Are You Really a Genius?: Timeless Tests for the Irritatingly Intelligent

“If a hen and a half lays an egg and a half in a day and a half, how many eggs will seven hens lay in six days?”
 
“By rearranging the letters in the word ‘plea,’ make three new words.”
 
“Which is heavier, milk or cream?”
 
If you think you know the answers to these questions, you may be a genius! Before the Mensa admissions test or the awarding of MacArthur “Genius Grants,” self-described geniuses Robert A. Streeter and Robert G. Hoehn set out in the 1930s on a mission to find more men and women of above-average intelligence. Central to this undertaking were tests filled with fiendishly difficult brainteasers, tortuous trick questions, and complex calculations that could be administered to the unsuspecting.

Are You Really a Genius? collects a series of Streeter and Hoehn’s tests into a quirky quiz book. Throughout the tests are timeless favorites, as well as many charmingly old-fashioned scenarios reflecting simpler times past. For those struggling to reach the correct answers, a final three-point “brain twister” offers a chance for redemption. And for those not quite up to the challenge, a “moron’s morgue” may help improve one’s intellectual standing. Using the answer key found at the back of the book, each test can be carefully scored to determine the exact level of genius attained.

Think you’re in the company of the “rare Craneo-Bulgis species?” In the words of the authors, “sneak up on your friends and spring the questions on the following pages.”

Still wondering about the answers to the questions at the top?
 
1) 28 eggs

2) leap, peal, and pale

3) milk, because cream comes to the surface

“In this slim volume, coauthors Streeter and Hoehn present dozens of questions that, in their words, ‘require a mind that resembles an active mountain goat rather than a saturated sponge.’” (Boston Globe 2015-08-13)