The human eye can distinguish about 10 million different colors, but how well can you put them in a straight line?
1 out of 255 women and 1 out of 12 men have some form of color vision deficiency. You’re probably familiar with color blindness, but even just arguing hue with someone, or spending hours upon hours searching for the right paint tint shows that there’s really a whole spectrum of color sense.
As a former art student, I just knew I’d be brilliant at this Color I.Q. test, in which you are asked to arrange color blocks to blend seamlessly from one end to another (Most art students have to go through color theory, exploring the gradient of shades between, say, white and green, and making the shades gradually lighter or darker). But pride cometh before the fall, and my score turned out to be a measly 38 (a perfect score is Zero, and imperfections increase from there).
Clearly I must blame an uncalibrated monitor and a glare on the screen (or accept why I am, in fact, a “former” art student). How did you Flossers fare?
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I somehow scored a 16. It made my eyes hurt.
posted by Heather on 8-3-2010 at 3:28 pm
That was cool. I got a Zero-perfect score. :)
posted by Maureen on 8-3-2010 at 3:34 pm
I got a 15, somehow.
posted by Melanie on 8-3-2010 at 3:44 pm
I got a 4, and am also a art student.
posted by Rachel on 8-3-2010 at 3:45 pm
I got a 4. Also a former art student and a practicing graphic designer. That gave me some confidence that I at least have the color-sensing genes to do my job adequately.
posted by jimmywags on 8-3-2010 at 3:48 pm
4!
posted by Diane on 8-3-2010 at 3:48 pm
I got a 19 and a headache.
posted by Kat on 8-3-2010 at 3:48 pm
I got an 8
posted by lyn on 8-3-2010 at 3:49 pm
I kind of hurried through it, but 84, ouch! Guess I’m a male with color vision deficiency!
posted by Mark on 8-3-2010 at 3:49 pm
12! Not back for an accountant!
posted by Chelsea on 8-3-2010 at 3:50 pm
I got 102, which being a 38 year old male, they said was a little worse than avarage.
posted by HansMoleman on 8-3-2010 at 3:52 pm
I got an 8. Now my eyes hurt *sigh*
posted by chrystani on 8-3-2010 at 3:52 pm
I scored 20 and I have nothing to do with art (I am a chemist). :-)
posted by Marija on 8-3-2010 at 3:55 pm
13, from an engineering student who hasn’t taken an art class in 10 years!
posted by Manda on 8-3-2010 at 3:58 pm
6 and know nothing of art :)
posted by Kary on 8-3-2010 at 4:01 pm
That was fun, got a perfect score! I’m an art student too, so I’ve done this several times before…but this time I didn’t have to mix any paint :)
posted by Cara on 8-3-2010 at 4:03 pm
27.
posted by Erica on 8-3-2010 at 4:08 pm
I got an 8! I’m pretty proud of it, having never been an art student
posted by Heather on 8-3-2010 at 4:09 pm
I got a 4. Not bad for the severely nearsighted neuroscientist. It must be all this time on the microscope. ;)
posted by janeeyre316 on 8-3-2010 at 4:13 pm
Scored a 7. I can go home and tell my wife I am not color blind.
posted by Tim on 8-3-2010 at 4:14 pm
21, from a geologist. I was pretty pleased, all in all.
posted by Cathy J on 8-3-2010 at 4:19 pm
I got a 16.
But I wonder how much influence the method used to sort the colour blocks has on the score.
I quickly figured out that if I sorted the blocks into three groups of definitely one colour or the other and then the middle group, I only needed to concentrate on making the smaller groups have the correct gradient.
Once I “zoomed out”, I found that the whole needed very little tweaking.
Did anyone else use a similar technique?
posted by Munir on 8-3-2010 at 4:20 pm
I scored an 8!
