Employers and recruiters may administer the Wonderlic personnel test as part of a larger application process and use those test results to determine if an applicant has a general aptitude for the position. The test results are usually given as a number, with 20 or 21 considered average, much like a test score of 100 would signify average intelligence on a Stanford-Binet intelligence test. Test takers may have to score at least a 20 for hiring consideration in some situations, and even higher for positions requiring higher cognitive skills and aptitude.
Perhaps the most common use of the Wonderlic personnel test occurs in organized sports, especially American football. Recruiters and coaches need to know if potential recruits have the cognitive skills to learn complex plays from a team playbook and mesh well as a unit. It is said that legendary football coach Tom Landry placed a significant amount of emphasis on the test scores provided by the Wonderlic personnel test, and even certain simulated football video game programs include a modified WPT session to determine which positions a player is qualified to select.
Obviously a test as brief and generic as the Wonderlic personnel test is not designed to produce the same clinical results as a more extensive intelligence test battery such as the Stanford-Binet series. The results of a WPT should generally be considered a rough guide to an applicant’s cognitive skill level and general aptitude, not overall intelligence. The Wonderlic personnel test works best as a quick assessment tool during the application process, but should not be used to justify any illegal discriminatory actions.