[2] The most recent version of the test is WonScore, a cloud-based assessment providing a score to potential employers.

[2][8] Wonderlic created and distributed the test as a graduate student in the psychology department at Northwestern University.

"[3] Originally designed to aid in employee selection at companies such as AT&T[10] and Oscar Mayer in the 1940s, the Wonderlic Personnel Test has been used by both the United States Armed Forces and the National Football League.

During World War II, the Navy began using the Wonderlic Personnel Test to select candidates for pilot training and navigation.

In the 1970s Tom Landry, coach of the Dallas Cowboys, was the first to use the Wonderlic Personnel Test to predict player performance.

[3] The types of questions that have appeared in the oldest versions of the Wonderlic test include: analogies, analysis of geometric figures, arithmetic, direction following, disarranged sentences, judgment, logic, proverb matching, similarities, and word definitions.

[27] A more recent study by Hicks and colleagues from the Georgia Institute of Technology similarly argued that evidence concerning the test's validity was limited.

Partially on this basis, they argued that organizations interested in personnel selection should consider administering measures of established constructs that are grounded in a more theoretical framework, such as fluid intelligence or working memory capacity.

[28] In May 1997, Robert Jordan filed a lawsuit against the city of New London, Connecticut, alleging violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the United States and Connecticut constitutions, in a case that was referred to by several media outlets as "Too Smart To Be A Cop",[29][30] based on the city's application of scores generated by the Wonderlic test.

In fall 1996, Jordan requested an interview with Keith Harrigan, New London's Assistant City Manager in charge of personnel.

Harrigan informed Jordan that he was ineligible because he scored too high on the written portion of the Wonderlic test intended to evaluate cognitive ability.

Jordan filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut, where his case was dismissed by Judge Peter C. Dorsey, who noted: "The guarantee of equal protection under the Fifth Amendment is not a source of substantive rights or liberties, but rather a right to be free from invidious discrimination in statutory classifications and other governmental activity.

[37][32] Lyons said that Wonderlic's "limited return on investment" for the NFL is contrary to general mental ability being a very strong predictor of job performance for most careers; "because it's so physically based, the results point to that [GMA] really doesn't matter".

[32] Donovan McNabb, whose score was the lowest of the five quarterbacks taken in the first round of the 1999 NFL draft, had the longest and most successful career.

[37] For tight ends and defensive backs, it was found that lower scores indicated increased achievements.

Having a guy in the locker room who may be smarter than every member of the coaching staff can be viewed as a problem – or at a minimum as a threat to the egos of the men who hope to be able when necessary to outsmart the players, especially when trying in some way to manipulate them.Job performance in the NFL also includes deviance.

[44] A simplified and condensed version of the Wonderlic test appeared in older editions of the Madden NFL video game series.