(former art school student)!!!
posted by Leslie on 8-3-2010 at 4:20 pm
perfect score! on the horrible work monitors and everything… hooray!
posted by tiffany on 8-3-2010 at 4:21 pm
Lucky number 7–I think more because of my anal retention than my visual acuity…
posted by Leang C on 8-3-2010 at 4:22 pm
19, but i wish it would show me where it was messed up.
posted by Valerie B on 8-3-2010 at 4:23 pm
I got an 86. Yikes.
posted by Bob on 8-3-2010 at 4:24 pm
3! Nice.
posted by Jo on 8-3-2010 at 4:24 pm
Wow, I got a 4! At least I didn’t strain my eyes for nothing :)
posted by DYMongoose on 8-3-2010 at 4:26 pm
I got an 11 (and got dizzy!), and I’m terrible at art. But I love colors.
posted by Lindseydl on 8-3-2010 at 4:32 pm
nineteen, and a huuuge headache.
posted by Taylor D on 8-3-2010 at 4:32 pm
I got an 8, and I’m a painter.
I passed this along to my computer programmer boyfriend. His response was “Oh my god, they all look the same!” and he refused to tell me his score. Heheh.
posted by Meg on 8-3-2010 at 4:33 pm
4! Much better than I had expected! Apparently I’m bad at distinguishing colors in the blue-green region.
posted by annek on 8-3-2010 at 4:34 pm
I got a 4 as well. I’m not an art student either. I did have to lean back and squint at it a few times to make sure it looked right though! It’s better than actually doing work anyway…
posted by Jess on 8-3-2010 at 4:36 pm
Compare to everyone else..I suck! I got a 137. I really suck in the green/blusih range.
posted by Dan on 8-3-2010 at 4:40 pm
I got a 4, and I haven’t been artistic for 8 years now! Didn’t make me dizzy though. Not bad for a 20yr old woman studying forensic science =)
posted by Vicky on 8-3-2010 at 4:40 pm
115! Charlie, tell him what he won!
posted by JD on 8-3-2010 at 4:41 pm
13!
posted by Kirsten on 8-3-2010 at 4:42 pm
I got an 8. I am a computer programmer who is particular about color and I am sending this to my husband so that he *might* think that maybe I am not just crazy and arbitrary after all
posted by Samantha on 8-3-2010 at 4:42 pm
Boy… 119… thanks god I work with text
posted by Gonzo on 8-3-2010 at 4:44 pm
27. Not to bad it seems for a guy.
posted by alex on 8-3-2010 at 4:45 pm
14–I beat a former art student! Yes, my eyes hurt now.
posted by CPete on 8-3-2010 at 4:48 pm
25, which is apparently better than average for a male in his 20s.
posted by Jacob on 8-3-2010 at 4:50 pm
WOOT! PERFECT “0″ score for this 59-year-old female.
posted by LJones on 8-3-2010 at 4:52 pm
I did pretty bad with a 63. My eyes hurt now. I did good in blues, but not in reds.
posted by Caroline on 8-3-2010 at 4:53 pm
rushed through it and got a 20! i am going to make my bf take this who denies he has color blindness!
posted by Katie Rose on 8-3-2010 at 4:55 pm
4…not bad for a 29 y.o male with no artistic training or ability. Now if you ask me to name any of those colors I’m gonna fail.
posted by Scott on 8-3-2010 at 4:55 pm
Wow, color me surprised, I got a 12! Way better than I figured I’d do. And I’m not, nor have ever, been, an art student in anything. Closest I came was a photography class in college.
posted by Jesica on 8-3-2010 at 4:56 pm
I got a 4. I’m a curator of biology, so I don’t know how that factors in…
posted by Katie on 8-3-2010 at 4:59 pm
I am pleased..I received a 10. Not bad for 49 and not spending alot of time thinking about it. I quickly paid attention to hues and didn’t stare at them.
posted by Phyllis on 8-3-2010 at 5:03 pm
Yay! Perfect 0! (Thanks, art history degree and lifelong fascination with color!)
Feeling cross-eyed now, though.
posted by Tarn on 8-3-2010 at 5:06 pm
I got a 0, but I did take a little break halfway through to let my rods and cones relax. Take that, stupid dot-numbers at the eye doctors’ that are supposed to test your color vision but are in fact too stylized to read properly!
posted by Emily on 8-3-2010 at 5:07 pm
I got an 11, surprising myself.
