[Koroush]

Mensa believes that the more knowledgeable a person is.. The smarter they are. Knowledge is not the same as intelligence.

Example:
This is a joke on their website:


( this guy looks like a moron )

A guy walked into a bar with a lizard sitting on his shoulder. He said to the bartender, "A double whiskey for me and," pointing to the lizard, "a half-pint of Guinness for tiny here." "Why do you call him tiny?" asked the bartender. "Obviously," the man answered, "because he's my newt."

Under that it says "If you laughed on your first read, you belong in mensa! If you noted that a newt is actually an amphibian and not a lizard, you should really consider joining today!"

The joke is horribly unfunny, Now lets say a biologist and a "genius" for example.. read the same joke. The biologist laughs out loud and the genius doesn't "get it" Would that mean that the biologist is more intelligent than the genius? No, It just means the biologist is more knowledgeable in that particular subject. So tell me this mensa...
A person who never in his lifetime who had the opportunity to know what a newt even is... Isn't Qualified you join your little party? Even if he is extremely intelligent? Now I know this is just a joke on their website, but they are many other examples like this.. If you look around on their site.

I've also taken some of their stupid tests.. While I scored a few points above the acceptance line and was recommended to join in exchange for an annual fee of 60 bucks, a bunch of personal information, and a bunch of other nonsense that costs money.. I rejected. But what I did was realize the some of the questions they asked were on topics like history and famous figures. This leads me to speculate whether mensa is really a organization of intelligent people, or just a bunch of "know it alls" who need others to boost their self esteem.



"Stimulation for the uncommon mind" ( obviously this is meant in the most positive manner possible )

Uncommon mind? So memorizing unimportant facts (newts being amphibians) and being a snob about it makes you uncommon? Well I guess that makes sense if you use the dictionary definition of uncommon. But in this case they are pretty much just saying "Hey look at us, we are geniuses and we like to play mind games!"

Lets forget about the morons at mensa and move onto IQ tests.

Let me ask you guys a question first.. How do you measure a persons mental capacity with just a little number called an IQ... The human brain, something so complex that we have no idea how it works. We literally have NO IDEA how the brain works. We do have a general idea.. but when you get into detail... nada. We don't know what causes schizophrenia. We just DON'T KNOW. We don't know why people have dual personalities. I like this one "We have absolutely no idea why a person develops a brain tumor" ( http://www.revolutionhealth.com/cond...mmon-questions ), We don't know how memories are stored, We don't know how the brain stimulates the future, we don't know why we dream or sleep or yawn for that matter, we don't know what consciousness is, We Don't Even Know what Intelligence is. ( http://discovermagazine.com/2007/aug...tart:int=1&-C= )

If you want to know the truth... we only know about 1% about the brain... maybe less. ( I'm no scientist ) So My question again is.. How can we measure somebodies intelligence.. when we don't understand the brain even one bit?

I for example... AM HORRIBLE at IQ tests.. The reason why is because they are timed and when I am answering a question.. my attention goes to something else for a while. Something that might have been recalled by stimulus like the question itself or a fly.. flying around the room. The time runs out and I forget to answer. Does this mean I am stupid? According to the IQ test.. I am average. There are some people who can pay attention while taking Very boring tests... are there are some that cannot. Trust me after answering a bunch of pointless questions for an hour.. you get tired, So is this really a test of "intelligence" ? Or endurance? Seems like the latter to me. Plus don't forget the countless studies that show IQ tests are inaccurate and wrong. These are usually responded to with the institutions coming out with "new and improved" versions of the test. Making a few tweaks to a test takes about a week.. Conducting a study on it can take up to years. It is all just a stupid game these people play with each other, I don't think they even realize. (There are even programs that teach people the tricks to increase their IQ score.. People actually fall for this BS and get higher IQ scores.. Does it mean they suddenly got smarter? No... It just means they are better at playing the game. )

Another thing that is annoying me ( and anyone who had to take it ) is the SAT. scholastic aptitude test... Something like that. If you don't score well on this test, you fail your life. No "good" colleges or universities will even look at your applications... don't dream about getting accepted. The Only things that the SAT measure are 1: Test taking skills and 2: Study skills. These two are only good in one place: School.

Where as a CEO of a multimillion dollar company are you going to take a test... or have to study for one? Or any other job for that matter? These days computers can make studying obsolete. You can access any piece of information on the web anywhere you are! ( iphones & blackberries ).

I'm glad to see many colleges and universities make the SAT and ACT tests optional for admission... but none of the top gun universities like harvard, stanford, john hopkins, etc etc.. are going to be changing anytime soon.

Do you know how much stress these tests cause? Enough to drive dozens of students to suicide. Now that is crazy.


