Scrambled

**Scrambled**, also known as *Word Mix* in the 2012 Special, is a challenge of linguistic intelligence on *Canada's Smartest Person*.

## Description

*Retrieved from CBC.ca*

In Scrambled, competitors’ ways with words are put to the test. A series of letters appears on the screen, and using those letters, the challenge is to make as many 3-or-more-letter words as possible in 30 seconds.

Given the tight time constraints even the most linguistically gifted will find this test difficult.

## 2012 Special

Word Mix was the first of the two challenges of linguistic intelligence and the first challenge overall. Gerry Dee explained to the contestants the instructions and that the contestant in 1st place would earn 5 overall points, the contestant in 2nd place would earn 3, the contestant in 3rd place would earn 2, and the contestant in last place would earn 0. He also explained to the viewers how they could play along with the contestants on the Canada's Smartest Person app.

In the first round, the letters were N, K, S, Y, L, and I. The 21 acceptable words were 'ilk', 'ink', 'inks', 'inky', 'ins', 'kiln', 'kilns', 'kin', 'link', 'links', 'nil', 'silk', 'silky', 'sin', 'sink', 'ski', 'skin', 'sky', 'slink', 'slinky', and 'sly'. Marshall Carroll got 5 acceptable words, Peter Dyakowski got 6, Greg Frankson got 3, and Laura Suen got 7.

In the second round, the letters were R, P, I, L, A, and L. The 19 acceptable words were 'ail', 'air', 'all', 'ill', 'lair', 'lap', 'liar', 'lip', 'pail', 'pair', 'pal', 'pall', 'par', 'pill', 'pillar', 'rail', 'rap', 'rill', and 'rip'. Marshall got 7 acceptable words, Peter got 8, Greg got 6, and Laura got 8.

In the final round, the letters were A, O, H, R, P, and N. The 14 acceptable words were 'apron', 'harp', 'hop', 'horn', 'nap', 'nor', 'oar', 'orphan', 'pan', 'par', 'porn', 'ran', 'rap', and 'roan'. Marshall got 6 acceptable words, Peter got 5, Greg got 4, and Laura got 3.

In total, Marshall got 18 acceptable words, Peter got 19, Greg got 13, and Laura got 18. Therefore, Peter was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Marshall and Laura were each awarded 3 for tying for 2nd place, and Greg was not awarded any for finishing in last place.

### Notes

1. ↑ Gerry Dee mistakenly stated that there were 20 acceptable words instead of 21.

## Episode 103

Scrambled was the sole challenge of linguistic intelligence and the fourth challenge overall. Jeff Douglas explained to the viewers the instructions and how they could play along with the contestants on the Canada's Smartest Person app. Jessi Cruickshank explained to the contestants that the contestant in 1st place would earn 5 overall points, the contestant in 2nd place would earn 3, the contestant in 3rd place would earn 2, and the contestant in last place would earn 1.

The letters that the contestants would have to use in order to submit acceptable words would derive from a larger word. The 16 possible larger words that the contestants would be faced with were milk nutrients: 'calcium', 'magnesium', 'folate', 'vitamin B6', 'vitamin D', 'niacin', 'phosphorus', 'thiamine', 'vitamin A', 'protein', 'potassium', 'riboflavin', 'vitamin B12', 'zinc', 'selenium', and 'pantothenic acid'.

In the first round, the larger word was 'folate', therefore, the letters were F, O, L, A, T, and E. At least 20 words were acceptable: 'ale', 'alt', 'ate', 'eat', 'fat', 'fate', 'feat', 'flat', 'foal', 'laet', 'lat', 'late', 'let', 'lot', 'oat', 'tale', 'tea', 'teal', 'toe', and 'tole'. Mith Das got 14 acceptable words, Melanie Martin got 11, Norm Odjick got 8, and Lisa Preston got 11.

In the final round, the larger word was 'protein', therefore, the letters were P, R, O, T, E, I, and N. At least 28 words were acceptable: 'nip', 'nit', 'nite', 'nor', 'not', 'note', 'noter', 'one', 'pet', 'pin', 'pine', 'pint', 'pit', 'pot', 'prone', 'rin', 'rot', 'rote', 'tie', 'tin', 'tine', 'tip', 'ton', 'tone', 'top', 'tor', 'tore', and 'torn'. Mith got 15 acceptable words, Melanie got 8, Norm got 8, and Lisa got 6.

In total, Mith got 29 acceptable words, Melanie got 19, Norm got 16, and Lisa got 17. Therefore, Mith was awarded 5 overall points for finishing in 1st place, Melanie was awarded 3 for finishing in 2nd place, Lisa was awarded 2 for finishing in 3rd place, and Norm was awarded 1 for finishing in last place.

As for the public, women performed better than men with average percentage scores of 26% and 25%, respectively. Also, it was revealed that Jeff himself had received a percentage score of 81%. However, the scores for the public are calculated differently than the scores for the contestants.

## References

1. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/smartestperson/blog/testing-intelligences-episode-3
2. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8ofUJ\_9e18&t=537s
3. ↑ https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2553849234 (26:25)