Are you smarter than a 5th Grader?
By ahgong
@ahgong (10064)
Singapore
March 6, 2008 7:37am CST
There is this new game show from America which is quite enjoyable to watch.
The lightheartedness of the show, the happy-go-lucky contestants, the cheeky children and of course, the ever-so-sarcastic host.
I was catching it on star world while folding my laundry the other night and was pleasantly surprise that this is a rather interesting game show.
In this game show, one is pitted against a "class" of 5th graders to answer questions from grade 1 to grade 5. Chicken's feet right?
Well, apparently, you are wrong! It seems the fifth graders are doing much better than the so many contestants who came up and went against them.
Every question correctly answered will allow one to advance a step in the Million dollar tree. 3 Cheats are available to the contestant: Copy, Peek or Save.
What got me interested is this... it seems that in America, by the time you get to the 5th grade, you would have learned quite a fair bit of knowledge.
Coming from an Asian education background, I would have to put aside subjects like American History and Social Studies aside as these subjects are not all that familiar to me. So watching the show, a few of these questions baffled me as well.
But what I could not understand is this... Some of the adults on the show could not even answer simple questions like "What is the result of 2 x 5?" The poor guy has this expression of loss on his face! My gawd!
Or
Even simple math questions posed to a UCLA graduate "If the area of a triangle is 16 square inches, and the base of the triangle is 8, what is the height of the triangle. The poor fella was stumped!
Make me wonder, is it a case of stage jitters? or is it a case of really forgetting the simple stuff simple because we do not use them anymore?
I wonder how much of my grade school knowledge have I retained since I graduated from Primary school more than 20 years ago! 8p
3 people like this
11 responses
@Wario_1 (965)
• Sweden
6 Mar 08
Id rather say that those kids were kunning, not smart. Intelligence has nothing to do with answering some damn questions, not in a yes/no or who/what/when/why/where format. Some questions i can accept as intelligence, like math questions but the majority seem knowledgebased. I know its majbe annoying, but i have a thing against when knowledge, intelligence and wisdom are mixted up, even if they seem similar they are 3 entirely different things.
1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
7 Mar 08
ha ha ha ha ha... you are so right about the mixing up of intelligence and wisdom.
I cannot agree more with you on that.
The line of difference between the two can some times be a blur.
Say, what is it that annoys you so much about people who mixes up intelligence and wisdom?
2 people like this
@Wario_1 (965)
• Sweden
7 Mar 08
Not intelligence and wisdom, but the mixing up intelligence and knowledge. Just because someone knows alot doesnt mean they are smart, and just because they are smart doesnt mean they know alot of things. Knowledge is knowing alot, preferable knowing the right stuff to help solve a problem. Intelligence is more thinking, to solve problems that often cant be solved by knowledge.
The thing that annoys me is that its a enourmus difference between both of them. It helps to have both, still you dont get very smart from just knowing alot.
An example, geography has nothing to do with how smart you are, its pure knowledge. On the other hand, logical and dimensional problems cant be solved by knowledge, it kan help to know alo but still intelligence is often needed.
1 person likes this
@squaretile (3778)
• Singapore
14 Mar 08
Well, the difference is that the american junior school system teaches more broad based subjects and much less depth in math. you'd be surprised how little math one needs to pass before going to college.
in contrast, our education system emphasises math immensely. and the level of math competency in just PSLE is probably much higher than the first few years of high school math elsewhere.
I guess the trick is to enjoy learning, then the knowledge stays. if one really hated school , then those things that we forced ourselves to memorise will all be deleted asap as bad memories! haha.
I personally am still amazed at some phloem and xylem stuff i remember from my primary school science days - but i really thought those facts were cool! and maths became fun once it was a more 'certain' scoring subject haha. what a mugger.
1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
17 Jun 08
I agree with you squaretile. I too am amazed at what I can remember when I was watching the show. Especially when the questions is related to math and science.
It is a really interesting show. Just the other day, I was watching it and this guy was really good. He went all the way to the million dollar question. And due to his faith in his girlfriend, he gave up the million dollar question even though he knew the answer to it.
It he had answer it, he would have been the first person to win the million dollars from the show!
Amazing!
@lingli_78 (12822)
• Australia
7 Mar 08
oh yeah... i love the show too... unfortunately, the show only lasts for a very short time here... i really enjoy watching it and see how adults with a profession like even a teacher can't answer the simple 3rd grade questions... i think it is more to the stage fright or nervousness when you are in front of the television that make you forget the stuffs that you had learn in primary school... but i have to admit that some of the questions are really very tricky and i can't even answer them...
1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
7 Mar 08
Me too! I have some questions that even I cannot answer.
But if they are related to American History and Social Studies, we cannot really compare. Cos we never really studied their history or their social studies.
But when it comes to math and other subject questions, I do tend to agree with you that some of them are tricky.
Like you said, it could be stage fright.
1 person likes this
@whywiki (6066)
• Canada
6 Mar 08
I like the show and the kids and the questions. I can't stand Jeff Foxworthy and can only handle watching it in small doses cause I can't figure out why this guy ever became famous. He is not funny to me much like Larry the cable guy so although I want to watch the show this stops me. It is amazing what knowledge I have forgotten since grade school!
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
7 Mar 08
I too am amazed at what I have forgotten since grade school (primary school in my case).
I do not really find the host funny. More like sarcastic with all that snide remarks.
And he seems to be enjoying dishing them out as well.
