From the latest edition of Chance News, here’s a quote from Mensa that I think is really neat:
While it is true that one in fifty people have an IQ in the top two-percent, does Mensa really need to spell it out so explicitly?
js_africanus, no offense met, but have you ever seen Mensans? Especially en masse? 
: Ducks and runs off to the nearest oRGy, er- I mean RG:
CJ
“I’m a Mensan. I have a greater capacity for doing stubid things.”
(Button sold by and too Mensans, including to this one!)
From the archives.
Reminds me of the story about the parents protesting at the school because half their kids scored below the class average.
That’s not just a story. I heard one of our local school board members say it once.
It depends on how you measure it. If you bin up all the IQs, then yeah, 1 in 50 make the top 2%. If you take the highest IQ on the scale, and subtract 2%, then there might only be ten people on ther planet with a score that high.
I think they mean the top 2 percentile, however you make 2 an adjective in that sentence.
Just exactly how is “two” any less an adjective in the way you interpret it?
Besides, isn’t the percentile a cumulative frequency, in which case the top two percentile will still be the highest scoring two percent, i.e. 1/50th of the population? Since IQ is normally distributed, isn’t obvious that we wouldn’t expect to see 1/50th of the population obtain absolute scores within 1/50th of the highest known score?
[terminology nitpick]
top 2 percent = 98th percentile
There is no such thing as “top 2 percentile.”
[/terminology nitpick]
Scarlett, former Mensan who would like one of Siege’s buttons, which sadly and all too often apply to her