Most Adults Can’t Pass This Basic Middle School Quiz — Can You?

Somewhere between the ages of twelve and fourteen, you knew all of this. Percentages, planets, capitals, the powerhouse of the cell — it was all right there, freshly learned and exam-ready. Then adult life arrived, filled the space with passwords and tax deadlines, and quietly evicted most of it. This quiz is your chance to sit back down at the middle school desk: 15 questions across maths, science, geography, history and English, all at a level a bright twelve-year-old is expected to handle. No calculators, no searching — just you and your memory. Keep your score as you go, then check the answer key at the end to find out whether you graduate… or whether it is summer school for you. And if school itself feels like a lifetime ago, our trip through things from the 2000s that quietly vanished will finish the nostalgia job.

Maths Round

Question 1: What is 15% of 200?

1. 15
2. 20
3. 30
4. 45

Question 2: The angles inside any triangle always add up to how many degrees?

1. 90 degrees
2. 180 degrees
3. 270 degrees
4. 360 degrees

Question 3: What is 7 × 8 + 6?

1. 56
2. 62
3. 98
4. 104

Science Round

Question 4: What is the chemical symbol for gold?

1. Gd
2. Go
3. Au
4. Ag

Question 5: Which planet is known as the Red Planet?

1. Venus
2. Mars
3. Jupiter
4. Mercury

Question 6: Which part of the cell is known as its powerhouse?

1. The nucleus
2. The ribosome
3. The mitochondria
4. The cell wall

Question 7: At what temperature Celsius does water freeze?

1. 0 degrees
2. 10 degrees
3. 32 degrees
4. 100 degrees

Geography Round

Question 8: What is the capital city of Australia?

1. Sydney
2. Melbourne
3. Canberra
4. Perth

Question 9: Which is generally considered the longest river in the world?

1. The Amazon
2. The Yangtze
3. The Mississippi
4. The Nile

Question 10: Which is the largest ocean on Earth?

1. The Atlantic
2. The Indian
3. The Arctic
4. The Pacific

History Round

Question 11: In which year did the Second World War end?

1. 1918
2. 1939
3. 1945
4. 1950

Question 12: Who painted the Mona Lisa?

1. Vincent van Gogh
2. Leonardo da Vinci
3. Pablo Picasso
4. Claude Monet

Question 13: Who was the first President of the United States?

1. Thomas Jefferson
2. Abraham Lincoln
3. John Adams
4. George Washington

English Round

Question 14: Which of these words is a verb?

1. Quickly
2. Beautiful
3. Run
4. Happiness

Question 15: Who wrote Romeo and Juliet?

1. Charles Dickens
2. William Shakespeare
3. Jane Austen
4. Mark Twain

The Answer Key — No Peeking Back Up

1. C — 30. Ten percent of 200 is 20, five percent is 10, so fifteen percent is 30. 2. B — 180 degrees. Every triangle, always. 3. B — 62. Multiplication before addition: 56 + 6. 4. C — Au, from aurum, the Latin word for gold. 5. B — Mars, coloured by iron oxide dust — rust, essentially. 6. C — The mitochondria, the one school fact the internet will never let anyone forget. 7. A — 0 degrees (and 100 is boiling, at sea level). 8. C — Canberra, the classic quiz trap; Sydney is merely the biggest. 9. D — The Nile, at roughly 6,650 kilometres, edging out the Amazon. 10. D — The Pacific, bigger than all the world’s land combined. 11. C — 1945. 12. B — Leonardo da Vinci. 13. D — George Washington, unanimously elected, twice. 14. C — Run; quickly is an adverb, beautiful an adjective, happiness a noun. 15. B — William Shakespeare.

Your Report Card

13–15: Honours graduate. Middle school holds no mysteries for you — consider our reading list for East Of Eden fans your advanced placement. 10–12: Clean pass. You graduate, diploma and all; the details have faded but the foundations held. 7–9: Summer school. Respectable, but your twelve-year-old self is shaking their head. 0–6: Back to homeroom. The bell rings for you — though as our list of simple changes that improve your quality of life argues, a little daily learning is one of the best habits there is. However you scored, you have earned the right to ask the nearest adult the capital of Australia — and enjoy the pause.