I'm done bitching, I have much more mud on mensa and these organizations but I am just too lazy to do so. Sorry. So lets hear what you have to say. Personally I believe mensa, IQ tests, and SATs can go F##k themselves.

[Razzy]

wtf...are...you...on?

[Koroush]

Originally Posted by Razzy

wtf...are...you...on?

Great response, obviously alot of work put into it. Did you even read the post?

[MontegoGoGoGo]

I think he's mensa-truating.......

[jpsum]

did you just get rejected by a college due to a low SAT score or something?

[jaiman]

Dude, you kinda sound bitter. Creat your own success and don't spend time worrying about whether other people think you are smart.

[MisterSkiMask]

Originally Posted by Koroush

Do you know how much stress these tests cause? Enough to drive dozens of students to suicide. Now that is crazy.


I'm done bitching, I have much more mud on mensa and these organizations but I am just too lazy to do so. Sorry. So lets hear what you have to say. Personally I believe mensa, IQ tests, and SATs can go F##k themselves.

Let me guess, you don't think we should keep score in foot ball and baseball games either.

As far as any group like Mensa, any group that is defined by its members they are all bs.

[sokdo]

as true as your comments may be good luck getting anywhere in the educational world without those tools. You say you hate SAT's and IQ scores etc etc. Ok but how effective is that when everybody else uses them and judges you based on them? How else would you measure the intelligence of a person without standardized tests?

[radix]

I agree that IQ tests are lacking, but perhaps not for the same reasons. They do *reasonably* well at guesstimating someones innate problem solving ability, however, they completely ignore the creative aspects of the human mind. E.g., how would Rembrant have scored on the Stanford-Binet? There is far more to human intelligence than being able to figure out which number is next in the seqeunce 21, 34, 55, ... .

MENSA and the like are just ridiculous organizations that put way to much importance in what an IQ test has told them. There often can be a large difference between tested and functional (real world) intelligence.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I have taken the Mensa test, the GMAT and the LSAT and I think the focus of at least those 3 tests is on measuring your thought patterns and efficiency than how much you know. The GMAT is the one that requires the largest amount of prior knowledge and that includes basic algebra, geometry and number properties. Nothing that you don't learn in highschool or can't be summerized on a couple of A4 sheets of paper.
Also, none of these tests are a perfect measure for someone's intelligence and are not treated as such. They're just one way to measure intelligence and not even perfect at that but there aren't many alternatives (I can't think of any actually) so for the time being that's what we have.

Edit: Forgot to add, Mensa actually has a purely visual test that is culturally neutral. Obviously you won't need any prior knowledge to take that.

[FStop7]

[dth656]

i've taken the GRE, GMAT, and SAT. as w/ most such things, it's a system that can be gamed, as long as you learn the rules. take the kaplan course (or hell, just buy the book), and you can probably add a 100 points or so to your score.

i can't really comment on mensa, but i can on the college institution. while there are smart and dumb people at EVERY college, the distribution varies (IMHO) in some of the higher ranked schools.

[scottwww]

Whether a newt is an amphibian or a lizard isn't funny. If anything made it a joke, it would be that the geniuses find that trivia notable rather than seeing the play on words of "my newt" and "minute" (as in very small) as the punch line of the joke.

I don't have anything against mensa and their members (at least not that I know of). So, it is a group that has some common interest or characteristic amongst it's members. . In these forums, most of us have BMW in common. It could be said that we think ourselves better than those who drive GMC trucks.

[Koroush]

Haha, This was a school assignment we had to do.

Everybody was like "I want to get into mensa blah blah blah"

And I wrote this and emailed it in.. the teacher liked it and gave it top scores.

So no I'm not some guy who got rejected from college.. I don't care, Harvard is overrated anyways. (and expensive. )

[Koroush]

Originally Posted by scottwww

Whether a newt is an amphibian or a lizard isn't funny. If anything made it a joke, it would be that the geniuses find that trivia notable rather than seeing the play on words of "my newt" and "minute" (as in very small) as the punch line of the joke.

I don't have anything against mensa and their members (at least not that I know of). So, it is a group that has some common interest or characteristic amongst it's members. . In these forums, most of us have BMW in common. It could be said that we think ourselves better than those who drive GMC trucks.

Well I wouldn't think I'm better than a GMC driver.... But I would say my car is.. Mensa guys think they are plain better and look down on anyone who isn't mensa. They are like apple fanboys. I've meat a few, they are snobby and annoying to hang around with (even when taking a drive they clutch anything stable in the car claiming I'm going too fast, when the speed limit is 40 and I'm going 46)


Yeah, that is what I thought too..

