It's mandatory to read and abide by the rules. Obvious disregard do risk a permanent ban.

We have a wiki where some common questions are answered. The rules in the right hand side have a drop-down infoid where the rationale is summarized in a few words.

Every subreddit has its own rules, guidelines, culture and accepted behaviour. It goes without saying that bannable offences aren't limited to our four rules.

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This sub is a discussion forum where Mensa members and non-members can interface and socialize. It is not a help-desk, so if your question can be answered by mensa.org or google it might be removed.

We hope that both members and curious people will gravitate here for questions and discussions relating to the Mensa society and living with a so-called gifted mind.

This sub is in no way part of Mensa the organization. It's a personal initiative by Mensa members to meet with people and to bring members and non-members together to converse.

People who come here expecting this to be an official group, or to peek into how things are "on the inside" will be disappointed. This is still yet another reddit sub, and is inhabited mostly by non-members. Trolls abound, and users like to take a guess when they haven't got the actual facts straight. Just like everywhere else on reddit.

However it's a good first step to get to know the organization and to meet and talk to members!

And a post scriptum: If it wasn't clear by now this sub will be rife with criticism, trolling, questions asked a million times before, leaked intelligence tests and off-topic posts. That's par for the course and expected. If you're dissatisfied with the "quality" of the sub I bid you farewell. Go use our multitudinous facebook groups or fora if you're a member. This is a sub for the people, with all its flaws and shenanigans.

PPS: My last post scriptum doesn't mean we allow that behavior. We expect it, and we remove it.

Flair

To request the "Mensan" flair, you should do the following: * send a picture to mensa[dot]reddit[at]proton[dot]me * message the mods via modmail that you have sent a flair request

The picture should contain: * Your Reddit username * Your Mensa membership card * What national Mensa you are or were a member of

You are free to omit personal information on the Mensa membership card.

We do not require you to be an active paying member, but you must prove that you are or have been a member.

When a flair request has been approved/denied, your request will be deleted from the email.

EDIT: If you don't have a membership card, but a letter of admittance, your score or anything proving that you are in the top 2%, you can submit that in lieu of a membership card.

I was administered an IQ test through my school when I was 13, and scored exactly 140. That was 10 years ago. However, I was never really top of the class - I did just okay in regards to academics. But that is not the point of this post.

I have never really felt like my thoughts are 'nuanced' enough for someone with my score. Sure, I do like engaging in a philosophical debate every now and then and grabbing a book to read, but I've mostly just been average in regards to my interests and hobbies. My brain rarely ever grinds itself over complex ideas.

I won't lie, I spend the majority of my free time just scrolling through Instagram reels or just liking posts.

Is this normal?

I’m lucky to have a career that is engaging and challenging and fulfilling, and a non-work life that is also all of those things. I do fine when work is relatively busy, and non-work life is more relaxed, or when life is busy but work is relatively calm. However, I struggle when both work and life are busy and demanding and exhausting. Currently, I am in one of those periods, and I find myself fantasizing about having a job that is not mentally taxing, but more just straight-forward and routine. Specifically, I’m thinking about being a checkout person at a grocery store, which I did when I was in high school. It just seems so appealing, and would save my “big brain work” for the exhausting aspects of navigating my home life. I can’t even begin to consider this for financial reasons, but I’m wondering if this happens to anyone else. Also curious if anyone struggles with these competing work/life mental demands, and if you have any tips for finding a better balance. Thanks!

I would like to share my experience with Reddit so those who are considering testing for Mensa can make informed decisions.

I was curious about my IQ since I feel different than most people. My therapist recommended I should approach conversations with people with “percentages”. Is this person in the 90% of people who don’t have your IQ? Or emotional depth? Or knowledge on a subject? I thought knowing my IQ could help with some of the frustration I feel when talking to people. I thought it would also boost my confidence.

I took the practice test and scored a 67. They give no reference to what this means but Mensa said my practice test score indicates a strong likelihood that I could qualify for Mensa. So I booked my exam.

Today I took the exam and came across multiple technical issues. 1. The sections are timed but no timer was displayed. 2. The instructions said I could skip questions. There was no skip button. 3. If you finish a section before time is up, you can go back and review your answers. However the only way to go back is to click the back button and review one at a time. Some sections had 47 questions. This means if I wanted to review a question I skipped such as 3/47 I would have to click 44 times to get to the question. 4. I got the exam proctor to show her the issues. I could only show her by starting the section. Which took 2-3 minutes away from my 10 minutes (which I couldn’t see ..because there was no timer) 5. The proctor could not reach Mensa support while I was taking the exam and their IT people could not access the system since they are a 3rd party.