I’d like it if they showed the whole chart again, with the errors highlighted, instead of the little chart they showed.
posted by Kelly on 8-3-2010 at 5:07 pm
I took this test a year or more ago on a different website. Got a perfect score! Not wanting to mess that up, I’m not going to retake the test. I must have good eyes for color, because it really didn’t seem all that hard to me. (I work in advertising/marketing, but as a project manager and proofreader, not an art director.)
posted by Rachel on 8-3-2010 at 5:09 pm
I got a perfect score! Pleasantly surprised. Now if I could only match my clothes, blue socks with brown pants….
posted by kno1 on 8-3-2010 at 5:15 pm
22…I had trouble with the mauve toned ones
posted by vegebrarian on 8-3-2010 at 5:17 pm
12 I am also a former art student but I never had to take a color theory class so I think I did pretty good
posted by Karah! on 8-3-2010 at 5:17 pm
I’m not an art student, but when I would step back and stare at it, the colors sort of seemed to radiate off each other. After I put them in my initial order, some of them just seemed to stand out as having too much orange to be where they were, etc.
I got a 7, which I thought was pretty good! :)
posted by Dana on 8-3-2010 at 5:19 pm
Sweet – I got a 3! I wonder which ones I messed up on…
posted by Andrew on 8-3-2010 at 5:26 pm
Can I post links here? I hope so…. My friend sent me to Brent Weeks’ page today to do a colour quiz (to determine what type of drafter you would be– a drafter uses the colours in the spectrum to do ‘magic’):
http://www.brentweeks.com/
His upcoming fantasy novel is going to be great!
I’ll do the quiz when my monitor is no longer pink… I think I’m losing it…new monitor required…
posted by Dionne on 8-3-2010 at 5:29 pm
19 here. Not bad for a guy who has to closely compare dark blue and black socks, and who insists that the stoplight is orange and not yellow.
posted by Kevin on 8-3-2010 at 5:48 pm
I got a four, which is pretty common it seems…
My method was pretty much just focusing on one of the two colours and picking out which tiles had more of that colour in them. The more I arranged the easier it was to identify the next tile.
posted by Sienna on 8-3-2010 at 5:49 pm
3 for a 31yr old male accountant who can barely draw a stick figure… Problem area was apparently with blue greens
posted by Ed on 8-3-2010 at 5:50 pm
13 and a little break from work!
posted by Jane on 8-3-2010 at 6:00 pm
10! The last row was the hardest. I think it would be more interesting as a speed challenge.
posted by Sara on 8-3-2010 at 6:03 pm
Perfect Score!! Probably the only time I will do better than average on a mental floss linked quiz!
I took color theory for theatre scene design back in college, I guess it stuck with me. (I suppose not too bad for almost 10 years ago)
posted by Heather on 8-3-2010 at 6:12 pm
Yeah buddy…perfect score! Started at one end and just kept pulling the ones that stood out from the other end (like which one is most purple over there, now which one is most purple, now which one is most purple, etc.). Worked pretty well!
posted by C on 8-3-2010 at 6:22 pm
Perfect score from a 25 year old female.
posted by Natalie on 8-3-2010 at 6:36 pm
I got a perfect score! It helped that I am a art/digital media student.
posted by Kyah on 8-3-2010 at 6:41 pm
4 for me — and that’s even with my severely-outdated eyeglasses. :)
posted by Lynne on 8-3-2010 at 6:42 pm
I scored a 7, which is pretty good for these 49-year-old eyes
posted by Suzeo on 8-3-2010 at 6:52 pm
Perfect 0!!!
Thought it was pretty good, 27 year old female…. I arranged the color blocks as much as I could in one row then moved on to the next, going back when my eyes could adjust a bit more. I leaned back to double check and… ta-dah!! :)
posted by Sara on 8-3-2010 at 6:59 pm
Perfect 0…and Im an accountant with no discernable art talent, maybe I’m in the wrong field
posted by Kevin on 8-3-2010 at 7:01 pm
4, and I’m a software engineer.
posted by Jeff C. on 8-3-2010 at 7:03 pm
I took this test a few months ago and got a perfect score. It seemed to help to switch back and forth from closing one eye to the other. I swear – one of my eyes has a slightly warmer white balance than the other!
