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  3. What does it mean to be a member of Mensa?

What does it mean to be a member of Mensa?

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  • D Dalek Dave

    It means you have convinced a bunch of charmless losers that you should hang out with them doing logic problems instead of getting a life! They really are a sad collection of introverted tossers, I have never met a mensa member who is more interesting than the table the group is named after.

    ------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] Trolls[^]

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    Ennis Ray Lynch Jr
    wrote on last edited by
    #15

    Not pass the test, huh :)

    Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost

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    • C Chris Losinger

      i took it two or three years ago. there were lots of those puzzle/logic sequences. tricky rotations and pattern recognition, etc.. some basic algebra, too but then there was a big section on listening comprehension; test administrator read a passage - twice, IIRC - from a story and then we had to answer questions about the passage.

      image processing toolkits | batch image processing

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      AspDotNetDev
      wrote on last edited by
      #16

      Chris Losinger wrote:

      but then there was a big section on listening comprehension; test administrator read a passage - twice, IIRC - from a story and then we had to answer questions about the passage.

      I would not do well on that portion. I have the memory of a goldfish.

      Somebody in an online forum wrote:

      INTJs never really joke. They make a point. The joke is just a gift wrapper.

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      • L Lost User

        It means they can pass some IQ tests which generally mean nothing; having a high IQ does not make people intelligent.

        Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff

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        Albert Holguin
        wrote on last edited by
        #17

        But it usually does make you a social retard... ;P

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        • C Chris Losinger

          i took it two or three years ago. there were lots of those puzzle/logic sequences. tricky rotations and pattern recognition, etc.. some basic algebra, too but then there was a big section on listening comprehension; test administrator read a passage - twice, IIRC - from a story and then we had to answer questions about the passage.

          image processing toolkits | batch image processing

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          Lost User
          wrote on last edited by
          #18

          For me it was only puzzle/logic sequences. No algebra or listening or anything else. It was about 7 or 8 years ago. Perhaps the tests have changed to cover broader skills, which makes perfect sense to me, as intelligence cannot be exclusively mathematical/logical/etc. IMO.

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          • C Chris Losinger

            i took it two or three years ago. there were lots of those puzzle/logic sequences. tricky rotations and pattern recognition, etc.. some basic algebra, too but then there was a big section on listening comprehension; test administrator read a passage - twice, IIRC - from a story and then we had to answer questions about the passage.

            image processing toolkits | batch image processing

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            Ian Shlasko
            wrote on last edited by
            #19

            Yeah, that sounds like the one I took earlier this year... I did great on the passage, and the rotations and such weren't so bad... But half the test was a bunch of relationships with images ("Which if these is most like/unlike this"), which could be related in enough different ways that it felt like a "Guess what the author was thinking" puzzle... These were like shrunk-down Office clip art images, not just abstract shapes. As for the algebra... That actually caught me off-guard... I've gotten so used to just grabbing a calculator, a cell phone, or a computer, that I had practically forgotten how to do multiplication (Talking about 4-digit numbers, not quick stuff)... Slowed me down enough to mess up my score. But hey, with all that, combined with me operating on four hours of sleep, I still only missed qualifying by one point. No point in retaking... I know I could have done it.

            Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
            Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)

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            • A Albert Holguin

              But it usually does make you a social retard... ;P

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              Lost User
              wrote on last edited by
              #20

              I think many of them already have that distinction.

              Unrequited desire is character building. OriginalGriff

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              • S Slacker007

                I have a colleague who is a member of this organization. However, I think the ID cards got mixed up because this person is actually retarded. So I ask of you members of the project that is code, what does it mean to be a member of Mensa? In case you haven't heard of it[^]

                Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)

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                Lost User
                wrote on last edited by
                #21

                Watching your virtual belly button all the time and comparing the length of the ... well you know, the score. Actually that was in an online High IQ society based in New York.

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                • A AspDotNetDev

                  Chris Losinger wrote:

                  but then there was a big section on listening comprehension; test administrator read a passage - twice, IIRC - from a story and then we had to answer questions about the passage.

                  I would not do well on that portion. I have the memory of a goldfish.

                  Somebody in an online forum wrote:

                  INTJs never really joke. They make a point. The joke is just a gift wrapper.

                  S Offline
                  S Offline
                  Single Step Debugger
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #22

                  AspDotNetDev wrote:

                  I would not do well on that portion. I have the memory of a goldfish.

                  I’ll five-vote you for this post if I don’t forget to.

                  There is only one Vera Farmiga and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.

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                  • S Slacker007

                    I have a colleague who is a member of this organization. However, I think the ID cards got mixed up because this person is actually retarded. So I ask of you members of the project that is code, what does it mean to be a member of Mensa? In case you haven't heard of it[^]

                    Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)

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                    Gregory Gadow
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #23

                    I am a member of American Mensa. All it "means" to be a member is that I have a qualifying test score (national organizations have varying lists; here is the US list[^]) that places me in the 98th or 99th percentile. In general, Mensans have a kind of intellectual ADD: if you listen to a group of us talking, the conversation might well start out about cars, then move to the theory of interstellar space travel, to cosmology, to stellar physics, to nuclear power, to global warming and back to cars, all in about ten minutes time. It is a given that sex and food will be mentioned several times during that same ten minutes. This doesn't mean we're "retarded", just that our discussions are given more lead to wander where they will. A lot of people find such conversations difficult to follow; to be honest, we feel just as frustrated talking you. The result is that many high IQ people (Mensans and not) tend to be socially maladjusted: we don't get the kind of practice and positive feedback that you get for being social. That is why Mensa exists, to be a social organization that makes it easier for us to meet one another and engage people at our level.