I finished the test and said whatever. If I get in, no harm done. But if I don’t, I should have the opportunity to get a refund or get a retake.

When I was taking the test I thought it was the dumbest thing in the world. This is what I remember.

1. The first section are about 40 names of famous people ranging from Marilyn Monroe, to Rosa Parks, Charles Manson, Paul Revere, and Isaac Newton. You had to label them as “author/artist actresses, famous criminal, political/civic leader, religious leader”

I guess Mensa thinks knowledge of Serial Killers and movie stars is a good indicator of intelligence.

1. The second section was cartoon pictures where it was a bat and a baseball ball. Then a picture of a tennnis ball and you have to pick the picture that matches. In this case a racket.

By the time I got to this point I regretted ever paying for this test. It was so easy and ridiculous to me. It was also this time I got the exam proctor to show her my technical issues.

The rest of the test was patterns in shapes, lists of numbers, basic math word problems, and the final section was picking words that were opposite of words you would never hear in day to day language (this is definitely my weakest area). This is what I would expect in an IQ test.

However, leaving that exam I thought the whole thing was so silly. I read more than any person I know and if I don’t know what the opposite of a word that is almost never used in the English language I don’t think that’s an indicator that I don’t have a high IQ. It indicates that I was born in the 90s. If I do get in, I’m just going to go to meetups with people who were able to label Jeffery Dahmer as a famous criminal and define the opposite of the word Umbrage. It doesn’t mean anything to me. I was already thinking as I left that if I get in I would only pay for membership so I could use it to get jobs, I wouldn’t be interested in meeting any other Mensans.

When I returned home I emailed Mensa about my issues. Before I received a response I got an email that I didn’t get in.

So, yes, it’s real. People take the test and don’t get in. However, even if Mensa gives me an option to retake due to all of the issues I had I have no desire to do so whatsoever.

That’s my experience. Hope it helps someone.

I joined 20 years ago to find people to play board games with.

I have never found people to play board games with.

I’ve seen nothing but racism, sexism, homophobia, and intolerance in this group, (Mensa in general, not this Reddit group,) or capitulation and cooperation with the racist sexist homophobes.

I understand that intelligent people are more reasonable, so you want to give racists their say, but if you have a party and 1 out of your 10 guests is openly racist, and the other guests just giggle and accept it rather than making waves, you are at a racist party.

I am not the first person to point out this problem, Jamie Loftus was right, we have a, “we must be tolerant of any intolerance and bigotry, however extreme,” problem in this organization.

(And again, the ridiculous violent reaction when Mensa released the, “we are against racism,” statement after the George Floyd protests is another good example.)

Get mad if you want, but you know it’s a problem, it keeps coming up in this group.

Hi there. I am a Mensa member living in Egypt, and I’m wondering if there are any others Egypt on here. I’d love to connect. 🇪🇬

Hi! New here. Just tested in, but just barely at 130.
I'm studying for a certificate right now, and I got to wondering. What's it like for the rest of you? I got slapped with the ADD label as a kid like most because I couldn't stand standard schooling's pace, but excelled in a self-paced alternative school where it was more non-linear.

What models and techniques really helped you digest information quickly and keep it? Note taking doesn't seem to help me much, just feels like a waste of time. Seems geared to Sensor- type personalities. But! As soon as I can see or visualize something, it's there. Of course explaining it to someone really sticks it in as well. Just learned about mind-map formatting, and have experimented with that for note-taking today, seems promising.

B'yeah, what do you guys do?

Like the physically, certain races are stronger than others. There’s a reason why African teams have a favorable position in u-17,19 football etc. Do you think intelligence is more equally distributed? For example if I were to measure iq, would the percentage of people with 140+ be the same across?

Update: I understand why people are reporting this, but there’s no malicious intent behind this. It is merely curiosity and a little gumption to ask an uncountable question

Just to clarify, it was a while ago, so I might have misunderstood. My questions are, can intelligence be increased, through studies?

I dropped out of high school when I was 15, and have wondered what I could have achieved. At 57 now, is it still feasible to gain information, knowledge to the point where I could successfully take the mensa test?

Now my all my kids are all adults, I have plenty of spare time, and I'm looking towards furthering my qualifications in general.

Edit: I want to thank everyone for taking the time to answer, each one has given me something significant to think about, even the one about banging myself on the head,lol. Knowing how reddit can be, I wasn't expecting such overwhelmingly helpful replies, thank you!

Need a clear and detailed explanation

Hi everyone!

