Thanks for the explanation. My problem was that I had absolutely no idea whether a score was good or bad. I don't even know what the maximum score is. Is there even one? All the members seemed to have some sort of cultural understanding that Fonchi's score was a bad one to have for someone her age. So how is that score related to age? Did the Idoling!!! members just know from experience which scores are within the norm or is there some rule or function that relates the score to age?
Here's how the paper test works:
There are 50 questions total, and each question is worth 1 point, so 50 questions would be the max score. If you want to compare it to a normal 100% grade, simply double whatever score you see. The questions are all fill in the blank questions. There are no multiple choice questions on these tests. That means you either know the answer or you don't. The topics are always related to pop culture, proverbs (ことわざ), how to read a certain Kanji character, Four character Kanji compounds (四字熟語), geography and history. There are rare any questions that have to do with any real math, although there may be questions regarding what π (pi) is, basic square roots/exponents and such.
The reason Fonchi's score was "bad" was because it was so low. She got 2 questions correct; a total of 4%. The paper test is filled with questions ranging from challenging to regular, everyday knowledge. They claim that the entire test is "common knowledge," but that's pure BS. They'll ask some bizarre questions that 90% of the people in the entire world wouldn't really know simply because it was a small footnote in their textbooks when they learned it in school. It's true that nearly everyone learns the material to answer the questions, but hardly anyone remembers half the stuff. I'll give you some examples of questions they ask:
Question: How do you write the character for "beer" in Kanji?
Answer: 麦酒 (bakushu)
Question: What is the last name of the three boxing brothers Kouki (興毅), Daiki (大毅) and Shirou (史郎)?
Answer: Kameda (亀田)
Question: What kind of highly prized animal is called "aguu" (あぐー) in Okinawan dialect?
Answer: Pig
As you can see, if you have no idea, there's no way you can answer it. The first question, you hardly ever see the Kanji for beer in Japanese anymore. Most people use the Katakana form as it's easier to remember, and it sounds closer to English. In the second question, you most likely wouldn't be able to answer it unless you followed Japanese boxing or happened to see them in the news (although they are fairly famous and appear on TV fairly regularly). The third question, you wouldn't know that unless you knew some Okinawan dialect, and most people on the mainland don't.
There are also very easy questions on the paper test, so most people should at least be able to get around 10 or so points. That's what the main deal was with Fonchi. The paper test doesn't really have anything specific to do with age, but I'm pretty sure most people would agree that you (should) get smarter as you age.