MENSA and IQ tests

Out of curiosity I remembered when I was about 18 years old I did a few different IQ related tests and one being the home IQ test from Mensa. Being many years ago I remember the result coming back at around 144 or 146 and came with an invite to join if I had the cash to pay for another test and then pay to join the club IF I had passed the next set of tests. I didn’t take them up at the time because 1) I didn’t have the cash to go any further as I was off to University soon after and 2) I didn’t see the use or benefit.

So after a good few years later I was talking to my partner one night recently and we gone on about IQ and how its hard to actually get a good rating of ones actual intelligence simply because everyone is so different and in such diverse areas it would be hard to have a good enough test that would span all the relevant abilities so that its a fair test.

Stuck on my curiosity I applied again to Mensa and did the home test, paid my £9.95 to get it marked and got a score of 155 in the top 1%… WOOHOO .. by their ratings I’m a Genius, Happy days.

To be honest the test was right up my alley. You have 45 minutes and a range of maths, language and symbols / drawing related puzzles to answer and I found it quite easy. Bare in mind that I had spent the whole of my Saturday from 10am through to 8:30pm stripping a bedroom completely and sanding down walls and ceiling . Then painting and decorating all day emulsion and glossing the full monty and eventually putting it all back together again. I hadn’t ate all day other than a cereal at breakfast before I started and so I took the test and completed it in about 40 minutes signed the cheque and waited.

So a rating of 155 was given and I was happy with that seen as I was totally exhausted when I did it and that I hardly tried really or re-checked any of what I had done with the remaining 5 minutes in case I found any mistakes. So I then thought maybe I should do the tests now. University is long gone and I have the disposable income to use / waste on testing my IQ.

So I paid the £17.50 and booked myself into a local test centre and took the test at the weekend, all easy enough so far.

This is where things go wrong.

Take into consideration that I havent had my results back yet so I can only assume I’ve failed but you get a good feeling after a test if you have done well or not. I don’t think ive done poorly but I don’t think I did well either.

THE REASON:

The 2 tests given were the most ridiculous and completely different tests compared to the initial home test. These tests comprised almost entirely of Language , Ye Olde English comparisons in opposite meanings of obscure words with some answers having 2 plausible answers and som completely unanswerable.

Now i’m bright.. I know I’m bright I don’t need that confirmed but can anyone honestly answer this:

QUESTION: A guy realising he has money problems decides to commit suicide and goes down to a bridge over a river to kill himself. However he doesn’t kill himself , WHY?

POSSIBLE ANSWERS:

A) somebody stops him

B) he realises he hasn’t got money problems after all

C) he just decides not too

D) some other crazy reason I can’t remember now

Either way though how the hell do you answer that.? Surely all the answers could be correct? A busty blonde could have distracted him and offered him a good time to take his mind off his money problems.. Something a guy I’m sure would consider twice on killing themselves over if offered.

Either way its impossible to answer..

Then there were NO mathematical equations or number patterns or any of the number / math related questions that I breezed through in the home test now on the main tests. Unfortunately for me you can grasp my problem.. I’m good at Maths but poor at English especially Ye Olde Worlde English. English is not my forte as you may know anyway from my blog. I’m hardly a writer of any calibre.

Anyway to get to the point is that how on Earth can you test someones IQ based on these tests? There were no logical puzzles like in the home test. There were no logical word/number boxes or the basic pattern recognition tests either.

Don’t get me wrong there was one section which had images of shapes that you had to then compare and mark the odd one or two out  but it was about an 8th of the whole test. The worst though other than the stupid suicide question was the last section part 6 of the second paper where you had a set of weird and wonderful old sentances with the odd word missing and you had to fill in the blanks. Almost every single word offering was completely plausable. For example fill in this :

QUESTION: Bob goes to a shop and buys a ……………………..

ANSWERS:

A) bat n ball

B) some food

C) Clothing

D) a new watch

I mean come on, every answer is true. How the hell do you pick a specific one that fits. The sentences themselves were much longer and had up to 6 words missing which just made it tedious not hard but you catch the point I’m making. No matter which option I chose it sounded right for the answer.

I wait with a horrible thought that my results come back in the next week to inform me that every test ive taken and degrees etc I’ve obtained in life actually get trumped by a failed IQ test which says I’m simply average at best because I’m not a crazy English professor with a Pynchon for committing suicide.

Results to follow

As promised i’ve now had my results back and as expected I only got 136. I’m not shocked as the test was awful to say the least and nothing like the home test they send out. I guess I now have to wairt a full year before trying it again lol