(no subject)

[plonq]

I'm disappointed with my online Mensa page-a-day calendar.  I was anticipating some refreshing calisthenics for my brain every morning, but so far the questions haven't required much brain activity above a flatline.

Here is a typical question (from yesterday's page):

"In a contest to collect bags of clothing for charity, Patty was neither first nor last, but Patty beat Jan. Rachel beat Sue. Sue beat Patty. Sally beat Rachel.

Who brought in the most clothing?"

This one is so easy it's insulting, but let's break it down a bit.

Patty was neither first nor last
No duh, since it then tells us Patty beat Jan and Sue beat Patty.  They hardly needed to add this in order, one presumes, to make it a bit easier.

Anyway, I sat down with my coffee, fired up Notepad and began working through the clues.

Patty was neither first nor last
Irrelevant, but I wrote down her name since she was the first one mentioned, and I knew that she finished somewhere in the middle.

Patty

but Patty beat Jan

Patty
Jan

Rachel beat Sue

Since Patty is my baseline, and I don't know where Rachel fit WRT her, I'll leave her off for now.

Patty
Jan

Sue beat Patty

So Rachel beat Sue who beat Patty.

Rachel
Sue
Patty
Jan

Sally beat Rachel.

Sally
Rachel
Sue
Patty
Jan

Who brought in the most clothing?

At this point I was convinced that I must have missed something obvious, since all I did was write down the names as they were listed the question and they came out in what appeared to be the right order.  I double-checked the question and my work, but when I consulted the answer, I had it right.  What the fuck?  There was no thinking involved in this puzzle.  Either Mensa has really lowered their standards, or this is actually a mis-labelled Densa calendar.

I hope the questions get a bit tougher as the year wears on.

Comments

[pierrekrahn.livejournal.com]

Wow. You must be super smart to have figured out this puzzle.
Have you ever thought of joining Mensa?

PS. The puzzles you have posted are hardly "puzzles", and are vey "pathetic"

[unciaa.livejournal.com]

How... trivial. There isn't even any uncertainty as to the order of characters, which I expected (like you'd get if, say, Sue beat Jan).
o.o