Wonderlic Test 2026: Format, Scores and Practice Questions

The Wonderlic test is a short, fast cognitive ability test that US employers have used in hiring since the 1930s: 50 questions in exactly 12 minutes, mixing vocabulary, arithmetic, logic and simple spatial items, with no calculator. Today it is usually delivered as part of Wonderlic Select (formerly WonScore), which adds an untimed motivation and personality questionnaire and takes about 35 minutes in total. This guide explains each part, how employers read the results, what score is "good", and gives you 16 original practice questions with worked answers.

Key facts

Wonderlic Personnel Test, WonScore and Wonderlic Select: which one are you taking?

The names have changed several times, which is why search results look contradictory.

• Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT, later WPT-R). The classic 50-question, 12-minute test, scored as a raw 0–50. This is the version behind the NFL scores and most "Wonderlic score" tables online.
• Wonderlic QuickTest (WPT-Q). A shorter, unproctored 30-question, 8-minute screener, according to secondary sources.
• WonScore (2015), now Wonderlic Select. The cognitive test plus motivation and personality measures. Wonderlic's FAQ states that Select "does not provide a singular numerical cognitive ability score": the three results are combined and compared with the demands of the job.
• Scholastic Level Exam (SLE). A 1992 college-admissions adaptation of the same format.

If your invitation mentions "motivation" and "personality" as well, you are taking Wonderlic Select. The cognitive part is the same 50-question, 12-minute format either way.

What the Wonderlic test looks like

Cognitive ability: 50 questions, 12 minutes

The instruction screen in Wonderlic's official sample says the section has 50 questions, answered without a calculator, dictionary or other resources, and that you have exactly 12 minutes to give as many correct answers as you can. It adds that many people do not finish, that guessing is not likely to improve your score, and that you should not skip around or spend too long on any one question. That is 14.4 seconds per question if you wanted to finish.

The official sample shows these item styles, mixed rather than grouped, each with five options:

• comparing dates or numbers (which is earliest or largest);
• word analogies ("A is to B as C is to ___");
• choosing the chart that matches a short series of numbers;
• number series;
• the opposite of a highlighted word in a sentence.

Prep sources add maths word problems (rates, percentages, discounts) and spatial items such as folding a net into a cube. Older versions listed analogies, geometric figures, arithmetic, following directions, sentence unscrambling, judgment, logic, proverbs, similarities and definitions. Wonderlic describes the section only as "a test of problem-solving skills" and publishes no breakdown by type, so treat any percentage split online as an estimate.

Motivation: what you like doing

You see sets of three work activities (say, an outdoor manual task, a creative task and a customer-facing task), pick the one you would most like to do, then your favorite of the remaining two. You are told to ignore training requirements and pay. Wonderlic's FAQ gives 58 items; one prep site gives 30 in one place and 58 in another. There are no right answers.

Personality: 150 statements

150 short statements about how you behave at work, answered Agree / Neither agree nor disagree / Disagree. You must answer all of them; you can go back. Wonderlic says it typically takes about 15 minutes. One prep site claims around 1.5 hours, which contradicts Wonderlic's figure and the 35-minute overall average. Wonderlic asks you to respond candidly, not as the person you would like to be.

Wonderlic scores: what employers see and what counts as good

The classic raw score (0–50)

On the classic test your score is the number of correct answers out of 50. Wikipedia describes 20 as the intended average; some prep sites put the general average at 21 or 22. Wonderlic has stated that a score of 10 suggests a person is literate.

Prep sites reproduce average scores by occupation, attributed to Wonderlic's data releases:

These figures are old, undated, and disagree between sources (one lists accountant at 28). Treat them as a sense of scale, not a cut-off.

The same site publishes a raw-score-to-percentile table attributed to Mensa: 20 sits at about the 41st percentile, 23 at the 57th, 26 at the 71st and 30 at the 86th. So 20 is slightly below the median, consistent with sources that call 21–22 average, and 30+ is roughly the top 15%.

Wonderlic Select: fit scores from 0 to 100

On Wonderlic Select, according to Wonderlic's help centre, the employer sees an overall score from 0 to 100 built from three fit scores (cognitive ability, motivation and personality), each also on a 0–100 scale, where higher means closer to the optimal profile for that job. Candidates are grouped into four categories: strong, moderate, cautionary and weak. A prep site gives the cut points as 75–100, 50–74, 25–49 and 0–24; Wonderlic's article names the categories but not the boundaries.