However, I don’t see (ha!) how this indicates for a better artist. There are plenty of color-blind or totally blind painters, for example.
posted by tona b. on 8-3-2010 at 7:06 pm
8
posted by Christina Bernice Butler on 8-3-2010 at 7:18 pm
I got a 4- I just hope it’s not because I’m young. I swear, a few more years with sheet music in my face and I’ll only see in black and white…
posted by Bri-Bri on 8-3-2010 at 7:48 pm
15…but the first time I took it 38. I took my time this time.
posted by Molly on 8-3-2010 at 7:52 pm
I scored an 8.
The smug self-satisfaction is worth the eye-strain headache.
posted by Miss Moneypenny on 8-3-2010 at 7:53 pm
4. Go me!!!
posted by grouchonacouch on 8-3-2010 at 8:02 pm
I got a 25 though I suspect had my short attention span not gotten the better of me I might have done very slightly better. I have blue-green issues apparently.
posted by todd on 8-3-2010 at 8:09 pm
HA! I got a 4! I expected to do badly, since I’m a scientist, not artistic at all.
posted by Annika on 8-3-2010 at 8:14 pm
I got a 10!! I’m very excited about that because my husband claims to see colors better than me. He got a 28. :oD
posted by Tango November Whiskey on 8-3-2010 at 8:27 pm
Woot! I got a perfect score! …Any my art major boyfriend says my color vision is off….Irony?
posted by jessica on 8-3-2010 at 8:32 pm
Rachels must get fours, I guess. I did. Does that mean I only had two reversed in two different places? And I also would have liked to see where I messed up, but I’m happy with my score :)
posted by Rachel on 8-3-2010 at 8:39 pm
Professional costume designer here with a lot of color theory under my belt and I got a 12. I’ll just blame it on my astigmatism. I liked theory assignment of taking three paint colors(only one a primary) and black and white in an attempt to create 100 4×4 inch color chips. Fun Times.
posted by Jenna Fawn on 8-3-2010 at 8:49 pm
I got a 0, perfect score! Which is interesting b/c I am terrible at art. I am a perfectionist, so I guess that helped
posted by Jennifer Rockett on 8-3-2010 at 9:02 pm
85 here, and I’m female, which evidently puts me close to the bottom for my gender. Not that I’m surprised. I’m always perplexed by people discussing what color to paint their walls. I just keep thinking it’s blue…I don’t see what the differences are.
I took the test similarly. I could group the blue-ish and green-ish, etc and light to dark, but once the squares got close to each other, I could not tell the difference from one to the other at all.
posted by cg on 8-3-2010 at 9:08 pm
I scored a zero. I have no idea how. Oh wait, I know how… because it is inconsequential. Why can’t I be a lottery number genius?
posted by Brian on 8-3-2010 at 9:44 pm
I got a 4!! I’m female and have no art talent or background at all. I work in a factory warehouse.
Maybe I should go into art.
posted by Kim on 8-3-2010 at 9:53 pm
4! Woo!
posted by Hailey on 8-3-2010 at 9:55 pm
40 y.o. male gets “4″! Feeling pretty good about it, brags to 39 y.o. wife, who post a goose egg! “0″ Next time she ask me if her shoes match, I am gonna let her figure it out herself!
posted by 4thbook on 8-3-2010 at 10:08 pm
I got an 11. I went to art school, though :)
posted by Jess on 8-3-2010 at 10:23 pm
12! No art background, but a science/microscopy background with hours of practice from staring at a Michel-Levy chart.
posted by Erika on 8-3-2010 at 10:33 pm
I got a zero! (And I’m such a dork I actually gasped out loud from shock.) No art background, but I’ve been told I have a very detail-oriented eye…
posted by Trish on 8-3-2010 at 10:36 pm
Great! A perfect zero! Though I’ve no idea why.
posted by Ladon on 8-3-2010 at 10:39 pm
Perfect score! and I am a 56 year old male
posted by Richard on 8-3-2010 at 11:33 pm
With a crappy laptop and dry contacts, I still got an 8!! Of course, I used to argue with the TA at field school over the soil Munsells, so I know I see more color in blacks and browns than she did, at least….
