dec 17, 2015 22:42:52 GMT -5
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Post by ameliasmith on Dec 18, 2015 4:37:41 GMT -5
Interesting. Now it wants me to get the kids to take it.
Also a nice ego boost to see that I'm at the top of the typical range for native speakers.
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Post by lou on Dec 18, 2015 11:26:58 GMT -5
I remember taking this a few years ago and I still remember one of the words I learned from it: embonpoint. Perhaps this time, I'll retain another I looked up.
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Post by Alan Petersen on Dec 18, 2015 12:39:01 GMT -5
Just took it, interesting.
I was hoping they would provide a summary of the words I didn't know so I could look them up easily because I'm curious now!
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Post by Pru Freda on Dec 18, 2015 13:49:58 GMT -5
36,200 - though whether that's good, bad, or indifferent is hard to judge. I knew "embonpoint" but couldn't recall the meaning of valetudinarian. We don't use it much in Towcester.  |
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Post by Becca Mills on Dec 18, 2015 15:25:47 GMT -5
Hmm ... that was sort of annoying. There were only a few words I'm sure I've never seen (cenacle, williwaw, opsimath), but a bunch I know I've encountered and looked up before but have forgotten. I wish I had a better memory for words.
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Post by whdean on Dec 18, 2015 15:26:47 GMT -5
I remember taking this a few years ago and I still remember one of the words I learned from it: embonpoint. Perhaps this time, I'll retain another I looked up. I often remember where I came across a particularly odd word too. I don't know why a person would remember that. |
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Post by whdean on Dec 18, 2015 15:33:03 GMT -5
Hmm ... that was sort of annoying. There were only a few words I'm sure I've never seen (cenacle, williwaw, opsimath), but a bunch I know I've encountered and looked up before but have forgotten. I wish I had a better memory for words. Once again I'm making my plug for classical languages (I shall never give up!). I could claim to "know a least one definition" of the word because I recognized the Greek roots. That's how I knew opsimath. Now, you can call me legalistic or a casuist even for counting etymological meanings as "a definition," but it's not cheating.  |
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Post by whdean on Dec 18, 2015 15:35:51 GMT -5
Just took it, interesting. I was hoping they would provide a summary of the words I didn't know so I could look them up easily because I'm curious now! I would've liked to see some fake words, so that when you clicked yes a new page popped up saying, "No you don't know this word!" Or maybe, "Congratulations! You're full of shit!" |
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Post by Alan Petersen on Dec 18, 2015 17:53:20 GMT -5
36,200 - though whether that's good, bad, or indifferent is hard to judge. I knew "embonpoint" but couldn't recall the meaning of valetudinarian. We don't use it much in Towcester. You kicked my butt! Mine was 29,200. Looks like 20,000–35,000 words is the average range according to that site, so I was in the average range, whew. |
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Post by Becca Mills on Dec 18, 2015 23:27:59 GMT -5
I wonder how high the estimated vocab counts go. I was at 38,600, which is a darned small percentage of the language's overall words. I left quite a few blank, though.
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Post by ameliasmith on Dec 19, 2015 6:26:33 GMT -5
I got 35,500, so I was pleased to be out of the "average" range, but then my husband took it and got a higher score. However, he did click on words where he thought that he could figure the meaning out from the word itself, and in at least one case (biblious "obviously something to do with books") he was wrong, so I still think I win.
I had my kids take it, reading most of the words out to them. My 8-year-old daughter did well, and my son, as suspected, is off the charts for a 5-year-old, but I didn't even read him many of the words on the second page, because while his vocabulary is advanced, his attention span most definitely is not.
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Post by whdean on Dec 19, 2015 11:51:21 GMT -5
There's bound to be a lot of variation in the measure on account of the rare words chosen. On top of that, people probably have much larger vocabularies when you factor in specialized terminology. Every trade and profession has a long list of technical terms for things and processes in their field.
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Post by lindymoone on Dec 20, 2015 10:58:24 GMT -5
Just took it, interesting. I was hoping they would provide a summary of the words I didn't know so I could look them up easily because I'm curious now! I would've liked to see some fake words, so that when you clicked yes a new page popped up saying, "No you don't know this word!" Or maybe, "Congratulations! You're full of shit!" That's what I was thinking! But then, I didn't cheat so I wouldn't know if that would happen. |
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Post by whdean on Dec 21, 2015 13:01:30 GMT -5
I wonder how high the estimated vocab counts go. I was at 38,600, which is a darned small percentage of the language's overall words. I left quite a few blank, though. Sorry, I missed this question. The 90th percentile (= top 10%) is around 40,000 and up, which means, basically, no one's scoring much higher than that. |
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Post by ameliasmith on Dec 21, 2015 13:42:50 GMT -5
I wonder how high the estimated vocab counts go. I was at 38,600, which is a darned small percentage of the language's overall words. I left quite a few blank, though. Sorry, I missed this question. The 90th percentile (= top 10%) is around 40,000 and up, which means, basically, no one's scoring much higher than that. I shared this with my family, and I think my mother got 40,500. "But I have a very large vocabulary," she says. |
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Post by Becca Mills on Dec 21, 2015 13:49:01 GMT -5
<grump> I wanna be over 40,000!   |
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Post by whdean on Dec 21, 2015 20:50:18 GMT -5
Sorry, I missed this question. The 90th percentile (= top 10%) is around 40,000 and up, which means, basically, no one's scoring much higher than that. I shared this with my family, and I think my mother got 40,500. "But I have a very large vocabulary," she says. You mean she said "But I'm a logophile."  |
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Post by whdean on Dec 21, 2015 21:02:54 GMT -5
<grump> I wanna be over 40,000! Read the dictionary. Like I said before, the plot's a little thin but the chapters are short. You also don't have to go to a dictionary to look anything up. Seriously, though, I go through the dictionary looking for unfamiliar verbs, process or relationship words, and downright unusual stuff. If you do that, it's not like work or some kind of act of contrition. |
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Post by Becca Mills on Dec 23, 2015 3:13:17 GMT -5
<grump> I wanna be over 40,000! Read the dictionary. Like I said before, the plot's a little thin but the chapters are short. You also don't have to go to a dictionary to look anything up. Seriously, though, I go through the dictionary looking for unfamiliar verbs, process or relationship words, and downright unusual stuff. If you do that, it's not like work or some kind of act of contrition. I *think* I still have the paper dictionary I got in fourth grade ... |
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