In addition to everything everyone else has said: their math is off by half (or 100%, depending on how you count), due to a structural error.

(context: native English speaker, big reader, huge nerd, perfect SAT score)

I got all 100 correct on the first try without looking anything up! Confusingly, that only resulted in a "SCIENTIFIC ESTIMATE" that I know 85,000/~170,000 words?

Their "How is this calculated" page that appears at the end explains their error:

> According to the Oxford English Dictionary (Second Edition), there are approximately 171,476 words in current use.

> We use Stratified Sampling. Instead of testing random words, we divide the language into 5 distinct difficulty bands based on frequency of use:

> 1. Core Basics ~3,000 words > 2. Intermediate ~7,000 words > 3. Advanced ~10,000 words > 4. Expert ~25,000 words > 5. The Obscure ~40,000+ words

> If you answer 2 out of 3 'Intermediate' questions correctly, we estimate you know roughly 66% of the 7,000 words in that band.

> Total Score = Σ (Accuracy in Band × Band Size)

Their strata add up to 85000, not ~170k, making a perfect score still give a 50%.

They're also using a pretty limited and perhaps non-difficulty-representative subset of the language.

Cute, but wrong on many counts.

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zvr 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Exactly the same feedback: I got all 100 correct, and the results were the same as yours.

As it usually happens in this kind of "check your vocabulary" tests in English, being Greek gives you an advantage in higher levels ;-)

	▲	a022311 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		I'm Greek too and I got 81 (well technically I misclicked one in a hurry, would've been 82). It did help a bit though. Surprisingly enough I've learnt many of the more advanced words from technical blogs!

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iLoveOncall 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

A lot are also just guessable because 3 out of the 4 definitions are obvious nonsense. I'd rather have a "I don't know this word" button than just pick the one that's obviously correct out of the 4, if the goal is to get a real estimate.

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jzer0cool an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

What background you all have that contributed you think to scoring 100

	▲	dogmatism 24 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I read a lot, and have since I was a child edit: also, native English (well, American) speaker
	▲	devmor 19 minutes ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I missed two, but I’m willing to be tthey’re similar to me - I read a lot and whenever I encounter a new word I don’t know, I usually look up its etymology.

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guidedlight 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It was clearly built with AI.

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tomrod 24 minutes ago | parent [-]

Is this a problem? I thought it was fun, personally, even if the author used AI to help build it.

	▲	geuis 16 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		It's not fun because it isn't challenging. I have an expert-1 level of English as a native speaker and heavy reader. But absolutely nothing in this is challenging at all. The one question I got wrong was because the 4 proscribed answer options weren't specific enough. So overall there's no value in this.

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irishcoffee 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

As an aside, I am also an avid reader, always have been, 790 on the !math part of the SAT back in the very early 2000s.

I attribute most of my success in life to reading early and often. Bartending in college rounded out the social skills (for me) but those two skills have carried me further than I anticipated, coming from a poor background.

Have you found the same to be true?

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copperx 2 hours ago | parent [-]

How did bartending improve your social skills? On the surface, it looks like a regular customer service job.

	▲	geuis 11 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		Guessing you've never worked a service job. It's a good way to learn how to interact with the public early on. The success model is not being fired for bad social customer interactions. Even if you're an introvert, working for a couple months at Olive Garden when you're 19 helps you to smile and be polite when 80% of the customers are mouth breathing idiots. Turns out they aren't all mouth breathers and those para social skills come into play later during your career. I highly support kids of all origins working in service for a bit. Ain't a class thing, but is very helpful in getting used to the breadth and depth of people.
	▲	margalabargala an hour ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The length and breadth of conversations you tend to get into as a bartender far exceed nearly any other customer service job. Not to mention it's frequently with the same people. There are few professions where it's not unusual to have an hour+ conversation about literally any topic, and then potentially do it again the next day with the same person about a different topic. More similar to a therapist than customer service.