Overall the show is okay. It is interesting to see what the kids learn at school these days. And the kind of embarrassment that people are willing to endure to win some money. heh heh... ;)
1 person likes this
@mykmari_08 (2464)
• Philippines
7 Mar 08
Honestly, I haven't watched the show but I was able to get a glimpse of it last weekend. And if I'm not mistaken, it was in the cable channel star world. But more or less, I think I know how it works because it was copyrighted and a local version of it is being shown here in the Philippines. It's been aired for more than a month now.
It's easy to say that you could outsmart a 5th grader; after all, you've already finished schooling or in your college years already. But when you get to watch the show, you'll be astonished as to how hard or difficult the questions may seem to you. I believe it's partly because of our memory which fails us sometimes especially regarding academic subjects; plus the fact that several years have already passed and some of the lessons you've learned in school are not being posed to you on a daily basis now.
It's great watching this type of show as this is an educational one. It not only entertains us but it also gives us a review of our past lessons in the elementary level.
1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
7 Mar 08
I do agree with you to some extend.
Some things we learned in the past cannot be forgotten.
Take the case of the guy who was posed the question, "What is the result of two times five?". And the poor guy is stumped and loss for words!
Or the one where you are asked "How many decades are there in two millenniums?"
These are simple sums which could have won them hundreds of thousands of dollars!
But I do admit that there are some really tricky ones... like "True or False. Polar bears eat penguins as part of their daily diet". Took me a while to figure it out... but I did learn some new nuggets of facts as well from watching the show.
Heh heh heh... overall, the show is quite nice to watch.
1 person likes this
@gigisimbre (272)
•
7 Mar 08
it could be a stage jitters and it could be that it has been a long time since we were in 5th grade. I mean i know i know them but i cant answer them :-)
1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
7 Mar 08
ha ha ha ha ha... for questions like literature or history, maybe we can forget the exact words or phases used. But for some of the other topics, it is a sure hit right or wrong answer.
The best part is to see the reaction of the contestants who have to resort to the cheats to get them thru the simple questions.
1 person likes this
@34momma (13882)
• United States
6 Mar 08
i have watch that show and i really do like it. yet i will be the first to admit i have totally forgotten so much that i have learned from my school days. History, gone, Science, gone, Math, forget about it!!! I know that i am not smarter then a 5th grader!! LOL
1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
7 Mar 08
I am sure you are not alone in this. To tell you the truth, I too also forgot a lot of the stuff that I learned from my primary school days.
But really, one can never really forget everything.
The show do throw out one or two surprises once in a while though.
Heh heh...
2 people like this
@applefreak (3130)
• Singapore
6 Mar 08
yes yes i've watched that show a couple of times. my dad and i was tickled mad by the antics of the participant, even though my dad don't understand a single word of the english language! guess the stress of losing all that money gets to their head. remember the game show 'who wants to be a millionaire'? how many times have we called the participant 'stupid' coz they don't know the answer to a question we consider simple? sometimes its a little like how our mind go blank when faced with the exam paper.
another reason i can think of is the suspicious nature of human. think about the amount of money at stake, why would the producer give such a simple question? if i had been the one standing there, i'd suspect that there must be a catch somewhere but i simply don't know where!
1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
7 Mar 08
I guess it is human nature to be overly suspicious. Especially when things seems too simple, it is hard to believe.
In the recent episode, there was this UCLA grad who could not answer the simple triangle question. I cannot imagine how he could have just given it a missed.
He walked on stage, then used up his three cheats and he dropped out of the game. Sigh...
And then there was this woman who gave up $250,000 for the question "How many decades are there in two millennium?" and dropped out at $100,000.
What a pity!
1 person likes this
@olivemai (4738)
• United States
17 Mar 08
The simplest math can be forgotten easily and the teachings are different for each generation! It is fun to watch television shows like that one! I was good in math so it became automatic in my mind but when I studied the higher mathematics, the simpler mathematics were easier to forget! Maybe the guy got hung up on the word result, in the first problem! It does seem funny. He probably did not have a lot of time and had to think quickly or get the answer wrong! Remember that we could pass a subject and still get twenty percent of our answers wrong, and those wrong answers can fool us for the rest of our lives! I still get stumped on those questions that were marked wrong on my tests, way back when!
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
17 Jun 08
I am sure you are not alone.
I too sometimes get stumped from simple math that my cousins studies. In fact, I know the method at the tip of my tongue, but it just doesn't come out.
The questions that are given out during tests today are quite different from my generation. Especially when it is dealing with non technical subjects like geography, history, science and even social studies.
1 person likes this
@betsyraeduke (2670)
• United States
6 Mar 08
Hahaha! I love, Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader! It's about the only game show that I do like. It has been out for a few seasons now. The host, Jeff Foxworthy, is one of my favorite comedians!
Anyways, I think maybe it's a combination of both stage fright and forgetting things that they learned in school when the constestants get stumped. I know I can usually answer all the most basic and simple questions when I'm watching it, but not sure how I'd do if I was actually on the show. Some of the more complex questions that deal with science or geography, I usually find that I don't know, or don't remember the answer.
1 person likes this
@ahgong (10064)
• Singapore
7 Mar 08
Really? The show has been around for a few seasons already?
I only managed to catch an episode here and there.
Never really got a chance to follow through the whole series.
I too have some problems with the Science and Geography questions. Some of them are really tough!
Astronomy also throws some surprises some times.
1 person likes this
