Of the dozens of people who took the KAMIKAZE, at least 14 have self-reported math SAT scores. Some people took the KAMIKAZE before an answer key problem with the Dice item was corrected and so, for the purpose of the norming, I corrected the scores of those who were unfairly penalized so the norming would reflect the corrected version of the test.

I also deducted a point from those who were unfairly boosted by a brief scoring error (when I added a research question for comments, this added a point to everyone taking the test until I quickly spotted the problem & corrected it). With these corrections in mind, here is the raw data:

In my first norming, I converted all math SAT scores to the pre-1995 scale and then converted to IQ equivalents using 1980s norms but that seemed to produce inflated results, especially at the low end. This time I converted math SATs to IQ equivalents directly, using estimated means and SDs for the time period.

To get IQ equivalencies for the KAMIKAZE, KAMIKAZE scores and math IQ equivalents were both ranked from highest to lowest and equivalent ranks were equated:

The mean and standard deviation of the KAMIKAZE in this sample is 7.9 and 3.8 respectively while the mean and standard deviation for SAT derived math IQ is 134 and about 11. The relationship between raw scores and IQ looks fairly linear, so one can probably just use the following equation:

IQ (U.S. norms) = (KAMIKAZE score)(2.79) + 111

If this extends to the extrne a score of 0 would put you around the level of the average American university grad. A perfect score of 17 out of 17 would put you just below Prometheus level.

One red flag is the correlation between KAMIKAZE scores and math SATs is 0.0005. Technically this calls into question the whole logic of using math SATs to norm KAMIKAZE scores. However the correlation jumps to 0.43 when I remove everyone who took the old (pre-1995) SAT from the sample. This makes sense because old SAT people have the highest SAT derived math IQ scores because they took the test back when it had as huge ceiling, and yet because these people are now oldish, cognitive decline impairs their KAMIKAZE scores.

To adjust for age, I would advise readers to give themselves a bonus of 0.17 IQ points for every year over 30.

Next, I ranked the items in order of difficulty based on the percent of this norming sample to pass them.

Of the dozens of people who have taken the KAMIKAZE, there were 8 who self-reported math SAT scores. These were:

The correlation between KAMIKAZE scores and the SAT derived math IQs was a moderate 0.39 which isn’t terrible considering how restricted the range of ability is. Even the lowest scoring person in the sample (Loaded?) scored in the genius range.

When I placed KAMIKAZE scores and math IQs in rank order, I got the following equivalencies:

Using this same sample of 8, I arranged the items in order of difficulty based on how many of them passed each one.

Last week commenter Kiwi-Anon left me the following message about the KAMIKAZE which you can take here.

Alright, I’ve just finished my final draft. I added some floor extension items that I know a mathematically challenged kid I tutor can solve, so hopefully everybody should be able to get at least one correct. I think 6-7 correct should be about average among normal people. Looking over the test again, the ceiling is probably not as high as I originally thought, but should still be high enough for this blog – there will probably be a few stray Feynmans who breeze through it, but most won’t hit the ceiling. BTW, it’s probably a good idea to separate out both people who have a math/physics background and people with math competition experience with a demographic questionnaire. Let me know if any of the questions are ambiguous or if any of my answers seem wrong (I have checked them, but I am very sleep deprived right now so there’s a chance I made a mistake). Feel free to rearrange the questions into whatever you feel is a better order of difficulty (they are already loosely in such an order), and of course, you don’t have to keep the silly name for the test. You may want to try the test for yourself to see if my time limit seems right; I want fairly smart people to have at least 9 minutes for the last 3 questions.

Here’s the test, hopefully it meets your criteria:

The Kiwi-Anon Mathematical Intelligence, Knowledge, And Zeal Examination (K.A.M.I.K.A.Z.E.) (hey, acronyms aren’t my strong suit!)

[update 2022-04-15: an earlier version of this article reported the number of people who had passed each item on the TAVIS. This data was based on the response summary. However thanks to an anomaly spotted by commenter kiwianon, I did more research and it now appears that summary reported everyone who answered the question, and not just those who did so correctly]

As of today, there have been 746 responses to the TAVIS. Of these, 625 answered at least one item. This is not to imply that even the easiest item was too tough for 121 people, since many respondents did not properly start the test or did not bother taking it, and of those who took it, some likely took it multiple times strategically answering only one question as part of an attempt to infer answers.

A score of only 14 out of 24 puts you around the one in 4,000 level or even one in 42,000 level, depending on which (if any) of my three normings you believe. Not a single person (out of 625) has scored above 19.

When a test’s ceiling is so much higher than it’s hardest item (which hopefully wont be the case here), it’s sometimes a sign of low reliability. On a perfectly reliable test, the percent of people answering the hardest item perfectly matches the percent of people with a perfect score .

Digging through the hundreds of TAVIS test submissions, I have slowly found 10 TAVIS takers with self-reported SAT scores (old scale; pre-April 1995). I’m sure there are many more, but this is a start:

Old SATs were converted to IQ using this article. 45-year-olds were assumed to have taken the old SAT in the mid 1990s, 55-year olds in the mid 1980s etc.

The correlation between TAVIS and old SAT scores was a disappointing 0.04. The person with the highest SAT score (1560) got the lowest TAVIS score (7). But given the small sample size, this needn’t alarm us, and indeed if we eliminate that one anomalous person, the correlation jumps to 0.60.

If we put TAVIS scores and IQ equivalents in order from highest to lowest and place them side by side, we get the following preliminary IQ equivalents:

TAVIS 14 = IQ 161

TAVIS 13 = IQ 154

TAVIS 12 = IQ 143

TAVIS 11 = IQ 139

TAVIS 10 = IQ 131

TAVIS 9 = IQ 117

TAVIS 8 = ?

TAVIS 7 = IQ 109

Pumpkin Person rating: 8.5 out of 10

I love movies about a pair of upper middle class couples in their 30s isolated in remote, beautiful cozy location. I started watching this movie with the sister of my mother’s friend. The sister went to bed early, saying the film was “too slow”.

But I love slow movies. I love horror films but I’ve realized it’s not the horror part I love about them. I love all the parts leading up to the horror. The long drive to the secluded location. The excitement of the characters about the fun weekend they have to look forward to. The scenes where the characters step out on the deck overlooking a cliff, overlooking an ocean and say “isn’t it beautiful?”

Usually the horror starts the night the characters get to the location, but in this film, they apparently arrived on a Friday afternoon, and the horror didn’t start until Saturday night so they had time to go for a walk on the isolated beach, get drunk, make out in the jacuzzi, go for a hike etc.

The film is about two white brothers and their girlfriends (wives?). One brother has a high IQ and works in an academic profession while the other brother had spent time in jail for fighting and lacks general knowledge (implies humans were alive near dinosaur times). But the lower IQ brother has a high IQ Middle Eastern girlfriend who also happens to be the high IQ brother’s work partner. The low IQ brother fears his high IQ wife might leave him for a smarter guy, but he never suspects that smarter guy might be his own brother.

When the Middle Eastern girlfriends tries to rent their vacation destination she is declined, only to find her lower IQ white boyfriend is able to rent it an hour later raising questions about racism, but that’s the least of their problems as they discover someone is videotaping their showers and trying to kill them.

This film was directed and co-written by Dave Franco (the younger brother of James Franco) who cast his wife as the high IQ brother’s wife. Well worth watching on Amazon Prime.