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                    • L Lost User

                      I also took the test years ago. Qualified, but respectfully denied membership. As for the tests ... it was something like 60 or so assignments. Each assignment was some graphical logical sequence of nine symbols where the ninth symbol was missing and had to be selected from given options. So no language/math/... knowledge necessary, only logic.

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                      Gregory Gadow
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #24

                      Each national organization has their own tests, and qualifying tests can be very different. About seven years ago, I took the American Mensa proctored test rather than a "standard" IQ test. It started out with a passage being read to us, then several tests that measured our ability to decypher patterns, perform basic computational skills, work logic puzzles and the like, then a final test about what we remembered from the read passage we heard about an hour and a half earlier.

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                      • G Gregory Gadow

                        I am a member of American Mensa. All it "means" to be a member is that I have a qualifying test score (national organizations have varying lists; here is the US list[^]) that places me in the 98th or 99th percentile. In general, Mensans have a kind of intellectual ADD: if you listen to a group of us talking, the conversation might well start out about cars, then move to the theory of interstellar space travel, to cosmology, to stellar physics, to nuclear power, to global warming and back to cars, all in about ten minutes time. It is a given that sex and food will be mentioned several times during that same ten minutes. This doesn't mean we're "retarded", just that our discussions are given more lead to wander where they will. A lot of people find such conversations difficult to follow; to be honest, we feel just as frustrated talking you. The result is that many high IQ people (Mensans and not) tend to be socially maladjusted: we don't get the kind of practice and positive feedback that you get for being social. That is why Mensa exists, to be a social organization that makes it easier for us to meet one another and engage people at our level.

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                        Slacker007
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #25

                        Thanks for the explanation...I still think he's retarded.

                        Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)

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                        • I Ian Shlasko

                          Yeah, that sounds like the one I took earlier this year... I did great on the passage, and the rotations and such weren't so bad... But half the test was a bunch of relationships with images ("Which if these is most like/unlike this"), which could be related in enough different ways that it felt like a "Guess what the author was thinking" puzzle... These were like shrunk-down Office clip art images, not just abstract shapes. As for the algebra... That actually caught me off-guard... I've gotten so used to just grabbing a calculator, a cell phone, or a computer, that I had practically forgotten how to do multiplication (Talking about 4-digit numbers, not quick stuff)... Slowed me down enough to mess up my score. But hey, with all that, combined with me operating on four hours of sleep, I still only missed qualifying by one point. No point in retaking... I know I could have done it.

                          Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
                          Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)

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                          Chris Losinger
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #26

                          Ian Shlasko wrote:

                          I had practically forgotten how to do multiplication

                          i probably groaned out loud when it came time to do long division by hand. what a nightmare that is...

                          image processing toolkits | batch image processing

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                          • G Gregory Gadow

                            I am a member of American Mensa. All it "means" to be a member is that I have a qualifying test score (national organizations have varying lists; here is the US list[^]) that places me in the 98th or 99th percentile. In general, Mensans have a kind of intellectual ADD: if you listen to a group of us talking, the conversation might well start out about cars, then move to the theory of interstellar space travel, to cosmology, to stellar physics, to nuclear power, to global warming and back to cars, all in about ten minutes time. It is a given that sex and food will be mentioned several times during that same ten minutes. This doesn't mean we're "retarded", just that our discussions are given more lead to wander where they will. A lot of people find such conversations difficult to follow; to be honest, we feel just as frustrated talking you. The result is that many high IQ people (Mensans and not) tend to be socially maladjusted: we don't get the kind of practice and positive feedback that you get for being social. That is why Mensa exists, to be a social organization that makes it easier for us to meet one another and engage people at our level.

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                            S Offline
                            Single Step Debugger
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #27

                            There is your problem. Instead of focusing your enormously big brains on the world problems and solving them one at a time, you are jumping from subject to subject barely scratching the surface of the problems. I think Mensa should become a totalitarian organization and for the sake of the society to force you to focus on a specific subject using all necessarily measures even if they include electricity, whips and\or a variety of rusty steel tools.

                            There is only one Vera Farmiga and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.

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                            • C Chris Losinger

                              Ian Shlasko wrote:

                              I had practically forgotten how to do multiplication

                              i probably groaned out loud when it came time to do long division by hand. what a nightmare that is...

                              image processing toolkits | batch image processing

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                              Ian Shlasko
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #28

                              Actually, I've gotten pretty good at doing division in my head... You really only have to remember one string of digits and one carry... With long-form multiplication, you have to do a 1xN for each digit and accumulate, so there are a lot more digits to remember. But then, it's still faster on paper... And I still wasn't fast enough.

