What Is a Good Wonderlic Score? By Job and NFL Position

There is no universal good Wonderlic score. Wonderlic's own candidate FAQ says its current Select test has no good or average score and gives no single cognitive number. On the older 0-to-50 scoring, the figure people quote as average is 20, so a 35 sits far above it. Employers set their own cut score for each job.

Below: what Wonderlic says, whether 35 is good, how a Wonderlic score is calculated, five sample questions with answers, and where the NFL position table and the job tables online come from.

What is a good Wonderlic score?

A good Wonderlic score is whatever the employer's cut score is for the job, because Wonderlic says there is no universal good or average score. Wonderlic's current product is Wonderlic Select, and the company's candidate FAQ is blunt: "There is no universal 'good' or 'average' score." The cognitive section is 50 questions in a 12-minute timed block, and test takers are not expected to finish. The whole assessment also holds 58 motivation items and 150 personality items, about 35 minutes in total for most people, and the results of the three parts are combined and evaluated against the demands of the job. Unlike the earlier Wonscore version, the FAQ adds, Wonderlic Select no longer gives a single numerical cognitive score.

That changes the question. The number most people mean by "Wonderlic score", correct answers out of 50, belongs to the older scoring. On that scale, secondary sources say 20 is intended to indicate average intelligence and that a minimum of 10 suggests literacy. Those are older claims cited to press articles, not current Wonderlic statements, and we could not verify them in a Wonderlic document.

Employers see a different number. Wonderlic's help centre says the Select Overall Score runs from 0 to 100 and compares the test taker with the typical applicant pool for that job title. A score above 50 is above average for that pool, meaning the candidate scored higher than half of the applicants, and Wonderlic recommends prioritising candidates at 50 or above. That is a rank within one job's applicants, not a universal pass mark.

Is 35 a good Wonderlic score?

It depends on the scale. People ask, is 35 a good Wonderlic score, and the same digits appear on two different scales:

• Out of 50, on the older number-correct scoring: a 35 is far above the 20 that secondary sources call the average Wonderlic score, and above every position average in the 1984 NFL table, where the highest is 26 for offensive tackles (our comparison)
• Out of 100, as a Wonderlic Select Overall Score: a 35 is below the 50 that Wonderlic's help centre calls above average for the job
• Either way, only the employer's own cut score for the role decides whether a 35 passes

So check which scale your result uses. A score out of 50 reads as high, and a score out of 100 reads as a rank among that job's applicants. Our guide to Wonderlic score to IQ explains why neither is an IQ.

How is a Wonderlic score calculated?

A Wonderlic score is calculated differently on the old and new tests. The older test counted correct answers out of 50 in a 12-minute block. The current Wonderlic Select test combines three parts: 50 cognitive questions, 58 motivation items and 150 personality items. Wonderlic says a proprietary algorithm scores all responses against the demands of the specified job. Its FAQ says the model predicts a candidate's likelihood of success in the role, so scoring goes beyond counting right answers. Employers then see the 0 to 100 Overall Score. No calculator is allowed on the test.

Do you need to finish all 50 questions?

Fifty questions in 12 minutes is 14.4 seconds a question, which is why nobody is expected to finish. A number-correct score is partly a speed measure, a point our guide on what practice actually changes on a cognitive ability test takes further. Our Wonderlic practice test is a place to see how a score out of 50 feels under time pressure.

Wonderlic sample questions and answers

Looking for Wonderlic sample questions and answers? Here are five practice items of our own, written in the style of timed hiring tests. They are not Wonderlic questions, and we do not reproduce the real test. Give yourself 72 seconds for all five, the pace of 14.4 seconds a question.

1. What number comes next? 7, 10, 16, 28, ?

2. Which word means the opposite of "scarce"? Rare, plentiful, costly or hidden?

3. A box holds 12 pens. A school buys 7 boxes and gives away 30 pens. How many pens are left?

4. Dana is taller than Eli. Eli is taller than Frank. Frank is taller than Gus. Who is the second tallest?

5. Three workers finish a job in 8 hours. At the same pace, how long would 4 workers take?

Answers: 1. 52, because the gaps are 3, 6 and 12, so the next gap is 24. 2. Plentiful. 3. 54, because 7 times 12 is 84, minus 30. 4. Eli, with the order Dana, Eli, Frank, Gus. 5. 6 hours, because 3 times 8 is 24 worker-hours, divided by 4. For a longer timed set, use our Wonderlic practice test.

NFL positions: the table everyone quotes is from 1984

The position averages that circulate come from Paul Zimmerman's book The New Thinking Man's Guide to Pro Football, published in 1984, as cited on Wikipedia. We could not see the book, and we did not find a second independent source for the table: outlets that repeat it appear to be copying it.

