11 Plus Exams Forum

DD took the Mensa Test last Saturday and passed with 162 (maximum possible). Her eleven plus exams finished three weeks ago and hasn't done any preparation after that.

Posting it here to let everybody know that eleven plus exam preparation (VR, NVR) is good enough to pass Mensa.

Its my understnading that the mensa test is not a pass or fail thing! Its a measure, like saying you are 5'4" or 12 stones - how can that be a "pass"?

I also feel the mensa test is quite a strange and certainly not very useful test, I'm not quite sure whey people take it - I'm sure you were well aware of your child's intelligence already?

I don't want to say "congratulations" as its just a measure, but hope your DD enjoyed it and is happy in her results.

Wouldn't the score be the same before the 11 plus prep? Or am I missing the point of Mensa tests??

Well done to your dd Flower10. That is excellent. I hope she will get her first choice school.

Did they tell you what percentage of applicants get full marks?

Does she now automatically become a member? DG

When I sat the test many decades ago,the chap next to me and quite a few candidates cheated by starting the questions earlier as the invigilator was talking between sections.

Also they accepted candidates below the cut off score- Top 2-3 percentile-as the extra cash helped.

I found the society was useful for meeting new people, if nothing else.

Yes, it seems that just after the 11+ exams may be a good time to take the Mensa test. DC have never been interested but I also know some boys who took the test around 11+ time and have a score of 162, higher than Stephen Hawking and Einstein - though I suspect these other guys weren't too bothered about trying to ace the test

nyr

I am not entirely sure how intelligence tests for mensa etc work but if the scores are based on an overall score based on a mishmash of performance on a range of different "abilities" then it's possible that a mere mortal could score more than someone like Einstein or Hawking. They might have phenomenal intelligence in specific areas whereas these people we all know with IQs of 160+ might just be better "all rounders" than them ........... or maybe the questions aren't well written enough for a genius - maybe they get floored by the simplicity of it!

Mensa selects top 2% of population . An IQ of 160 on the Mensa test does not equate to IQ 160 on another test such as the Stanford Binet - as an example the standard deviation of the 2 tests are different.

IQ 160 on the old Stanford Binet (Einsten's estimate) is approx 1 in 12000 people.
On the Mensa test IQ 160 is approx 1 in 160 people level.

This is why you frequently read of people achieving the 160 score on the Mensa test,but wrongly being compared to Einstein's estimated IQ which was at a much rarer level.

I took, and "passed", the entrance test for Mensa in May 1967, and I've duly paid my subs and been a member ever since - so if I make it to May 2017, I shall "have my name in lights" in the always a good read monthly Mensa Magazine, for 50 years membership. Beware the so-called Mensa tests which you can find online or in books but which aren't actually what they claim to be.

The test which I took was the Cattell one, and I journeyed up from my then RAF base in Wiltshire to Imperial College London to take it. The "pass" mark was an IQ of 148, the level below which you were not offered membership, and I made the grade and beyond. My membership has been worth it, allowing me for example to meet a mass of interesting members, of many nationalities and all backgrounds, colours and creeds, and not the least "household names" such as Sir Clive Sinclair, Carol Vorderman, that bloke who cheated his way to victory on Who Wants to be a Millionaire, and the now infamous Jimmy Saville.

In my occasional overseas travels I have pitched up at the homes of members I had never met before and stayed as a welcome guest, and my membership generally has brought me an array of practical, and sometimes unusual, benefits.

Floreat Mensa!

IronMikeTyson wrote:Mensa selects top 2% of population . An IQ of 160 on the Mensa test does not equate to IQ 160 on another test such as the Stanford Binet - as an example the standard deviation of the 2 tests are different.

IQ 160 on the old Stanford Binet (Einsten's estimate) is approx 1 in 12000 people.
On the Mensa test IQ 160 is approx 1 in 160 people level.

This is why you frequently read of people achieving the 160 score on the Mensa test,but wrongly being compared to Einstein's estimated IQ which was at a much rarer level.

Ah, that explains it then. How the standardisation worksin all these different tests is a mystery to me.i had mistakenly assumed that the same standardised score would mean the same percentage of the population, whatever the test, but clearly not.