Chimera's Conundrums Puzzle IQ Test

By William F. Bultas


These 10 IQ puzzles are in general very difficult & I encourage you to use any reference materials you think might help. I have placed the answers on a separate page to keep you from looking until you're ready. The ranking scale below (not based on research -- just for fun!) was created so that you may try the puzzles as an IQ test - excellent preparation for the Chimera High Ability Riddle Test, the Chimera Test, & the Chimera Oblique Riddle Exam. Happy hunting! NOTE: These puzzles appeared in modified form as Chimera's Conundrums in the August, 1998 issue of GAMES Magazine, the MSLaneous, the newsletter of SLAM (St. Louis Area Mensa), and in other high IQ society newsletters.


Number Correct                 IQ and Percentile
     0-1                   IQ   0 - IQ  90 / 0-25
     2-3                   IQ  90 - IQ  110/25-75
     4-5                   IQ 110 - IQ  130/75-98
      6                    IQ 130 - IQ  138/98-99
     7-8                   IQ 138 - IQ  150/99-99.9
     9-10                           IQ 150+/99.9+


ALFABETIC ORDER
Q1. Eric fell asleep in his Introductory Logic class. The professor decides to make an example of Eric, and slams his hand on Eric's desk, waking him abruptly. The instructor then quickly asks "which of the six words that I am about to give you properly completes the following sequence of words: BASIC, ELF, HAITI, KILL, NO, ? Choose from QUARTER, QUICK, QUARREL, QUAINT, QUIBBLE, and QUERY." Much to the professor's embarrassment, Eric answers the question correctly. Find out what "logic" Eric employed, and decide what the answer should be.

3 LETTER WORD
Q2. Five of the following words have some relationship to a certain word. However, one word lacks any relationship with this word. Determine the word that the others are connected to, and decide which one of the six below does not belong with the others:
BECOME BEE CANDLE DINE EAR GROW


MISSING ONE
Q3. The following "words" form a sequence. You must do the seemingly impossible by determining which of the six that follow complete the sequence. It may be wise to consult a dictionary on this one.
RODE, OLD, INK, ONES, UARK, ONES, ?
MUNG URT TING AMBUL OODS RIDE


WHODUNIT
Q4. Linda, a criminal investigator, is trying to find out who murdered the famous wealthy entrepreneur Maximillion Warbucks. With few leads, she sits in a coffee shop hoping that caffeine will stimulate her thinking. Suddenly a mysterious stranger drops a slip of paper on her table, and runs out the door. She unfolds the paper, which reads: "B O K E E R P E K O" Within minutes, Linda has the murderer in custody. Who is it?

COUNTING DOWN
Q5. I greatly enjoy number sequence problems. One thing that I learned early on in attempting to tackle them was that math skills were generally not that important, but that a keen eye for the unusual, yet completely logical, was very useful. Keep this in mind when trying this and my other number series enigmas! Complete the sequence with the appropriate number: 733626, 61240, 5312, 102, ?

BACK TO FRONT
Q6. The nonsensical sentence that follows conceals a most important form of communication and artistic expression. See if you can find out what it is.
NOW YOU'RE SEEING TRUE MIRING CONUNDRUMS GLIMMER.


BETWEEN TWO EXTREMES
Each of the Following 4 puzzles consist of two words on opposite sides of some blank lines. The number of blanks indicates the number of letters in the word that is the solution to the puzzle. The word on the left is a synonym, and the word on the right an antonym of the word in question. EXAMPLE: Command ----- Chaos The answer would be ORDER.

Q7. Profound ---- Shallow

Q8. Sequence ------ Parallel

Q9. Trick ---- Sage

Q10. Build ----- Prostrate

Answers