Readability Standards, IQ, and The Fourth Estate


than the other formulae, because McLaughlin intended it to predict the level necessary for 100% comprehension of text and the other tests were validated against lower comprehension levels.

FORCAST Formula, this was devised for assessing US Army Technical Manuals.

It is NOT suitable for primary age materials. Because it is the only formula that does not need whole sentences, it is suitable for assessing notes and multiple-choice questions.

(i) Select samples of 150 words. Count N, the number of single-syllable words.

(ii) Then grade level = 20 - (N ÷ 10)

(iii) Reading age = 25 - (N ÷ 10) years.

If you use samples of only 100 words, reading age = 25 - (N ÷ 6.67) years. This formula was validated at only a 35% score on comprehension tests.

Here are average scores of random samples.
  • Comics 92
  • Consumer ads in magazines 82
  • Movie Screen 75
  • Seventeen 67
  • Reader's Digest 65
  • Sports Illustrated 63
  • New York Daily News 60
  • Atlantic Monthly 57
  • Time 52
  • Newsweek 50
  • Wall Street Journal 43
  • Harvard Business Review 43
  • New York Times 39
  • New York Review of Books 35
  • Harvard Law Review 32
  • Standard auto insurance policy 10
  • Internal Revenue Code minus 6


Here's how the scores translate into school grades. Reading matter with the score shown on the left side will be easy for students on the level shown on the right.
    Score School Level
  • 90 to 100 5th grade
  • 80 to 90 6th grade
  • 70 to 80 7th grade
  • 60 to 70 8th and 9th grade
  • 50 to 60 10th to 12th grade (high school)
  • 30 to 50 college
  • 0 to 30 college graduate


  1. Although correlation between tests is high when applied to excerpts they provide differing results. Variations depend upon author writing styles.
  2. When these standard tests are applied to Mathematics and/or Physics books algebraic formulas and numeric calculations are ignored by the test. Pupils are likely to stumble over mathematical formulas in these texts. The results are minimum values.
  3. Reading level predictions of readability tests exhibit ‘break-off’ points for readership in specific age renderings. Therefore, reading levels of 14 years suggests an average 14-year-old would be at the limit of his/her reading comprehension ability with the excerpt. Readability formulae are based on 50% correct answer scores on comprehension tests. This means a book of reading level 14 years, would be comprehendible to only 50% for the 14-year-old student, not to 100% of comprehension.
  4. Intended-reading levels as stated in introductions or publisher's catalogues often is a poor guide to actual reading age necessary to study text.
  5. Readability standard tests are for rating, not writing they analyze a text after it
    The copyright of the article Readability Standards, IQ, and The Fourth Estate in Fourth Estate is owned by Donna L. Quesinberry. Permission to republish Readability Standards, IQ, and The Fourth Estate in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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