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I took a mentored test on a lark, as many folks did at the time, and did receive a letter from Mensa. It stated that I scored higher than 95% of the population, with a Cattell score of 139, which was far short of the required score of 148. A re-test was offered, which would take place in a month. Since I was not aware of any cognitive enhancement drugs on the market at the time, I considered whether I could make make my brain bigger, better, new and improved, with less fat and calories, in that period of time, and concluded that I would forever be consigned to the band of the hopeless, unworthy, and rejected.
My life changed little after that, except that I noticed my dog - Bear - began disrespecting me, and refused to follow my commands. He would prance around with a superior look on his face, as if he was laughing inside. Probably just my imagination.
Your statement that a score of 148 was the required minimum caused me to look it up. It turns out there are two different tests; the minimum on the Stanford-Binet is 132, while the minimum on the Catelli test is as you say: 148.
All of these groups blend together in my opinion... Anything done in secret can't be good for the outsiders:
Mensa
Lions Club
Rotary
Masons
Elks
Illuminati
Scientologists
Mormons
Jehovah's witness
Skull and Bones
KKK
Priory of Scion
"In secret"? MENSA is not a secret society. It's just a social club, like neighborhood social clubs that are based on having an address within neighborhood boundaries. Rotary and Lions are not secret societies; they're business clubs oriented toward charitable projects. If you have a project you'd like to ask them to help fund, you can attend a meeting. There's nothing secret about them.
It's called prejudice. If you don't like two entities or groups, it clearly makes sense to draw parallels between them that don't exist. Saves you a lot of work trying to justify your ignorance.
Like any social club, if you have interests in common with others who participate, that makes it enjoyable. There is, however, no guarantee that common interests and compatible personalities go hand in hand with having IQs and test scores over a particular level. I know many people where our intelligence level is comparable, but we have nothing in common in terms of interests, nor do our personalities mesh particularly well.
High IQ's are mostly just an intellectual curiosity. What makes a person smart is common sense, a moral compass and just getting along with people in a positive way.
IQ has nothing to do with intellectual curiosity. It is as someone else has pointed out simply an ability to take a certain type of tests.
Plenty of high IQ people, like those in Mensa, have little intellectual curiosity. At the time I attended most in the Houston chapter of Mensa have no idea what tapas or ceviche are, and are pretty useless at discussing non-Hollywood movies. And this in a city where NASA and cutting edge medical research are based.
Accomplishing anything of note isn't its mission. It's just a social club.
Well what's the point then? Seems like a complete waste of time. Why would an organization exist for so-called intelligent people, where they meet up and don't do anything meaningful?
Well what's the point then? Seems like a complete waste of time. Why would an organization exist for so-called intelligent people, where they meet up and don't do anything meaningful?
Was that the intent?
Don't be so quick to dismiss the social aspect provided by this organization.
Before meetup and social media Mensa was one of the very few places where one can meet other nerdish folks, especially if you live in a small town.
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Saves you a lot of work trying to justify your ignorance.
