You may have a high IQ – but how do you score for PQ (Pub Quiz)?

Those lacking the mental agility for a high IQ score are being offered an alternative cerebral certificate – Pub Quiz intelligence.

The test relies not on gymnastics in the grey matter but a person's ability to extract information from it.

The new badge of honour is also based on being as knowledgeable of pop stars and celebrities as traditional facts and figures.

A survey of more than 2,000 adults has found PQ is more important than IQ when it comes to triumphing in pub contests.

IQ – Intelligence Quotient – is a measure of intelligence through quickness of mental comprehension, rather than based on knowledge, wisdom or memory.

Subjects for a good PQ score include pop culture, topical news, celebrities, soap opera and the latest scandal.

The survey found 83 per cent of those questioned could successfully answer questions on this year's Brit awards, but only 15 per cent know how many metres there are in a mile.

The survey also found women are more knowledgeable than men about celebrities, but less clued up about facts and figures. Both did well on topical news.

Keen pub quizzer and TV quiz contestant Martin Hannan, from Edinburgh, said people with high IQs tended to have wide-ranging interests that made them good pub quizzers.

However, Mr Hannan, the runner-up in BBC Scotland's Scottish history and culture quiz Superscot in 1990, who has an IQ of 154, said they might struggle if there was too much focus on trivia.

He said: "The move towards celebrity is really disappointing. We no longer teach kids old-fashioned facts like capital cities and important dates in history

"Pub quizzes seems to be catering for what people are talking about these days. A team is now really disadvantaged if they do not have someone who knows about soap operas and pop stars."

Mensa, the high IQ society, said IQ was irrelevant to pub quizzes.

Chief executive John Stevenage said: "IQ is a measurement of intelligence, and is not viewed as the same as measuring knowledge or memory.

"Quizzes can be an enjoyable way of testing general knowledge, but do not have a clear correlation with IQ scoring.

"There has been no significant change in the level of scores achieved by people taking the test but the number of people taking IQ tests through Mensa has increased over the past year."

The PQ system has been invented on behalf of soft drink brand J2O to publicise its new "PQ" pub quiz.

The game gives participants an IQ-style PQ rating based on their answers in three categories – celebrity knowledge, random facts, and topical news.

J2O brand manager George Cobb said: "From evaluating the nation's PQ we realised the traditional pub quiz needs to change in line with the nation's interests."