What Is the Required IQ for Mensa?
Mensa welcomes the top two percent of the population, as measured by intelligence. The international organization aims to identify and foster human intelligence, to benefit humanity, to promote research into the nature of intelligence and to provide stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for its members. Applicants must take the Mensa test or submit an approved test from another source.
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Tests
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American Mensa accepts scores from about 200 intelligence tests and publishes the threshold for each test on its website. For example a Stanford-Binet score of 130 will qualify, but you'll need 132 from the Stanford-Binet 5 test. Many potential Mensa members may have an acceptable score from a test taken as early as grade school, because Mensa places no time limit on tests taken. Submit the original, or notarized, documentation and a $40 testing fee to Mensa
American Mensa, Ltd.
Attn: Testing and Admissions Manager,
1229 Corporate Drive
West Arlington TX 76006-6103
Documentation
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If a school or school psychologist gave the test, Mensa will accept an original, or notarized, signed copy of the school psychologist's report on school district letterhead, an official school transcript (with the school seal or sealed in a school district envelope) or a letter from the school guidance office on school letterhead, signed by an administrator.
From an individual psychologist, Mensa accepts documentation on the psychologist's clinic or agency letterhead, showing the candidate's name, date and name of test, the full scale IQ and percentile, the psychologist's original signature and license number. From the armed forces, Mensa will accept a notarized copy of the record or the record sent from the National Personnel Records Center. -
Pretesting
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American Mensa offers a home test for $18, but only to addresses within the United States.The test will give an idea of what to expect from the standard supervised test. It is not a prerequisite for the Mensa test, cannot be used as a prior test and is only for candidates 14 and over. Candidates must take all the test and understand it includes an English-based verbal section. Candidates outside the USA can contact Mensa International (see Resources) for pretesting in their countries.
History
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IQ is the acronym for Intelligence Quotient. French psychologist Alfred Binet introduced it in 1904 to express mental age compared with chronological age. For example an 8-year old child whose test results showed a mental age of 10 would have a quotient of 10/8 or 1.25. Multipling by 100 gives an Intelligence Quotient of 125. After 16, when abilities tend to level off, test takers are compared with others of the same age, with what psychologists call the "Deviation IQ."
Membership
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"There are many intelligent reasons to join Mensa" is the sort of word-play Mensa members enjoy. Like-minded people have monthly meetings and can join about 200 special interest groups that run the gamut of learning and endeavor, from Egyptology to UFOs. They receive magazines and bulletins and the ability to contribute to such programs as The American Mensa Education and Research Foundation.
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References
Resources
- Photo Credit The Mensa Symbol, http://www.mensa.org
