Aspergers and MENSA

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I took the supervised test after scoring highly on a Reader's Digest test quiz, and after my mother tried to discourage me from taking the test (fearing that I would fail). What I found interesting is that I was actually given two different tests, and it was the one that dealt with memory and recollection that placed me in the top 1% and granted me membership. I haven't renewed my membership in 12 years, but noting it on my resume has gotten me a few jobs for which I might otherwise not have been considered.

^This. Could not have summed it up better if I tried. Very concise, I might add.

I didn't know until recently how easy it was to join. 450,000 people in my country would qualify. Or about 3 of my facebook friends. I propose starting up Mensa Elite for the top 0.2%

No, I'm not a member. It doesn't seem to offer anything that I would be interested in. I used to think it was for people who had a very unique, amazing skill or talent. I like this idea better, though still I couldn't see why such people would want to hang out together.

I don't know what my IQ is. I think with some studying I could get into Mensa. It would be nice to have that on your resume. Maybe someday.

Yes.

Why? Um, why not?

I was really bored as a teen, and was tested and joined.

I don't participate in their activities, nor do I list it on my resume. I do, however, list my 4.0 GPA throughout collegiate studies. Mensa doesn't seem to fit on my resume, as I don't list extracurricular activities.

I don't tell people I'm a member unless they ask. It's not particularly interesting, and not that big a deal.

How else are you supposed to test receptive vocabulary in a standardized way other than by using common words that most of the population understands? I'm sure that wasn't the only test they gave him anyway. I'm positive there was a parental interview, and probably a checklist for the parents as well to note his behaviors and comprehension in everyday life. If he did fine on other measures of receptive language, and his parents had no concerns, that would provide evidence that his receptive language is fine. Anyway, that sounds he got the Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test, and it's not like the whole test is junk food. Yes, standardized testing won't work for everyone, but what is your suggestion for a better way to test receptive vocabulary? If standardized testing is used properly, it should be considered only one tool in your testing kit, and should be correlated with other results such as observations and other informal measures.

Anyway, to answer the original question, I joined Mensa when I was 15 just to see if I could get in, but I've never done anything with them, I've never put it on my resume, and I've never told anyone I'm in it without being asked first. The generalizations being made on this thread are really pissing me off. I do think there is some validity to the notion of a high IQ, at least for certain tasks. As someone else stated, there are rarely false positives for high scores. My IQ is very high, and aside from nonverbal information (I have a nonverbal learning disability), I do learn things extremely quickly, process information quickly, grasp complex and abstract concepts easily, and in other ways demonstrate my intelligence. But IQ is definitely not everything, and is only significant in measuring certain aspects of cognitive functioning.

Last edited by LostInSpace on 30 Jun 2012, 8:27 am, edited 1 time in total.

No, my IQ is nowhere near a good enough score to join Mensa. My mother has an IQ of 140 though and she is in Mensa.

I hate IQ tests. I've had three in my lifetime, and could have qualified in the past. The last one I took was during my AS diagnosis, and I was in a state of distress, so my scores were unusually low.

I'm not sure if I'd qualify right now, but I'd rather not. Growing up, my mother would only display approval and pride towards my IQ scores in my lifetime, and whenever I had doubts about myself, she would refer to my IQ assessment. It didn't help for my self esteem to be based on a test.

I also felt as though high IQ organizations were elitist. I've had the lovely experience of being less than a percentage point away from special education, and then have grown up being compared to my siblings who have been placed in the gifted program. Then when I finally had classes with gifted students in the program, some would look down on me, not knowing I was gifted. I don't like people who judge you based on your IQ score.

I feel very unstable taking IQ tests.

I have scored really high on one and mediocre on another. Sometimes I ran out of time. Sometimes I got over-stimulated. Sometimes I was just stressed. Too many external factors contribute to the score for me to be comfortable placing that much stock in it.

SINCE there are so many things that could go wrong that have NOTHING to do with intelligence, the INTELLIGENT thing to do is not to even bother.

Why not go try to use the genius you know you have to go make an actual difference in the world instead of puzzling over it and trying to get into some posh society that can't look past a number?

Most geniuses that I look up to wouldn't have cared about some high IQ society. Heck, they wouldn't have cared about IQ at all. IQ is really only a statistical tool, and they would have recognized that.
They cared about the things they did and the things that made a difference.

Do you get any fringe benefits being a member of Mensa?

I'm not a member, however I took their home test, and despite my maths being rubbish (I have very high verbal skills) I scored in the top 3% of the population and they invited me to sit the bigger test. I was going to, but the administrator I emailed asking some queries was really snotty and pissed me off, so I told her I was going to take my intelligence elsewhere.

(So here I am! )

I tried LSHR and LSHR Light tests (I know that the "high-range" tests are somewhat popular among Mensa members, so I was curious about them) and scored 132.5 and 138 (SD 15 according to the norm). Not too high, but clearly above the "Mensa cutoff" level. I tried once the Mensa test as well. However, I scored at 96 percentile there (it was 142 SD 24, so it looks ridiculously high, but it's an equivalent of 126 SD 15). I don't know which tests are more accurate, but I saw somewhere a study showing that unsupervised high-range tests are no (significantly) less accurate than supervised equivalents.

So, I'm a little confused, the author of said tests knows about the fact, but he still thinks that my IQ is closer to the scores of his tests (obviously). In his opinion (and it makes sense to me) the deadline is a significant distractor and stress source. Not that I care so much about the number, but I always thought I'm ret*d, just better than everyone else at SOME tasks. Therefore, I was always afraid of IQ tests because it could reveal that I'm dumb. Anyway, it's an interesting idea. I know I'm very very bad at executive functioning (maybe because I care too much even if I don't want to care, maybe I'm also narcissistic), but the fact is I'm definitely not a IQ 140+ genius either. I just think that my results are interesting. Well, at least I proved myself that I'm not dumb, that's a good thing .

Never took WAIS-IV or other similar tests. Sorry if my post was too self-centered.

Had anyone tried some HR unsupervised tests?

I´ve scored 12o-126, so I´m not Mensa-material, - but it could be fun trying to work up a sufficient score, though.

A couple of years ago I had to take an IQ test, I was pretty confident about it since I'd always gotten high scores on IQ related school tests. But the lady who took my test kept talking to me, I didn't get to pauze and after taking the test I was just drained, had a terrible headache and so tired I could hardly get myself te drive home.

My result was 119 but I kept thinking about how I felt during te test. To me it felt like I was more busy entertaining this IQ lady than actually performing well. Since I had a huge headache which I always get from socializing too hard but usually never from solving puzzles I thought the results might not be valid.

That's the reason took the Mensa test (which you can take in a group, there is no direct observer that focusses on you and talks), The result was >145, 99th percentile.

I myst say this gave me back my confidence a bit, which was pretty much gone after the first IQ test. So I was glad and I joined, but haven't been to any meetings yet. I would like to though; can't we start a wrong planet SIG at Mensa?

This whole thing makes me wonder if I'm the only one who performs significantly better if not observed by a testperson. I would think this is a rather typical Aspie problem. I wonder if more Aspies would have high IQ's if they could do the test by themselves?

I disagree with the whole concept of total intelligence as ranked by IQ. IQ tests a certain type of intelligence - your ability to take a test. It does not test your ability to connect information and solve intellectual problems in the real world.

No offense to MENSA members, but sometimes people with simply average or just above average intelligence, as measured by IQ, are far more creative and intelligent in a wider sense than many, but not all, MENSA members.