My Test
A few weeks earlier, I had taken an unofficial intelligence test with my psychologist, and the result surprised me quite a bit.
As I looked into the result and what it meant, I came across Mensa. Based on my previous test result, I thought I had a good chance of passing the Mensa test.
The official Mensa test result was then quite clear as well.
I performed particularly well in the areas of Practical Arithmetic and Spatial Ability (spatial reasoning).
I achieved only average results in the area of Memory / Retention.
Overall, I achieved an IQ score of 138, corresponding to a percentile rank of 99.
The percentile rank indicates my position within the relevant reference group. In intelligence tests, age is one of the factors taken into account.
A percentile rank of 99 means, for example, that my IQ score was equal to or higher than that of 99% of my reference group.
Mensa International
Mensa was founded on 1 October 1946 in Oxford by the Australian barrister Roland Berrill and the British scientist and lawyer Lancelot Lionel Ware.
Their idea was to bring people together regardless of origin, social status, religion, or political beliefs – measured intelligence alone was to determine eligibility for membership.
The name “Mensa” comes from Latin and means “table”. It symbolises a round table at which origin, age, gender, education, and social status should play no role. Mensa explicitly does not see itself as a political or ideological organisation.
In addition to personal interaction among its members, the organisation aims to foster intellectual and social contacts and to encourage interest in human intelligence.
Today, Mensa is organised internationally. Mensa International serves as the umbrella organisation for national Mensa organisations and has around 150,000 members worldwide. National organisations exist in numerous countries on almost every continent.
Mensa in Deutschland e.V.
With more than 20,000 members, it describes itself as Germany’s largest network for highly gifted people. The association organises regional meetings, lectures, excursions, game nights, larger annual gatherings, and numerous special-interest groups. Much of the association’s activities are organised by volunteers.
In addition to its social activities, Mensa in Deutschland also focuses on giftedness, education, and intelligence research. Through the MinD Foundation, it supports scientific projects, educational initiatives, and programmes for highly gifted children and young people.
Admission and IQ Test
The basic requirement for membership in Mensa is the same worldwide: an applicant must achieve a result on a recognised and appropriately standardised intelligence test that is higher than that of at least 98 percent of the population.In other words, applicants must rank within the top two percent of the relevant comparison group.
On IQ scales commonly used in Germany, with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, this threshold corresponds to an IQ of at least 130.
An IQ of 130 does not mean that someone is “30 percent more intelligent” than a person with an IQ of 100. IQ is a statistical comparison value: a score of 130 is roughly two standard deviations above the mean and is achieved by only about two percent of the population.
Mensa in Deutschland offers its own scientifically recognised and standardised intelligence tests, which are held regularly in numerous German cities. These tests assess various cognitive abilities.
Anyone who has already taken a suitable professional intelligence test elsewhere does not necessarily have to take the Mensa test again: under certain conditions, an existing psychological assessment or test result may also be accepted by Mensa.
It is also important to distinguish between the actual admission test and various online IQ tests. The online test on the Mensa website is intended only to give an impression of the types of tasks that may occur.
It does not constitute proof of giftedness and does not qualify anyone for membership regardless of the result achieved. Admission requires an appropriately recognised intelligence test administered under controlled conditions.
More Than Just a High IQ
Membership in Mensa initially says only something about the result of an intelligence test.It is neither a statement about a person’s worth nor automatically about their knowledge, education, professional success, or social skills. Mensa itself also points out that intelligence is only one of many human characteristics.
For many members, the real appeal of Mensa therefore lies less in the test result itself than in the opportunity to meet people with similar experiences and interests.
Activities range from informal local gatherings and shared leisure activities to specialist and interest groups, lectures, discussions, and international meetings.
Mensa is therefore less a “club for geniuses” than a network of very different people whose shared formal characteristic is that they rank within the top two percent of the population on a recognised intelligence test.
What Does the Mensa IQ Test Assess?
The focus is less on what a person has learned and more, among other things, on how well they recognise relationships, process information, and solve logical problems.
Typical intelligence tests assess abilities in areas such as logical and deductive reasoning, verbal comprehension, numerical reasoning, spatial or figural reasoning, and memory.
However, the specific tasks used in the Mensa admission test and the exact structure of the individual sections are deliberately not published.
There is an important reason for this: an intelligence test is intended to measure actual cognitive ability as accurately as possible, rather than how well someone has prepared for specific tasks.
If the actual test questions or their solutions were known in advance, this could reduce the validity of the test results.
Mensa therefore provides only sample questions and online exercises that give an impression of the kinds of reasoning tasks that can occur in intelligence tests.
These questions, however, are not the same as the actual questions used in the admission test.