The cognitive test that Trump keeps bragging about acing isn't meant to be hard

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

onald Trump wants you to know he is a very smart man. So smart, he repeatedly insists, that he "aced" a cognitive test. There's just one thing: The test isn't intended to be difficult.

The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), which NBC reported in 2018 is the screening the president took as part of an annual physical, is back in the news now after Trump repeatedly argued with Fox News anchor Chris Wallace about the exam during a Sunday interview. While the president insisted that the final five questions "get very hard," the MoCA is "designed as a rapid screening instrument for mild cognitive dysfunction," according to exam instructions.

In other words, the exam isn't an IQ test or anything even remotely close to it. Rather, it's meant to assist trained health professionals in evaluating forms of cognitive decline such as Alzheimer's. Doing well on the test doesn't mean you're smart, but rather suggests that — at least as far as the test can tell — you aren't experiencing some form of cognitive dysfunction.

"The total possible score is 30 points," the administration instructions — available for download online — explain, "a score of 26 or above is considered normal."

https://mashable.com/article/donald-trump-brags-about-cognitive-dysfunction-test/

[Hoyt]

1. Get a bit anxious trying to remember the 3 words. What if I can't, and they suggest a home?

[RockRaven]

2. It's not that he aced it or not... It's that HE. SAID. IT. WAS. VERY. HARD.

His actual score is immaterial in light of the fact that he offered, unprompted, an endorsement of the position that the test is difficult. That is abnormal.

[Nay]

3. Exactly this. He is so demented that he cannot understand the purpose of the test! And

he proudly talks about how well he did, and how hard the last 5 questions were, and how Wallace wouldn't have been able to answer them! He is so stupid that he doesn't know he's stupid!

[mercuryblues]

4. Exactly

In the version I took yesterday the gave 4 words at the beginning of the test, told yo repeat them, Then at the end you are asked to repeat the four words. Those 4 words were Ball, tree, church, and velvet.

[Jersey Devil]

5. The real question is why did he take a cognitive test at all?

The question Trump has not been asked by the media. Now that he is resuming his daily coronavirus shitshows, maybe someone will finally ask them (assuming Trump takes questions at all). Why in the world would a sitting President take a cognitive test?

When and why did you take a cognitive test and what led up to it?