I just took the test from the stated website and got a score of 124. That was just enough to get in the organization. Has anyone else taken the test? Is anyone that is on Letsrun a member?
I just took the test from the stated website and got a score of 124. That was just enough to get in the organization. Has anyone else taken the test? Is anyone that is on Letsrun a member?
By the way, if anyone wants to take the test, here is a link.
I'm pretty sure that other than Mensa, no "international IQ society" is legit.
From Wikipedia...
"at the core of many critics’ polemics is the use of online admissions tests and their validity in determining a users’ true IQ. Membership requires a minimum one time fee of $79, which is considerably less than the Mensa fee structure."
So on the basis of a score in a dubious on-line test, they allow you to pay them $79? I guess that makes the members slightly smarter than Mensa members, who must really be getting ripped off.
Totally worth the $59 annual dues to be in Mensa.
Check out the rockin' good time at their gatherings.
Er... wrote:
I'm pretty sure that other than Mensa, no "international IQ society" is legit.
Dear Er,
The opposite of what you said is more true that what you said. Mensa's requirements are so low, that it's reputation as a group for geniuses is completely undeserved. It is the top two percent, so in a twenty thousand person small town, there's 400 geniuses? Ridiculous. That's just as silly as calling the 400 fastest people in that town, who can probably run a mile in about 6:30, champions.
There are other, less famous, more legitimate high IQ groups, with more significant skills needed for membership, such as one out of 10,000 performance on tests, and sometimes, a record of accomplishments beyond taking tests. That's 2 people in that small town of 20,000, and that's probably about right for "genius."
Even if you did the cutoff at a more modest 1/1000, that still leaves 95% of Mensa members ineligible. At one in 10,000, that would leave 995 out of 1000 Mensa members ineligible. It's a dues and activites association, so they put the entry requirement low to get people. Actual geniuses find most Mensa people really annoying, because they are not overly smart, but are overly full of themselves about the talents they do have.
The actual high IQ organizations do recruit from Mensa, just as college cross country coaches are likely to find good runners at the front of a high school cross country race. Unlike Mensa members, who let the world think they are geniuses, at least your ordinary high school cross country runner doesn't let people think he's an Olympian.
Can membership in Mensa help on a job application? If so, as meaningless as it otherwise is, that might be worth the admission price.
I've always done well on IQ tests and have officially scored well enough to join Mensa but I don't think I'd ever join. The people in those pictures look like hippies... wouldn't they rather avoid such blatant elitism? Perhaps, though, they're just the ones who actually show up to the "party".
Put Mensa membership on your resume and you have just branded yourself as someone with an inflated ego who will need constant reassurance and praise.
chester wrote:
Can membership in Mensa help on a job application?
Except possibly (possibly) for working at Mensa itself, I can't imagine a situation in which listing Mensa membership would be a plus on a job app.
Full disclosure: I used to be a member. It was a sad chapter in my life.
From the subject, I thought surely this was a thread about our little message board.
They do have some pretty decent perks although I am not quite sure they're worth the fees.
what most people don't know is that the word "genius" has nothing to do with IQ. there is no definition of genius in terms of this number, they only report percentiles, and a lot of the classic geniuses in history probably wouldn't have been so great at IQ tests
my girlfriend is pretty good - 160 - but she only joined as a joke because in her native language of spanish, "mensa" means "stupid"
what a smart organization to choose that name
(they also make terrible puzzle books with lots of errors)
oh and also, back in high school a bengali friend said that in his area, mensa is really just a place for indians to network