Test the Nation

Could your IQ match Albert Einstein's? Find out with Test the Nation

Do you enjoy doing crosswords?

Is your idea of fun an afternoon spent disentangling the instructions on a flat pack wardrobe?

If so, then the BBC's Test the Nation may be for you.

Anne Robinson plays bad cop....

We'll be getting a sneak preview of the sort of questions you could face on Breakfast on Friday morning at around 7.40am

And, we'll be running a special interactive forum with the man who set the questions later today at 9am

Click here to e-mail us with your views

This Saturday (May 11) BBC One will be running a series of IQ tests across Britain.

Presented by Phillip Schofield and Anne Robinson, the aim of Test the Nation will be to find out whether one part of the country really is brainer than another.

Seventy specially-designed questions will test the nation's brain power in five separate areas: language, memory, logic, numbers and perception.

Six different groups will pit their wits against the BBC's brain-teasers in the studio.

..Phillip Schofield plays good cop: Test the Nation

And viewers will be able to take part at home, via the internet and digital TV.

Anne Robinson - already famous as the queen of mean on the Weakest Link - says:

"Never mind who always claims to be the clever glogs in the family or the egg-head at the office.

"This is a chance to test who truly is the smartest.

Reputations will be made. Reputations will be ruined!"

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Limber up Your IQ score is supposed to remain roughly constant, but there are some things you can do to get in shape for the tests.

Marilyn Monroe is thought to have had an IQ of 160

Practise
check out Breakfast's mini-test - or, for some serious limbering up,  try the Test the Nation Wesbite

Get a good night's sleep
A full eight hours' kip should improve your performance

Get some exercise
Moderate exercise improves the flow of oxygren to the brain, say scientists

Eat oily fish
Your grandmother was right, apparently: some food, such as oily fish, really is "brain food"

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What is your IQ?

The IQ test is nearly a century old.

The first tests were devised in Paris in 1904.

What is your IQ?

Your IQ - or intelligence quotient - is NOT the same as general knowledge

It measures thinking skills such as logic, mental arithmatic, memory and verbal skills

Normal IQ is in the range of 85 to 115, but the average score is 100

To be recognised as a genius, your IQ should be at least 145

The German writer and poet Goethe is estimated to have the highest ever IQ at 210

They became popular during the First World War as a way of deciding which recruits should become officers and which should stay in the ranks.

Given the average life expectancy of an officer in the trenches, this is one IQ test you'd have been well advised to fail.

The IQ test is not intended to be a measure of what you know, but how well you can think.

It measures different aspects of the brain's skills, including verbal and non-verbal reasoning, visual abilities and mental arithmetic

Scientists have noticed that the average IQ is rising, at the rate of roughly three points per decade.

They're not sure whether we're really all getting brainier, or whether we're just getting better at being tested.

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