                              Proud to have finally moved to the A-Ark. Which one are you in?
                              Author of the Guardians Saga (Sci-Fi/Fantasy novels)

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                              • S Slacker007

                                I have a colleague who is a member of this organization. However, I think the ID cards got mixed up because this person is actually retarded. So I ask of you members of the project that is code, what does it mean to be a member of Mensa? In case you haven't heard of it[^]

                                Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)

                                0 Offline
                                0 Offline
                                0bx
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #29

                                Mensa is more or less a self-help group for people with high IQ's whose spirits got crushed in gears of meritocracy. Having a high IQ doesn't mean you're smart. It just means you're good at some things most people are really bad at. Being a member doesn't mean anything, except that you get to go to meetings and meet new people.

                                Giraffes are not real.

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                                • S Slacker007

                                  I have a colleague who is a member of this organization. However, I think the ID cards got mixed up because this person is actually retarded. So I ask of you members of the project that is code, what does it mean to be a member of Mensa? In case you haven't heard of it[^]

                                  Just along for the ride. "the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)

                                  S Offline
                                  S Offline
                                  Single Step Debugger
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #30

                                  This is an organization of people who have made the effort to take the Mensa test and scored among the top few persent. The tests are basically measuring the mathematical intelligence as opposite to the emotional intelligence. That’s why membership in Mensa will look great in the resume of the programmer but solely is not enough well you’re hiring manager, marketing specialist or engineer who will be a project leader. AFAIK it also doesn’t measure the creativity. IMO this test are not to be underestimated but in many cases the summary of the high school grades/score will give you far more reliable information of how intelligent a person is.

                                  There is only one Vera Farmiga and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.

                                  G 1 Reply Last reply
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                                  • S Single Step Debugger

                                    There is your problem. Instead of focusing your enormously big brains on the world problems and solving them one at a time, you are jumping from subject to subject barely scratching the surface of the problems. I think Mensa should become a totalitarian organization and for the sake of the society to force you to focus on a specific subject using all necessarily measures even if they include electricity, whips and\or a variety of rusty steel tools.

                                    There is only one Vera Farmiga and Salma Hayek is her prophet! Advertise here – minimum three posts per day are guaranteed.

                                    G Offline
                                    G Offline
                                    Gregory Gadow
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #31

                                    Actually, Mensa was founded (in Oxford, UK, 1943) specifically "to identify and to foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity." The idea was to create a brain trust that governments could turn to when they needed help figuring out their problem. It didn't work out quite that way: people felt a bit skittish after WW II with having a "superior master group" calling the shots. Imagine that. :rolleyes: There are a few think tanks (in the US, at least) that heavily recruit Mensa members, and several others that do not recruit but will put Mensans on the top of their HR's inbox. Mensa International and the various national Mensa groups, however, are just member-driven social clubs, nothing more.

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                                    • E Ennis Ray Lynch Jr

                                      Not pass the test, huh :)

                                      Need custom software developed? I do custom programming based primarily on MS tools with an emphasis on C# development and consulting. I also do Android Programming as I find it a refreshing break from the MS. "And they, since they Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs" -- Robert Frost

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                                      Dalek Dave
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #32

                                      Peaked at 154. Probably a bit less now, but was intelligent enough not to pay up to join the club.

                                      ------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] Trolls[^]

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                                      • 0 0bx

                                        Mensa is more or less a self-help group for people with high IQ's whose spirits got crushed in gears of meritocracy. Having a high IQ doesn't mean you're smart. It just means you're good at some things most people are really bad at. Being a member doesn't mean anything, except that you get to go to meetings and meet new people.

                                        Giraffes are not real.

                                        G Offline
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                                        Gregory Gadow
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #33

                                        0bx wrote:

                                        Having a high IQ doesn't mean you're smart. It just means you're good at some things most people are really bad at.

                                        It it's that, really. Most people have either an in-depth knowledge of one or two fields (just football, or just gardening, or just computer coding), or they have a dabbling interest in many fields (they'll cook, knit, play World of Warcraft and strum a guitar, but only a little bit in all of these.) In my experience, Mensans tend to have a strong interest in and knowledge of many fields: they might be great cooks, have an excellent flower garden, be active in the local dodgeball league, read several books every week and sit on a couple of charity boards. It is not that we are good that things that most people are really bad at; its that we typically have more things that we are good at than is typical. Mind you, though, that doesn't mean we are good at everything, even though a lot of us like to pretend that we are. :rolleyes: We may have more fields of expertise, but outside of those we're just as ignorant as everyone else.

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                                        • D Dalek Dave

                                          Peaked at 154. Probably a bit less now, but was intelligent enough not to pay up to join the club.

                                          ------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] Trolls[^]

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                                          AspDotNetDev
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #34

                                          Dalek Dave wrote:

                                          Peaked at 154.

                                          Pfft. Not even enough to join Mega Society. Pathetic.

                                          Somebody in an online forum wrote:

                                          INTJs never really joke. They make a point. The joke is just a gift wrapper.

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