posted by Mia on 8-4-2010 at 12:10 am
Perfect 0 and I’m a 60 year old female who really, really needs new glasses. Now if I could only make a living with this newly discovered talent…
posted by Jori on 8-4-2010 at 12:15 am
I scored a 16. I was very surprised because I’m not an art student and usually see weird colors. I once told my roommate that our beige carpet was purple. >.>
posted by Tabitha on 8-4-2010 at 12:31 am
Perfect score from a 25 year old female neuroscientist. :) (Though I’ve always loved art and colours, so maybe that helped.)
posted by Dema on 8-4-2010 at 12:34 am
I got an 8- holy crap! :o And I’m a terrible artist! lol
posted by Araxie on 8-4-2010 at 1:27 am
And, oh yeah, I’m a 20-year-old female- and I also screwed up in the blue-green area- a lot of us seemed to! I think that spot may just have been trickier, I dunno….
The results are somewhat heartening, considering I’m going into microbiology…
posted by Araxie on 8-4-2010 at 1:31 am
I got a 40, not bad for an anomalous trichromat, right?
posted by Greg on 8-4-2010 at 2:09 am
3 and I’m a nurse
posted by Alexandria on 8-4-2010 at 2:15 am
16, not too bad. At least I can still see colors.
posted by Jon on 8-4-2010 at 2:19 am
Perfect “0″ – 16 year old female. As I was taking it, I was starting to have doubts about myself as an artist!
posted by Alice on 8-4-2010 at 3:01 am
15… way better than I thought!
posted by FlyingAce on 8-4-2010 at 3:04 am
I got a 3 and I am a 35 yr old male. I kept the screen shot at proof!
posted by Dan on 8-4-2010 at 3:10 am
One thing I forgot. My monitor is color calibrated to death. I am very annal about colors on monitors.
posted by Dan on 8-4-2010 at 3:17 am
i got a 16–not bad. :) kudos to the perfect & high scorers!
posted by lauren on 8-4-2010 at 3:50 am
15 and I am pleased for an old guy.
Of course, just because I can tell them apart does not mean I know how to put them together….just ask my wife!!
posted by RDaltry on 8-4-2010 at 8:14 am
I got a 34 and I’m 13.
posted by me on 8-4-2010 at 8:18 am
Got a 4 – and felt like I could do better.
posted by Ian from Baltimore on 8-4-2010 at 9:02 am
24, and I’m pretty happy with that as one of my eyes is weaker than the other. Had the most trouble with the pinky-tan colours.
posted by blitzen on 8-4-2010 at 9:02 am
15 – I visually split each row into two sections then worked my way through each side. Not bad – I’m proud. Oh and I have 48 year old female eyes – not an art student.
posted by KJ on 8-4-2010 at 9:06 am
21
posted by Rissa on 8-4-2010 at 9:06 am
Upon further review, I took it again, and I am perfect 0. I knew I could do better.
posted by Ian from Baltimore on 8-4-2010 at 9:14 am
8 – oddly, scored low in the areas where my Dad is somewhat color blind – blues and violets
posted by Susie on 8-4-2010 at 9:28 am
I got a 3… not bad for a banker! I’m cross eyed now though
posted by Shawn on 8-4-2010 at 9:39 am
A perfect zero. On an uncalibrated monitor with no art background.
Not bad for a 39-year-old male.
Take that, statistical average!
posted by 8rustystaples on 8-4-2010 at 10:03 am
87, but I’m blaming it on the astigmatism.
posted by Tinkerschnitzel on 8-4-2010 at 10:10 am
I got an 11, which I was pretty proud of! I have always thought of myself as having a good eye for color differences.
posted by malbo on 8-4-2010 at 10:21 am
I scored 19, and I’m a 27 year old nuclear engineer with zero art abilities. I felt pretty confident in the blue/green section, but the purples messed me up royally
posted by NukeGuy on 8-4-2010 at 10:24 am
I got an 8, and I work in an Accounting office, we don’t see a lot of color, and my eyes feel squishy now.
posted by kitkat7712 on 8-4-2010 at 10:32 am
a 15…
but im still in school, so i guess that i am still pretty young.
posted by sohail on 8-4-2010 at 10:35 am
Perfect Score! Woot!
posted by J-me on 8-4-2010 at 10:41 am
I got a 20. The only color that it showed I had trouble with was the blue/greens. After the first line my eyes were going crazy. It was a cool test though.
posted by Chelsea on 8-4-2010 at 10:46 am
As a graphic designer, I’m relieved to have gotten a zero. Apparently all those art classes weren’t a waste.
posted by Emilee on 8-4-2010 at 10:47 am
4. Whew.
posted by Elissa on 8-4-2010 at 10:51 am
I got a 25. Now my eyes are bugged out!