• Offensive tackle: 26
• Center: 25
• Quarterback: 24
• Guard: 23
• Tight end: 22
• Safety: 19
• Linebacker: 19
• Cornerback: 18
• Wide receiver: 17
• Fullback: 17
• Halfback: 16

Three cautions apply. The table splits fullbacks and halfbacks rather than listing running backs, and it has no rows for defensive linemen, kickers or punters. The average for football players overall is given as about 20. And it describes players tested up to 1984, not today's draft classes.

Individual results reported by CBS Sports in 2020 show how wide the spread is. The highest scores listed there are 50 out of 50 for punter and receiver Pat McInally in 1975, 49 for defensive end Mike Mamula in 1995, and 48 each for Kevin Curtis (2003), Ben Watson (2004) and Ryan Fitzpatrick (2005). The lowest listed are 4 (Darren Davis, 2000), 5 (Ed Prather, 2001) and 6 (Oscar Davenport, 1999, and Vince Young, 2006). These are media-reported figures, not published by Wonderlic or the NFL, so treat each as reported rather than confirmed. Our Ryan Fitzpatrick profile and Tom Brady profile show how those numbers are handled on this site, and the athletes category lists the rest.

The NFL stopped using it in 2022

The league eliminated the Wonderlic from the Scouting Combine from 2022, according to an NFL memo reported in January 2022, and The New York Times reported on 2 March 2022 that the NFL stopped administering the test that year. We found no report of it returning, so the football scores in circulation are historical.

Does a high Wonderlic score predict NFL success?

Two studies looked. A 2009 study by Brian Lyons, Brian Hoffman and John Michel in Human Performance, titled "Not much more than g?", found, as summarised on Wikipedia, that Wonderlic scores did not positively and significantly predict future NFL performance, draft position or games started for any position, and that the relationship was negative for a few positions, including tight ends and defensive backs. A 2005 study by McDonald Mirabile found no significant correlation between a quarterback's Wonderlic score and passer rating or salary. We could not read the full methods for either, so we do not state sample sizes here. The wider evidence on workplace testing is a different matter: our article on what a cognitive ability test at work predicts covers the validity figures for jobs in general.

By job: why there is no reliable table

Test-prep sites publish lists of average Wonderlic score by job. The one we could open runs across 31 job titles from 14 for a janitor to 32 for a systems analyst, and it cites no manual, year or edition. It is also unclear whether such lists are averages of people in the job or recommended minimums, so we do not reproduce individual rows here. What is documented is how employers actually use the number: as a cut score for one job. The Wonderlic figure for programmers that circulates online is checked in average IQ of software engineers.

• New London, Connecticut police (Jordan v. City of New London): only applicants scoring 20 to 27 were interviewed, a band that excluded a candidate who scored 33, and the city won on summary judgment
• Duke Power, North Carolina (Griggs v. Duke Power, 1971): a high school diploma plus passing scores on the Wonderlic and a mechanical comprehension test, at about the national median for high school graduates, were held unlawful because they had adverse impact and were not shown to relate to job performance

Both cases show the same thing. A good score is whatever the employer's cut is for that job, and the law asks the employer to show the cut relates to the work. Our guides to whether IQ tests are legal for hiring, the police IQ cap case and the four-fifths rule go through the rules.

Should you convert a Wonderlic score to IQ?

Not by formula. The rule of doubling the score and adding 60, which spread through draft coverage, is not a Wonderlic publication, as our piece on Wonderlic score to IQ shows. Our score converter is best used on scores that come with published norms, and the percentile calculator does the maths for any score on a mean-100, SD-15 scale. Our study of leader IQ near 120 shows what happens when a Wonderlic result is stretched into an IQ anyway.

What to do with a Wonderlic result

Three habits help. Ask the employer whether a cut score exists for the role, since that is the only figure that decides the outcome. Practise the format so that pace does not cost you points. And remember that on the current test the cognitive section is one of three measures that are combined, so a single number was never the whole story. Our guide to average IQ by occupation gives the wider picture across jobs. Criteria's CCAT, the other widely used 50-question hiring test, has its own published median and suggested role ranges, covered in our guide to what is a good CCAT score.

A Wonderlic score is a data point for one employer's decision, not a rank in a league table. The IQ Metrics test reports its score with a percentile so the number always comes with its context. For two other hiring tests that report percentiles against a norm group rather than a single cut-off, see our guides to SHL scores and the Watson-Glaser test. For another employer test that publishes a scale rather than a pass mark, see our guide to the Predictive Index Cognitive Assessment.

Common questions