Either way it isn't funny. Haha

[Spaceman Spiff]

Originally Posted by Koroush

Well I wouldn't think I'm better than a GMC driver.... But I would say my car is.. Mensa guys think they are plain better and look down on anyone who isn't mensa. They are like apple fanboys. I've meat a few, they are snobby and annoying to hang around with (even when taking a drive they clutch anything stable in the car claiming I'm going too fast, when the speed limit is 40 and I'm going 46)


Yeah, that is what I thought too..

Either way it isn't funny. Haha

Huh??!

[vachss]

BMW club members complaining about elitist MENSA seems a bit too much like glass houses...

Anyway, I've never been to a MENSA meeting or had much interest, but I knew some guys in school who were members. They said it was basically just a way to meet smart chicks. Who am I to argue with that?

Ah well, a psychologist friend of mine once said that "Intelligence tests measure ones ability to do well on intelligence tests". I always kinda liked that.

[aut0sh0cker]

Just checked out the Mensa homepage, never heard of them before and found this little test:

http://www.mensa.org/index0.php?page=12

Seriously, who are they fooling? You got to be pretty slow not to "qualify" or whatever for this organization. What a joke of an "elite" club...

[Koroush]

Originally Posted by aut0sh0cker

Just checked out the Mensa homepage, never heard of them before and found this little test:

http://www.mensa.org/index0.php?page=12

Seriously, who are they fooling? You got to be pretty slow not to "qualify" or whatever for this organization. What a joke of an "elite" club...

The reason why it is so easy is because they charge 60 dollars a year for basic membership, about another 30 in random brochures, another 40 PER test you buy from them, 100 bucks or more for the "parties" and events, and YOU pay for all fund raisers.

You might be saying "So what who cares" Well the thing is that they are considered the smartest people on earth by society. Which is obviously not true.

The other bugging factor is that most of the members are low self esteem assholes that seem to always bring up your intelligence in even the most normal conversations. Then they begin to spew knowledge that only they know.. and when you are unable to continue the conversation they call you less intelligent and walk away.

The only genius in the entire organization is the leader of it because he is making loads of $ off the fools who join it, and sadly if you ask anybody on the street they will think it is a legit and beneficial organization.. when it is nothing more than a scam.


When will people learn that everything is designed to take your money. Nobody cares about you, only about your pocket. If these mensa folk were so smart they would realize.

[aut0sh0cker]

Originally Posted by Koroush

The reason why it is so easy is because they charge 60 dollars a year for basic membership, about another 30 in random brochures, another 40 PER test you buy from them, 100 bucks or more for the "parties" and events, and YOU pay for all fund raisers.

You might be saying "So what who cares" Well the thing is that they are considered the smartest people on earth by society. Which is obviously not true.

The other bugging factor is that most of the members are low self esteem assholes that seem to always bring up your intelligence in even the most normal conversations. Then they begin to spew knowledge that only they know.. and when you are unable to continue the conversation they call you less intelligent and walk away.

The only genius in the entire organization is the leader of it because he is making loads of $ off the fools who join it, and sadly if you ask anybody on the street they will think it is a legit and beneficial organization.. when it is nothing more than a scam.


When will people learn that everything is designed to take your money. Nobody cares about you, only about your pocket. If these mensa folk were so smart they would realize.

Who considers these people smart? I've never heard of them and I'm fairly well connected...

IMO, smarts are based on so many individual categories that it is nearly impossible to test for basic intelligence. The only way to gauge the intelligence of a person is to observe how they react to situations they have never seen on a day to day basis, not some timed test. People who actually pay to be recognized as part of an organization like Mensa are out of their minds.

Seriously, they claim to be "exclusive" by stating that they only accept the top 2% of people with regards to their IQ then they throw some easy questions your way and make you feel special so you will pay them???

[Scimitar335i]

They may be "smart" yes, but some of them think they are better than the rest of the human race and usually end up working at Kinkos and eating peanut butter sandwiches for the rest of their miserable lives. Riding on the notion that they are "smart". Contributing nothing to society....

[Koroush]

Originally Posted by aut0sh0cker

Who considers these people smart? I've never heard of them and I'm fairly well connected...

IMO, smarts are based on so many individual categories that it is nearly impossible to test for basic intelligence. The only way to gauge the intelligence of a person is to observe how they react to situations they have never seen on a day to day basis, not some timed test. People who actually pay to be recognized as part of an organization like Mensa are out of their minds.

Seriously, they claim to be "exclusive" by stating that they only accept the top 2% of people with regards to their IQ then they throw some easy questions your way and make you feel special so you will pay them???

My psychology teacher at college adores them, I've done a survey... on random people in the hallways and they mostly agree on it, and universities do also. Seeing as if you are in mensa they will more likely accept you in.

BS




Wasn't as good as the 30 out of 30..

They aren't THAT hard..