Not bad (I think) for a middle aged woman who has nothing to do with art
posted by JaneM on 8-4-2010 at 11:13 am
Perfect 0… 33 yr old male
posted by jamie on 8-4-2010 at 11:22 am
That’s was FUN! I got a 7. I am the queen of making dead-on correct paint choices off of tiny color chips. My husband sees “tan” – I see grey-tan, green-tan, pink-tan, yellow tan, etc.
posted by mappermom on 8-4-2010 at 11:41 am
I actually got a perfect score.
29 year-old woman … It’s nice to be really good at something. :)
posted by Allanna on 8-4-2010 at 11:44 am
I got a 4, and I’m a female engineering student! Cool.
posted by Nicole009 on 8-4-2010 at 12:10 pm
0! I was surprised… I always draw in B&W.
posted by Ivy on 8-4-2010 at 12:19 pm
Shockingly (to me, at least), I got a perfect 0…and I’m a male engineer. Dammit – there goes my excuse for not wearing color coordinated clothes…
posted by M.X.F. on 8-4-2010 at 12:19 pm
15
45 year-old female.
Work with colors in my job.
I should’ve done better but my eyes were killing me.
posted by Annie on 8-4-2010 at 12:32 pm
7…38 year-old male actor.
posted by Derek on 8-4-2010 at 12:58 pm
I took it twice to see if I could get a better score…I did not. I guess 19 isn’t that bad.
At least now I can say: Dang it Jim, I’m an economist, not an artist!
posted by Melodye on 8-4-2010 at 1:00 pm
I got a 12. And then a scolding from my boss. I should probably get back to work.
posted by Matt on 8-4-2010 at 1:08 pm
Sorry if I’m posting too much here- just thought I’d add an additional interesting fact aboutthe science behind color perception and gender:
Women are supposedly genetically designed to better differentiate colors from one another because, historically, males were the hunters and women were the gatherers. This means that it would naturally be very important for women to tell the difference between the edible mauve berry and the poisonous reddish-mauve berry. According to many scientists, men can’t see the color red at all! (More info on the subject under “Reason #2″ http://www.cracked.com/article_18529_6-absurd-gender-stereotypes-that-science-says-are-true_p2.html ). ;)
posted by Araxie on 8-4-2010 at 1:28 pm
8! 24 year old female and I don’t have an artistic bone in my body.
posted by Robyn on 8-4-2010 at 1:30 pm
perfect 0!! well it said for my group – not so old lady HA HA
posted by nethermom on 8-4-2010 at 1:41 pm
Perfect score! 0! Not bad for a male. I had 4 years at Savannah College of Art and Design and that may have helped. But really, I think it’s just a matter of lucky genetics. Just like some people need glasses and some don’t. I hope I don’t sound like I’m bragging, because I am not. I just mean to say that I am very lucky to have been blessed with perfect vision. I work in a field where colors matter and I actually had to take a color test for my job before I was hired to see if I was color blind or not.
posted by Eric on 8-4-2010 at 2:07 pm
I got a six! Made my eyes hurt, though…the blues and greens gave me problems.
posted by Grobanite33 on 8-4-2010 at 2:10 pm
I definitely blame my monitor because I got a 17 and seeing color differences is my freaking JOB. I’m a professional colorist for a retail company and we are required to take this test before we’re even hired. I’m proud to say that on the REAL test, I did score a 0 :p
posted by Laura on 8-4-2010 at 2:19 pm
Female engineer with a perfect 0 here :D
posted by C on 8-4-2010 at 2:23 pm
Your score: 4
Gender: Female
Age range: 30-39
posted by Liz on 8-4-2010 at 2:25 pm
Yes, I got a 4 the second time! I guess I just needed to concentrate more. Whew, looks like I get to keep my job!
posted by Laura on 8-4-2010 at 2:30 pm
Your score: 0
Gender: Female
Age range: 30-39
occupation – accounting, so I guess all I really need to know is red from black (grin)
Had to look away several times and turn the brightness and contrast way down on my monitor though.
