Think you're smart? Take this test - Jonathan Jansen's challenge

How smart are you, really? No, I am not asking how narrowly you were coached through the writing of past and "dummy" (really, that's what they call it) matriculation papers to pass your final school-leaving examination.

The question is much broader: how well-educated are you in a basic knowledge of the world around you?

Can you hold a simple discussion with a friend or stranger on how the economy of the country works or the basic organisation of the universe or some turning points in world history?

To test my hypothesis - that South Africans are socially ignorant about the world around them - I composed a bunch of questions and asked a group of Grade 10 and 11 children to answer them. I should seek therapy for the depression that followed, but I ask you to take the test and answer honestly and alone, without calling on the internet.

There's a link to the correct answers at the bottom of this article. No, do not peek until you have attempted the whole quiz.

1. You would think that one of the most fascinating aspects of South African geography is the question of where the waters of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet. If you were five or six years old, even before a teacher told you, a wise uncle or older sibling would have pointed out the non-obvious.

So where do they meet?

1A: Cape Point
1B: Cape St Francis
1C: Cape Agulhas
1D: Simon's Town
1E: Saldanha Bay

Believe it or not, only 24 out of 198 senior pupils knew the answer, a mere 12.1%.

But worse was to come.

2. One would imagine the basics of the continent on which you live were top of mind, if only by virtue of colonial penetration and the European languages, what with the fiery "decolonisation" moment on campuses. So we asked: Portuguese is widely spoken in this African country:

2A: Ivory Coast
2B: Rwanda
2C: Morocco
2D: Guinea Bissau
2E: Algeria

Well, guess what? Only 16 pupils got that right, at 8.1% of the total who took the quiz.

3. Experts say the reason students do badly in mathematics in later life is because the basics about numbers are not taught well in the early years. Here is an example:

Which one of the following is an example of an integer?

3A: 3.5
3B: -2.7
3C: 0.5
3D: -9
3E: 0.333

Fewer than a third (30.8%) of late high school pupils , all of whom do mathematics, got this right.

4. You would think this question has too many clues in it to get wrong. Not so. Which South African city has a newspaper called the Diamond Fields Advertiser?

4A: Johannesburg
4B: Port Elizabeth
4C: Kimberley
4D: Bloemfontein
4E: Potchefstroom

More than 60% of students actually got that one wrong!

5. How well do you know your body? Just the basic bones. More than half the students would have an operation on the patella and wonder what happened. So where is the patella?

5A: Ear
5B: Knee
5C: Elbow
5D: Ankle
5E: Fingers

6. The next question was misleading, sorry. Where was Nelson Mandela born?

6A: Soweto
6B: Qunu
6C: Robben Island
6D: Johannesburg
6E: Mthatha

(I won't help you on this one.)

7. Every English teacher deserves a lashing. How do you get this one wrong in senior high school? Which one of the following is an adverb?

7A: Abruptly
7B: In
7C: But
7D: Cat
7E: The

Believe it or not, only 35.9% of pupils came up with the right answer.

8. Question 8 had the highest correct score (62.9%). Which animal is not part of the Big Five?

8A: Cape buffalo
8B: Leopard
8C: Lion
8D: Giraffe
8E: Rhino

If you get this one wrong, see me after class.

9. And then, as a former science teacher, this heartbreaker in an age in which a son of South Africa sends rockets into space and another has a minor planet named after him. All planets revolve around:

9A: Earth
9B: The sun
9C: The solar system
9D: Mars
9E: The moon

No worries, ancient civilizations and 21st-century students seem to believe the same wrong thing.

10. Finally, in terms of land area, the smallest of the nine provinces is:

10A: Northern Cape
10B: Free State
10C: Gauteng
10D: Mpumalanga
10E: North West

I challenge teachers to test their students without the answer code below. Let me know your results.

CLICK HERE FOR THE ANSWERS