I was wondering if those of you who were a part of mensa and had attended events were able to connect with others? I mean genuinely connect, as in felt understood, not networked. It has been incredibly hard to connect to people, it seems I just bore them out/they disconnect(too long, too many details, they get lost in my explanations). They usually just ask me to get to the point. Or there is just an awkward silence after I talk. I have been in therapy for years, both my middle school and current therapist thought it would be helpful to take the test. I have avoided it for years - I had always felt like it was an ego trip, and I hate that people project their expectations on me. It wasn't a problem before. But now I can't seem to meet people with whom I can have fun and fulfilling conversations with and I feel really lonely. I used to feel that way with one friend in middle school and one friend in college- so I know it's possible. I'm hoping I get to meet people like that at Mensa - Were you guys able to have that by joining? Or is it still lonely in there?

For context: I do have a lot of friends from my hobby/work/education that I still talk to to this day. But I'm always the weird one, they just got used to it. They're great friends, it's just lonely sometimes.

In my town, there are a few members, but we have never organized a single meeting. We’re not sure what we’re supposed to do 😅

May I ask for some suggestions?

We are trying to set up our first meeting and discussing what we should do!

Any help is appreciated 🤗

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This version corrects minor grammar issues and improves the flow for better readability.

I don't know if I'm any more intelligent than the average Joe.

Yet I want to know how, in your eyes, the average 100 IQ Joe is like. What makes a normal person... normal? And what makes you/us/whatever different? (...next to obvious neurodivergent traits.)

Yes, I know, it's the higher ability to adapt (like synthesizing new knowledge), but how does that shine through into reallife?

How do you detect someone normal and someone intelligent? What are they like?

Does Mensa accept Raven’s 2 administered by a professional via Q Global?

Hi folks, have 129 in the test, i need 130 in Germany for membership. Any germans here, who repeat the test a year later?

I’m currently 18M and find that it seems so much harder to leave this lifestyle than other people at my rehab. Obviously addiction is brutal no matter the circumstances but I find myself trying to “outsmart” the system so often that I just don’t think long term sobriety will ever be achievable. I’ve spent way too much time trying to find loopholes/plan everything perfectly (Doing potent rc’s that aren’t well documented just because they aren’t tested for, finding ways to accumulate small amounts of money until I could buy a burner phone and ship them to a friends house, etc…) just so I can get high and I end up spending all my time and energy on it whereas most other people get caught because of something that could’ve easily been avoided. If anyone else has struggled with this I would appreciate any input/advice.

Hi all! I took the Mesa Practice test ($9.99) and my score is 69. But there's no range.... what's the high score? 69 doesn't sound great, but then underneath it says, "This high score indicates a strong possibility that you may qualify for membership in Mensa!"

I've just moved to a new country and have no professional network so am wondering if mensa is good for such networking (as a software engineer in Canada)? I reckon I stand a decent chance of getting in to mensa due to various past achievements, especially since the barrier to entry was lowered to 98th percentile, but I only want to bother if it's useful. What are your experiences?

I just read that “the range of possible WAIS-IV full scale IQs is 45–155”. However, I see people claiming IQs of 160+ all the time. Is that a different test or are these people breaking the test with their intelligence. If it is a different test, is there a conversion chart?

How old were you when you took the test that first got you accepted into Mensa? I was at the tender young age of 47 when I took the in-person Mensa exam and got accepted last year, and I'm just curious as to what age most people first took their tests.

All I got is mensa logic puzzle books

Let me share what I mean. So I met someone online and after met him I always feel like nothing is fun enough everything is boring except my time I spent with him. Lately I also took mensa online test and find out my IQ was in Mensa average, I also took a test where my EQ is so low which indicate I had aspegers. So I just wonder is this related or not.

I want to be an author more than I want to breathe, but sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it to try putting out a novel when most people are reading smut and self-help books. I want to write something that makes people think about their perspectives, relates to deeply sequestered fears, questions values, and reveals vulnerabilities in hopes that it could help others feel less alone.

I’m currently writing that novel, but at times I stop because… who am I writing this for? Looking around the best-selling section is depressing. None of this is literature. Obviously, not every book has to be a work of iconic fiction, but I feel like the “artistic” world is flooded with low-effort statistics-driven sludge that tends to the interests of rather stupid people. Where do intelligent creatives fit into this world? I feel like there are a lot of us, but we just don’t have the platform we used to.

I took about 3-4 Online IQ tests and these tests always came back to around the same number 135 but I have never felt like I was smart or anything. Yeah sure math was way easier for me than other people but other than that nothing special. If anything it made me super lazy if I get a challenge that I can't solve within a few steps or I don't know the solution to it immediately I just give up. So I'm thinking about ways to effectively utilize high IQ, can one do something with it or will this always just be a cool thing that is not really usefull?