Anybody here a member of MENSA?

[Tank]

{snip}

I'd have to say that some are quite accurate while others are just junk.

Which if true renderers them all suspect, unless one can tell prior to taking then, which ones are accurate. What made you consider one tests less 'junk' than another?

[karadan]

Where's Youngblacksmart when you need him?

 

[SSY]

Where's Youngblacksmart when you need him?

 

LOL

He's too busy curing cancer you know.

[Martin TK]

I had mine tested, professionally, while in Graduate School, it was required, but I NEVER reveal it.  I have know those with very high IQ's who were about as useless as a box of rocks, and some who had average IQ's who have been some of the brightest minds I have ever dealt with.  I think IQ tests are not very useful beyond age five.

[SSY]

I had mine tested, professionally, while in Graduate School, it was required, but I NEVER reveal it.  I have know those with very high IQ's who were about as useless as a box of rocks, and some who had average IQ's who have been some of the brightest minds I have ever dealt with.  I think IQ tests are not very useful beyond age five.

I disagree to an extent, in my experience (though not as a scholar of the mind) I have noticed a correlation between IQs (where I know them) and people's aptitude for academic study. Though of course the correlation is at least a little fuzzy, you don't see people at top universities with sub 80 IQs and you rarely meet someone of 140+ who can't add up.

Edit: Perhaps disagree is not the right word, I think I have just noticed more of a correlation than you seem to have.

[Kylyssa]

{snip}

I'd have to say that some are quite accurate while others are just junk.

Which if true renderers them all suspect, unless one can tell prior to taking then, which ones are accurate. What made you consider one tests less 'junk' than another?

I consider those tests on which I received a score within a few points of the scores I received when taking professionally administered tests and those which were also well-written to be better than those with apparently set IQ ranges or an apparent ceiling and those with poorly written questions.

[panflutejedi]

I joined up a couple of years ago but I never went to a meeting.  I let my membership lapse. I'm thinking about renewing it.  I was wondering if any of you have been to a MENSA event and what it was like.

Hello,

I was a Mensan where I grew up in former West Germany, where MENSA is known as MinD (MENSA in Deutschland). When I took the tests, it was administered to my entire school by three people, a neurologist and two psychiatrists. A few weeks after the test, my mother was asked to meet with the headmaster of my school. I remember wondering at the time if I was in trouble.

The three testers were at the meeting, too, and informed my mother that, though the test they administered was typically meant for ages 14 and over, I scored the highest in the school, and they recommended immediately enrolling me with private tutors.

All very unsettling to a 9-year-old.

But, after a number of years, I grew tired of the meetings, the fees, and the jerks I met at MENSA. Besides, I know that governments keep an eye on such organizations, and I didn't relish the thought of being tapped for working on the next technology aimed at precipitating mass death, so I simply let my membership lapse.

Oh, and just in case anyone is wondering, I'll keep my results to myself. The last time I revealed my results, was on another forum full of "reasonable and freethinking" people, who, upon hearing my results, freaked out (to put it mildly).

[Asmodean]

Where's Youngblacksmart when you need him?

 :blink:

[notself]

Many IQ test questions are education based so they test education v intelligence.  Other questions are figures and geometric patterns and those with some types of dyslexia are at a disadvantage.  Some questions test mathematical ability and those without training in mathematics don't do well.  Although all of the questions relate to intelligence, I don't think they truly measure anything so complex.  

I worked with kids with IQ's from 55-70.  In some of the children one could see a spark of higher ability just out of reach, unexpressed.

[Asmodean]

If you can not express it, it's pointless though, is it not..? Personally, I think IQ tests are quite adequate for their purpose and it's only right that you do not do well overall if you have some sort of mental or educational handicap.

Minor disclaimer: I'm not saying that an unintelligent person - understand the word however you please - is per default not likeable or of less value than a human supercomputer.

[notself]

If you can not express it, it's pointless though, is it not..?

For these children it was pointless.  It was strange to see it though.  It was as though they were on the dark side of a cloudy glass.  I only saw this in children with genetically caused retardation.  I never saw it in the children whose retardation was due to injury during birth or due to poor diet in infancy.

[Asmodean]

It was as though they were on the dark side of a cloudy glass.

A very nice metaphor. It may be that one day medical science will offer at least some of them a nice bottle of glass cleaners and they can explore and use at least as much of their potential as we old regular folks do.

Until then, however, they are, as you have put it, behind a stained glass in the dark, thus unable to use whatever potential is locked within. And ultimately, at the end of a day - or a life - it's the potential you use that matters and defines what you do - as opposed to who you are.

[notself]

It was as though they were on the dark side of a cloudy glass.

A very nice metaphor. It may be that one day medical science will offer at least some of them a nice bottle of glass cleaners and they can explore and use at least as much of their potential as we old regular folks do.

Until then, however, they are, as you have put it, behind a stained glass in the dark, thus unable to use whatever potential is locked within. And ultimately, at the end of a day - or a life - it's the potential you use that matters and defines what you do - as opposed to who you are.

It would be wonderful to correct genetic breaks and errors.   I agree it at the end of the day it is potential used that counts.  Of course potential without opportunity and appropriate education is lost.