Everything started looking the same, and then I looked away and there were four lines across everything else I did. waited for the lines to go away and went back to the test to double-check.
posted by Stormy on 8-4-2010 at 3:08 pm
A 4 for another male engineer.
Man, are my eyes messed up now.
posted by Brucey on 8-4-2010 at 4:48 pm
I got a 0! I’m a 25 year old female. This makes me very happy because I’m studying color vision as a graduate student. If I didn’t get a good score on this, I’d have to go into a completely different field.
posted by Kimberley on 8-4-2010 at 5:03 pm
Got a 19. 25 female. I was impressed with myself until I decided to post my results… but I have no art background and am a banker. Typically, I only see black and red. Good luck!
posted by Rebecca on 8-4-2010 at 5:18 pm
woo! scored a zero (26, female). woo!
posted by draydrax on 8-4-2010 at 8:44 pm
I got an 8. Not bad for a bio major.
I kept switching some of the tiles I wasn’t sure about back or forth a spot, and they would just kind of…stand out if they were wrong. I interpreted it as too light, or too dark (though it was really too much of one color).
Interesting that someone else mentioned something I’ve noticed about my eyes though – one eye has a slightly warmer white balance than the other!
And lastly, a related fact:
Red-green color blindness is curable by gene therapy! Well, if you’re a male monkey, anyway. It’s a pretty cool paper.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19759534
posted by curiousgeorgie on 8-5-2010 at 8:44 am
I got a four– that was pretty neat.
posted by Juls on 8-5-2010 at 3:20 pm
38, I guess not bad for my age, bifocals, and NO art training
posted by Mama9cats on 8-5-2010 at 4:36 pm
I got a 0. I’ve always been good at seeing colors; I’m the person who can immediately tell you whether or not your clothes match.
posted by Katey on 8-6-2010 at 1:35 pm
“In your face” to everyone who said that playing video games and sitting in front of the computer all day would ruin my eyes! I got a perfect zero.
posted by Also J on 8-6-2010 at 3:39 pm
perfect score! rock on art and chem major!
posted by Molly on 8-6-2010 at 4:33 pm
Another accountant with a perfect score. I guess we are detail-oriented?
posted by Allison on 8-6-2010 at 4:54 pm
I got a zero, which pleased me since I obsessively arranged crayons by hue growing up.
I’ve been practicing for this test my whole life :D
posted by dd on 8-7-2010 at 12:37 pm
this lady got a 4! my method was putting unsure blocks in areas where it wouldn’t match, then slowly moving it back to its desired spot. this helped bringing its true color back into focus. all that color blending really made my head hurt…
and i knew i was having trouble with the green-blue spectrum, which was verified with their hue discrimination analysis.
overall, this is a really neat test!
posted by colorfreak on 8-7-2010 at 6:53 pm
4!!! woohooo!!!
posted by Mariajo on 8-8-2010 at 5:02 pm
Yeah! Perfect score from the engineer! I guess my monitor is calibrated pretty well too.
posted by Matt on 8-8-2010 at 10:15 pm
19, and my eyes are tired now! Is that a good excuse leave work early?
posted by Brandi on 8-9-2010 at 9:29 am
I got a 4! Messed up in the middle of the blue greens (I think!). Not bad for a librarian, though I love colors.
posted by Amy on 8-9-2010 at 10:31 am
Got around 120 the first try, second try I got a 20. Hue discrimination was higher in the blue, green, purple area. 14yo male.
posted by Mitchell on 8-9-2010 at 4:09 pm
Very cool. I scored a zeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeroooooooooooooo.
posted by Jason on 12-18-2010 at 4:51 pm
Perfect score! I’m a 29 year old male with astigmatism in my left eye and a pretty crappy right eye, that has never been an art student. The first time in my life any element of my eyesight has been described as “perfect”….