• No universal pass mark. Wonderlic says there is no "passing" or "failing" grade; the job profile defines the optimum and the employer decides how to use the categories.
• More is not always rated higher. The fit score measures closeness to the job's optimum. In a US court case (Jordan v. New London) a police department only interviewed applicants scoring 20 to 27 on the classic test: unusual, but employers can set ranges, not just minimums.
• Limited feedback for you. You can only see a Candidate Feedback Report, and only if a link appears at the end. Employers see results immediately.

Wonderlic practice questions (original)

These 16 questions are original, not real Wonderlic items, in the formats described above. Give yourself 4 minutes (about 15 seconds each), then check the solutions.

1. Dates. Which of the following is the latest date? Nov. 3, 1984 / Nov. 30, 1948 / Oct. 31, 1984 / Nov. 13, 1984 / Dec. 1, 1948

Answer: Nov. 13, 1984. Discard the 1948 dates first ("30" and "Dec." look late). Among the 1984 dates, November beats October, and the 13th beats the 3rd.

2. Analogy. SEED is to TREE as EGG is to ___. NEST / BIRD / SHELL / YOLK / FEATHER

Answer: BIRD. A seed grows into a tree; an egg develops into a bird. NEST and SHELL are associated with eggs, not what they become.

3. Number series. What is the next number? 7, 10, 16, 25, 37, ___ 47 / 49 / 50 / 52 / 55

Answer: 52. The differences are 3, 6, 9, 12, so the next difference is 15: 37 + 15 = 52.

4. Opposite in context. "The manager's instructions were vague, so the team asked for an example." What is the OPPOSITE of the highlighted word? brief / precise / loud / kind / wrong

Answer: precise. Vague means unclear. "Brief" is a trap: short is not the opposite of unclear.

5. Rate. A printer prints 18 pages in 45 seconds. At the same rate, how many pages does it print in 4 minutes? 72 / 86 / 90 / 96 / 108

Answer: 96. 45 seconds is three-quarters of a minute, so the rate is 18 ÷ 0.75 = 24 pages per minute; 24 × 4 = 96.

6. Successive discounts. A jacket priced at $80 is reduced by 25%, and then a further 10% is taken off the sale price. What is the final price? $52 / $54 / $56 / $58 / $60

Answer: $54. 80 × 0.75 = 60; 60 × 0.90 = 54. Adding the discounts (35% off) gives the trap $52.

7. Chart matching. A café sold 40, 55, 52, 70 and 95 coffees in five consecutive hours. Which description fits a line chart of these figures? (a) A steady rise every hour (b) A rise, a small dip, then two rises with the last one steepest (c) A rise followed by a steady decline (d) Flat for three hours, then a sharp rise (e) A fall, then a rise

Answer: (b). The changes are +15, −3, +18, +25. On the real test you pick one of several small charts; checking the sign and size of each change eliminates the others fastest.

8. Comparing numbers. Which is the smallest? 0.305 / 3/10 / 0.31 / 32% / 0.3049

Answer: 3/10 = 0.300. In decimals the options are 0.305, 0.300, 0.310, 0.320, 0.3049.

9. Word meaning. ABATE most nearly means: increase / lessen / argue / hide / repeat

Answer: lessen ("the storm abated").

10. Unscrambled sentence. The words below can be rearranged into a sentence. Is the sentence true or false? "than a is minute an hour longer" True / False

Answer: False. The sentence is "A minute is longer than an hour."

11. Similar meaning. Which two sentences have the most similar meaning? 1. A roof is best repaired while the sun is shining. 2. Many hands make light work. 3. Prepare for the storm before the clouds arrive. 4. The loudest drum is often empty. 5. A sharp knife cuts the cook as easily as the bread.

1 and 2 / 1 and 3 / 2 and 4 / 3 and 5 / 4 and 5

Answer: 1 and 3. Both say: prepare while conditions are good, before you need it. Sentence 4 is about empty talk; 5 is about tools cutting both ways.

12. Syllogism. All interns in the finance team speak Spanish. Lena speaks Spanish. Lena is an intern in the finance team. The last statement is: True / False / Not certain

Answer: Not certain. The first statement says every finance intern speaks Spanish, not that every Spanish speaker is a finance intern.

13. Following directions. Write the word PLANET backwards, then cross out every vowel. Which letter is now second? T / N / L / P / A

Answer: N. Backwards the word is TENALP. Removing the vowels E and A leaves T N L P, so the second letter is N. The trap is doing the steps in the other order.

