Are you smarter than an Executive MBA?

[Canada 02]

Paul Beamish gives a pop quiz every year to his students at the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. He gives it, however, at the beginning of the year, not the end - "to show these Executive MBA students that they don't know as much as they think they know."

For each column, the first answer is provided ... Thus, in the first column, the sheet identifies the United States as the country with the greatest purchasing power parity (PPP) in the world ($12.9-trillion U.S.) and uses the United States as a base against which other countries are measured. It specifies the next 11 national PPP measurements - country No. 2, for example, has PPP of $10-trillion, country No. 3, $4.2-trillion, country No. 4, $4-trillion, down to country No. 12 with $1.1-trillion. Using these clues, the student must try to name, in correct descending order, the countries with the greatest purchasing power.

Here is the quiz:

List the 12 countries with the greatest purchasing power (a measure of total national consumption based on the purchase of identical goods and services in domestic currencies).

1. $12.9-trillion - United States
2. $10-trillion -
3. $4.2-trillion -
4. $4-trillion -
5. $2.6 trillion -
6. $1.9 trillion -
7. $1.87 trillion -
8. $1.7 trillion -
9. $1.7 trillion -
10. $1.6 trillion -
11. $1.18 trillion -
12. $1.1-trillion -

List the 12 countries with the largest gross national income (a measure of total national production measured in US dollars)

1. $13 trillion - United States
2. $5 trillion -
3. $2.8 trillion -
4. $2.26 trillion -
5. $2.26 trillion -
6. $2.18 trillion -
7. $1.7 trillion -
8. $1.1 trillion -
9. $1.05 trillion -
10. $793 billion -
11. $765 billion -
12. $753 billion

And list the 12 most populous countries on Earth.

1. 1.3 billion people - China
2. 1.0 billion -
3. 297 million -
4. 220 million -
5. 186 million -
6. 156 million -
7. 143 million -
8. 142 million -
9. 132 million -
10. 128 million -
11. 103 million -
12. 83 million -

http://www.globeinvestor.com/servlet...ry/currencies/

Here are the answers:

http://www.ivey.uwo.ca/centres/engaging/default.htm

[octothorp]

I did pretty good. Or at least better than I thought I'd do: 6 of 11 on the first, 3 of 11 on the second, and 9 of 11 on the third. But in most cases, when I was wrong, I had countries off by just one or two spots: in all, I had 9 of the right countries (just not in the right order) on the first, 10on the second, and all 11 on the third.

[Thunderball]

I had all the right countries for the second and last ones, but I was off in the order for some. All in all, not too bad for just doing it without consulting any guide.

[RougeUnderoos]

I wouldn't have pegged South Korea for any of them. Maybe that's because I'm dumb?

Anyway, Japan and Germany are pretty impressive. We are lucky they are on our side because if those two ever got together they could really mix things up.

[REDVAN]

I'm not sure how this proves if you are smarter than an executive MBA? But it's still interesting.

[Flames in 07]

Originally Posted by RougeUnderoos

I wouldn't have pegged South Korea for any of them. Maybe that's because I'm dumb?

Anyway, Japan and Germany are pretty impressive. We are lucky they are on our side because if those two ever got together they could really mix things up.

cue the drummer

B'dum Psshhhh

[Option84]

I wouldn't exactly call that an intelligence test. More like how versed someone is at the specific subject matter.

[Claeren]

Besides which he totally glosses over the fact that the combined EU, as it stands now (not to mention in the future), has ~500 Million people, would be the 7th largest country by land mass, and would likely be close to leading in the other 2 categories as well.

Claeren.