posted by Andrew on 12-18-2010 at 8:30 pm
Perfect score – I was surprised! I was sure some of them were wrong :)
34, female, never an art student
posted by Jessica on 12-18-2010 at 9:44 pm
Zero. 49-year-old male; photographer and TV Director.
posted by Alan on 12-18-2010 at 10:52 pm
155… I think the worst score here, unless I missed one. Not surprising, since I’m colorblind… The third line looked like all the same color to me.
posted by Luke on 12-19-2010 at 12:26 am
0 0 0. 47 y.o. male
First saw this a year ago. Monitors are a factor. Not as big as you think though. Have hardware calibrated new LCD and old CRT monitors at home where I scored 12 and 16 (LCDs) and 3 (CRT). Same on old CRT at work (4). However, using my eyeball calibrated plasma TV as a monitor, I scored 0 over and over and over. Take it on multiple computer/monitor combos if you have the option. If you score low AND it shows your weakness in different areas of the spectrum it could be the monitors or your diet. Try the test hungry and after a meal.
posted by Eyeofthenewt on 12-19-2010 at 11:59 am
Perfect score! Awesome!
posted by Amanda on 12-20-2010 at 2:51 am
23 here – over 50, with bad eyes, so that is not too awful.
posted by JFS in IL on 10-15-2011 at 10:04 am
Got a perfect score, which is very validating. My girlfriend and I tease each other about color sensibility on a regular basis. Well, she’s the one who teases me and I meekly submit. So now I’m thinking it has more to do with how I name colors, which is troubling because I try to make my living by the written word.
Hm.
posted by Peter on 10-15-2011 at 2:02 pm
I got a 12… the colors definitely seemed to be moving if I looked at them too long.
posted by Andréa Fernandes on 10-15-2011 at 2:20 pm
Perfect score. A good tip is to look back in your seat and you will sometimes see a glaring difference in the smooth blending after sorting them as best you can. 21 and Male. So happy cause the highest score for my age range is 1520, which is glaringly horrible.
posted by Zach on 10-15-2011 at 5:00 pm
Perfect score. Not going to attribute it to art background, just always had a good eye. Thanks for the test!
posted by Jason on 10-15-2011 at 7:57 pm
I haphazardly did this to see if I did better than the first time, and I got a zero! Maybe it’s best not to spend so much time and over-think it.
posted by Chloe on 10-15-2011 at 9:37 pm
Zero (31 yo Female)
People always look at me like I’m crazy when I point out weird tones in colors. Maybe now my mom will believe me when I tell her that her yellow living room walls are too gray.
posted by stephaniejane on 10-15-2011 at 11:32 pm
Also, I feel like I’m going to yack from going too fast.
posted by stephaniejane on 10-15-2011 at 11:32 pm
Perfect score from a 47 yo woman. Yay. Now I’m going to lie down and close my eyes for awhile.
I think the 1520 scores come from people who just hit enter without rearranging any of the tiles.
posted by Mama Bear on 10-16-2011 at 1:14 am
12! YAY! Not bad for a computer geek!
posted by Eden on 10-16-2011 at 12:46 pm
Got a 0! Yay! I can sorta unfocus my eyes at will, and I think that helped.
posted by meanderling on 10-16-2011 at 4:57 pm
4!!!! That made me happy:)
posted by Ashley on 10-16-2011 at 6:37 pm
I’m a 25 year old male and scored a 77. The optometrist has told me before that I am pretty colour deficient.
My great uncle was also colour deficient and when he tried to become a pilot during WW2 he was rejected because of it. However what he ended up doing was being flown in a plane that flew over German positions and apparently he was able to spot camouflage much easier that people with normal vision.
I experienced something similar when I worked on a land survey crew. Normally we use bright orange tape or paint to mark various points, but when we were in a forested area I could never find them. I asked to switch to a bright green tape, and it was much easier for me.
posted by Lucas on 10-17-2011 at 10:50 am
I did this test twice on two different websites. Got 4 on first try, and then 9 on the second. I realised it’s a lot easier on a dark background, than against a glaring white background.
posted by Hae on 12-13-2011 at 5:19 am