--- description: Radio's shrill-voiced, incredible pundits, the Quiz Kids, last fortnight took the Army aviation cadet "screening" test, averaged a score of 101. Passing score: 80. Commented Van Dyke... title: Radio: Quiz Kids Eclipsed image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # Radio: Quiz Kids Eclipsed by [TIME](/author/time/) Sep 14, 1942 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Sep 14, 1942 4:00 AM CUT Radio’s shrill-voiced, incredible pundits, the Quiz Kids, last fortnight took the Army aviation cadet “screening” test, averaged a score of 101\. Passing score: 80\. Commented Van Dyke Tiers, 15: “Some of the math and physics problems I recognized from school before I was halfway through them.” His score was 131, only 12 below the highest ever registered at the Chicago recruiting office. Last year, in a non-broadcast contest, the Kids roundly trounced five University of Chicago professors. Score: 140-to-275, in favor of the Kids. Smarting from this rout, the professors boned up for a year, recently challenged the Kids again. Score: professors, 110; Kids, 105\. The Quiz Kids’ alibi: they had stayed up the night before to watch the eclipse of the moon. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6604804/radio-quiz-kids-eclipsed/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6604804/radio-quiz-kids-eclipsed/"},"headline":"Radio: Quiz Kids Eclipsed","datePublished":"1942-09-14T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-25T04:05:35.371Z","description":"Radio's shrill-voiced, incredible pundits, the Quiz Kids, last fortnight took the Army aviation cadet \"screening\" test, averaged a score of 101. Passing score: 80. Commented Van Dyke...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6604804/radio-quiz-kids-eclipsed/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6604804/radio-quiz-kids-eclipsed/","name":"Radio: Quiz Kids Eclipsed"}}]}] ```