Comments on: Smarter than a fifth grader

By: the kid

the kid — Sat, 24 May 2008 01:53:26 +0000

im am an 8th grader (in canada) all the questions asked are sooooo easy. and who doesnt know the factors of 16 r even numbers and the only even prime number is 2!!!!!

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 13:55:28 +0000

Sure, it’s easy enough if you’re not an idiot who gets scared of words like “prime” and “factor”. (It’s 2, by the way, frightened idiots out there.)

By: Emily

Emily — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 14:51:37 +0000

And then last night the contestant got to the million dollar question, and dropped out. The question was “What is the lowest prime number that is a factor of 16?”
Not only does that seem REALLY EASY for the million dollar question (which I know is picked by the contestant based off of what he’s already chosen throughout the show)? Even my mom, who hasn’t taken math since high school (33 years ago), knew the answer.
And yet the guy wouldn’t have even gotten it right! What in the hell?

By: GP

GP — Fri, 20 Apr 2007 06:04:35 +0000

I noticed a spike in traffic tonight, apparently due to someone finally getting to the million dollar question on “Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader?” this past evening (Thursday, April 19th).

I didn’t see it, but my friend David told me that the MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION was: “Who was the first Secretary of the Treasury?” (in the USA, of course.) The answer is Alexander Hamilton. Unfortunately, the guy quit with half a million rather than risk getting a question he didn’t know the answer to. It’s unfortunate because, apparently, he did know it, and lost out on doubling his money.

I hope the people flooding in from Google scroll down and see this post, so their they get their click’s worth.

By: Lori

Lori — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:42:40 +0000

I’m a fourth grade teacher and Michele should have spelled grammar correctly.

By: Michele

Michele — Tue, 27 Mar 2007 18:22:26 +0000

I am a 6th grade English teacher and you are both correct. “a”, “an” and “the” are articles. Articles are adjectives!!! Of course, this in not a level of grammer that is discussed at a 5th grade level.

By: Ed

Ed — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 17:41:00 +0000

Well, I’m not an English major, but I know that the word “the” is a definite article, not an adjective.

By: GP

GP — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:26:19 +0000

I agree with you, Ian! I would have said 3, but your explanation makes perfect sense.

There a question the other day that I thought was wrong too, but it was only wrong at a university level or something like that, so I couldn’t really justify getting mad about it.

By: Ian

Ian — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 01:55:29 +0000

I’m so upset! I am an English major, and though I don’t claim to be an Einstein, I feel like “Smarter Than a 5th Grader” made a mistake on one of their questions, and I can’t stand it! I can’t remember the exact phrasing of the question, but it was something like, “How many adjectives are in the following sentence: ‘On the hot day, drink two glasses of cold water.’”
Everyone said three: “hot,” “two,” and “cold.” These modify the nouns “day,” “glasses,” and “water.” But the answer should be four! “The” is an adjective modifying “day.”
Okay, I’ve typed this out so now I am supposed to feel better. Instead I feel more uptight than ever and now have to go drink the (adjective) five (adjective) very (adverb) cold (adjective) beers (noun) in (preposition) my (adjective) refrigerator (noun.)
Thanks for humoring me!

By: David

David — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 08:39:04 +0000

The girl on the episode you’re mentioning had a 3.3 GPA at a community college and is currently a computer consultant.

Yuck. Computer consultant my ass. She didn’t know that there were 200 decades in 2 millenia.