Donald Trump's cognitive test: how difficult is it really?
The interview went viral on social media as the President of the United States boasted about his test score and challenged Joe Biden to take it. Now it's your turn.
You have very likely seen the video on social media. The President of the United States, Donald Trump, was on his favourite station, Fox News, boasting to the host Sean Hannity about how he “aced” the cognitive test that he had sat.
Trump’s cognitive test challenge for Biden
Trump had said that he had taken it “when the radical left was saying, ‘is he all there?“ “I aced the test,” he announced.
And the president was back on Fox on Sunday with Chris Wallace who suggested that the test was not the hardest, including questions about identifying animals and counting backwards.
"I took the test, too, when I heard that you passed it," Wallace said. "It's not the hardest test. They have a picture and it says 'what's that' and it's an elephant."
But Trump was having none of it. ”No, no, no," he replied. "It's all misrepresentation, because, yes, the first few questions are easy, but I'll bet you couldn't even answer the last five questions. I'll bet you couldn’t. They get very hard, the last five questions."
Then, when challenged to name the difficult questions, his response was that he’d get Wallace a copy. He then added: “I’ll guarantee you that Joe Biden could not answer those questions."
That same night when Trump was speaking to Hannity, Democratic nominee Biden admitted that he regularly undergoes cognitive testing and said that he could “hardly wait” to take that challenge.
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“I can hardly wait to deal with what he refers to himself as a 'stable genius," he responded when asked about the comments. “I can hardly wait to debate him.”
And Wallace wasn’t done on the topic. Advising Trump that a Fox News poll had Biden ahead slightly on mental strength, the president hit back.
"I'll tell you what, let's take a test. Let's take a test right now. Let's go down, Joe and I will take a test. Let him take the same test that I took."
The thing is, we’re not entirely clear about what test Trump was referring to. We do know that in 2018 he was assessed with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (see below) but there has been no confirmation that it was the same one ‘recently’ or if he was referring to that one. That test is used to assess people for dementia, detecting any cognitive dysfunction as well as testing for attention, concentration, memory and the likes.
Trump gives more detail about the test
Following the discussions over the test, not all of it positive for the president, he decided to speak out again about it, giving more information about its difficulty. He also repeated his desire for Joe Biden to sit it.
Unfortunately for POTUS, his explanation didn't put the story to bed, and the increasingly more famous Sarah Cooper jumped on her latest opportunity.
Have a go yourself, getting someone to read out the ones that require a response, and find out if you too can ‘ace’ it like POTUS. Just get 30 points in around 10-12 minutes for that.