14. Cube net. The net below folds into a cube. Which face is opposite face C?

     [A]
[B]  [C]  [D]  [E]
     [F]

A / B / D / E / F

Answer: E. In a row of four squares, the first and third are opposite (B and D), as are the second and fourth (C and E). A and F both attach to C, so they are opposite each other.

15. Work rate. Three workers paint a fence in 8 hours. How long would four workers take at the same rate? 4 hours / 5 hours / 6 hours / 7 hours / 10 hours 40 minutes

Answer: 6 hours. The job takes 3 × 8 = 24 worker-hours; 24 ÷ 4 = 6. The last option is the trap of scaling the wrong way (8 × 4 ÷ 3).

16. Percentage change. A $250 item rises in price by 20% and is later reduced by 25%. What is the price now, compared with the original? 5% lower / 10% lower / 5% higher / the same / 10% higher

Answer: 10% lower. 250 × 1.20 = 300; 300 × 0.75 = 225, which is 25 (10%) below 250.

Traps and how to avoid them

• Getting stuck. With about 14 seconds per item, one 60-second problem costs you four easy points. If you cannot see the method within about 20 seconds, mark your best choice and move on, as the instructions advise.
• Distractors built from common slips. Adding successive percentages, scaling work-rate problems the wrong way, and picking a word's associate instead of its opposite. Expect the obvious slip's answer among the options.
• Multi-step directions. Following-directions items reward doing the steps in the stated order. Jot the intermediate result (TENALP) on scratch paper instead of holding it in your head.
• Opposite vs similar. Word items can ask for the OPPOSITE or the closest meaning. Read the end of the stem before the options.
• Logic that sounds right. "All A are B; X is B; so X is A" is the most common invalid conclusion. "Not certain" is often the correct answer.
• Mental arithmetic. No calculator: know fractions (0.75 = 3/4, 0.125 = 1/8), percentage multipliers and times tables.
• Personality section. Guessing a "right" answer across 150 statements is hard to do consistently and not what the section asks. Answer as you actually are at work.

How to prepare

Wonderlic says preparation is not necessary, but familiarity with the pace helps. A four-day plan (about 3 hours):

1. Day 1 (45 min). Do Wonderlic's free official sample and timed practice test, then a full 50-question, 12-minute set. Note which types cost you time.
2. Day 2 (45 min). Mental maths: successive percentages, ratios and rates, fractions to decimals, averages. Aim for 10 seconds per calculation.
3. Day 3 (40 min). Synonyms, antonyms, analogies, unscrambled sentences, proverbs; then syllogisms and following-directions items.
4. Day 4 (40 min). A second full timed set, keeping every item under about 20 seconds. Then read your invitation for the deadline, device and any proctoring rules.

On the day. A laptop or desktop, stable connection, quiet room, scratch paper if allowed. Links generally stay active for up to 14 days, but the employer can disable one earlier, so do not wait until the end.

Sources

• Wonderlic, "Frequently asked questions about Wonderlic assessments" (sections, 50 cognitive / 58 motivation / 150 personality items, 35-minute average, no single cognitive score, calculators, proctoring, 14-day links, feedback report, accommodations, cost)
• Wonderlic, "Wonderlic sample questions" (12 minutes, no calculator, motivation and personality formats, preparation advice)
• Wonderlic Select sample assessment PDF (official instructions and item styles)
• Wonderlic, "Wonderlic Select frequently asked questions" (same items for all candidates, Spanish and French, 50+ industries, 1,100+ job profiles)
• Wonderlic, Wonderlic Select product page (three measures, combined job-fit score, named customers)
• Wonderlic help centre, "Viewing candidate results" (0–100 overall and fit scores, four categories)
• Wikipedia, "Wonderlic test" (history, WPT-R and QuickTest versions, raw score, average of 20, *Jordan v. New London*, NFL 2022)
• Test-Guide, "Wonderlic scores" (occupational averages and percentile table, third-party; average given as 22)
• JobTestPrep, "WonScore test prep" (item types, fit-band cut points; third-party, motivation and personality timings conflict with Wonderlic's)
• NBC Sports / ProFootballTalk, "Report: NFL abandons the Wonderlic test"

Geschreven door

Adrian, specialist

MSc Psychologie, 7 jaar tests maken.

Laatst bijgewerkt: Oct 1, 2026