Mensa is a social club; I am a hermit. So my membership doesn’t work for me.
Regardless of how it sounds to anyone, those scores were deemed by people who know a lot more about it than I do to rank in the top 2% of the general population. That’s not at all the same as top 2% of those who take the test. The general population includes the bottom 2%, too. Folks who lack the basic mental capacity to read, for example.
I was all geeked to gain entry since high-school. I passed when I finally took the test, and then I thought “why pay for someone to include me in their smart club?” I’d feel no less than one magnitude of smartness less, if I’d have paid $50 for confirmation of something I already knew was true. Who was it who said “I’m smart enough to know how much I don’t know”? Those are words to live by.
Since I scored a 167 I thought I might respond:
I disagree that someone with such a score will be smarter in every possible way. In my case, I think I did well because I happen to be quite good at the things the WAIS-III tests: short-term memory, pattern recognition, and general knowledge (facts, definitions, and some math). I recall being a bit surprised that vocabulary was part of the test; it seemed to me that had more to do with one’s education than inherent intelligence. I also recall, though I could be wrong, being asked to identify Catherine the Great. Since I was a history major, this wasn’t too difficult. However, I don’t see how this serves as anything other than a minor history test. As such, I’ve come to believe that these tests do little more than tell you how well you happen to do on that particular test.
Even though I do well in these tests, still, I want at least one of these IQ tests to be based on Native American and Nile River irrigation techniques; hip-hop and jazz slang; readings by Gwendolyn Brooks; and reading a baseball boxscore.
I’d be really surprised, too, if a decent I.Q. test contained history facts, cmason.
I also strongly agree with you that a person with a high I.Q. is *not * “smarter in every possible way.” There are so many kinds of smarts. Any Mensa gathering attendee will tell you that there are a large number of people with very high I.Q.s who have no people smarts at all. And no common sense. Some of them are downright morons in the social skills department. There have been numerous talks presented and true stories written about the dumb things Mensans do. One common error is to over-analyze and over-intellectualize to the point where the obvious and practical are overlooked.
Everybody knows incredibly gifted and creative people who can’t seem to do well on such tests. Sometimes it’s because their flexible minds keep thinking of ways the various multiple choice answers offered could all be true.
In fact, I would hazard the guess that if you asked almost any Mensa member about subjects he or she was below average on you, would get a long list. One of the cool things about going to Mensa events, though, is that you get to meet and learn from many who are really smart about the things you yourself are really poor at.
Let’s make litter out of these literati!!!
I was offered membership in MENSA once. I figured, if they wanted me as a member, clearly they weren’t half as smart as their reputation would lead you to believe. I passed on the opportunity.
Congrats!
I might not otherwise have responded but I think it’s a little bit sad that some felt the need to “dampen” the OP’s moment. Clearly he’s proud of himself for what he considers to be a nice accomplishment. He didn’t try to claim he was brilliant, or that he rules the word now that he’s a Mensan. He just wanted to share a moment that he was proud of. Geez.
I have an IQ of 161, and the main reason I never joined Mensa was because I knew reaction would generally run more towards the negative (“Oh well isn’t SHE vain”) than towards the positive, so I never bothered. But I’m happy for you 
TellMeI’mNotCrazy
That was a nice positive response to the OP. (I trust you think my response was of a positive nature even if I did mention that Mensa can sometimes get a little pompous IMHO).
Incidentally, it seems you folks like the “Personal Page” on my website - over the last few days it has received over 100 “hits”.
I was just kicking myself because I meant to include in my post that I did enjoy your post - by the time I got to your “counter” I was laughing quite sheepishly. Good stuff! (And yes, I considered yours to be of a nice positive nature )
It’s an incredible accomplishment, I agree.
Years ago(20?), I found out that I ‘qualified’ for MENSA membership. I beat the tests given and met some of the folks that gave them. I’m not sure why I never finished the paperwork(yep…it was paperwork back then!), but I didn’t. Truthfully, to my self, I’d always attributed it to a W.C. Fields quote which I can at best summarize…‘I don’t want to belong to a club that will have me’. Since then, I wonder if I can accomplish the things I did in my youth, and regret not pushing the paperwork through. Now, I doubt they’d have me!
Great job JamesCarroll!
TellMeI’mNotCrazy
Shucks thanks. (Since Mensa has seen the “real me” (the personal page) I wonder if they’ll try to come up with a reason to revoke my membership. LOL )
And Kaotic Newtral
I believe the quote “I’d never join any club that would have me as a member” was said by Groucho Marx.
Mensa exists to give TOPS something to make fun of. If you’re in the 99th percentile of Mensa, you can join TOPS. Then you can worry about perceptions of vanity. 
Damn … missed the SAT cutoff by ten measly points. Mebbe I could retake it just to decline the invite from TOPS:D
Hmm, I passed the GRE minimum requirement to join TOPS by 140 points (although I missed the SAT cutoff by 20 points, so I acknowledge Iampunha as my intellectual superior). I joined Mensa when I was 16, but I haven’t renewed my membership in years, although I get “come-back-to-us” solicitations every so often. I just don’t see the point of paying $45/yr for ego validation–either I’m reasonably intelligent or I’m not, and no piece of paper will alter that. Given my standing as the SDMB village idiot, there seems to me to be something oxymoronic about claiming to possess a cranium crammed with premium grey matter when my every post reveals that I’m actually quite dim.
'sides, if’n I’m so smart, why ain’t I rich?
I dunno, I am skeptical. Perhaps you know better than myself, but I am leery of accepting this right off hand. For one, I definately question the use of “common sense” and would contend (once again), that there isn’t such a thing, I would say this idea is some sort of defense mechanism of the ego, made to make people like me better (sure, he is smart, but he has no common sense, I do though!). But this is hardly the place for that discussion. About the people with higher IQ’s being better at anything- I wonder what you mean. I certainly can understand that just because a person has a high IQ that they will not be better at everything, I think I overstated that. I meant in the intelligence department. You know, understanding things, solving problems inolving math and or deduction/induction, linear logic puzzles and such that require thought, not reflex training. This of course means that I could be better at somebody in martial arts than them, but that is because martial arts is a combination of factors, very little of which has any influence by IQ, except perhaps learning all the names of the moves and being able to recite them.
I suppose there could be other ways I could be “better” at something than a person in the 99th percentile. I could easily be better at say, cooking, especially if said gifted person didn’t give a rats arse about cooking. I am not sure I would classify social skills with intelligence, some people just don’t care, just like those that don’t care about knitting sweaters. Doesn’t make non-knitters stupid.
I do know what you mean about the creative people though. Some people are rigid in thought, even though they are smart. I don’t know any creative people that aren’t smart though. Never met a stupid creative genius. I think there is more in common than you think.
In writing this I think I am coming closer to understanding how complex the whole intelligence rating thing is though. I do see what people mean by IQ is being good at taking certain kinds of tests. Perhaps I need to reevaluate my whole perceptions and concepts of what I think this means.
From those standardized tests, looks like I could join too. Yay. Don’t think I will, though, more from the stigma than anything else.
I doubt it’s that simple. Here is a link to a paper from the American Psychological Association which relates to theories of intelligence, IQ, and genetic and environmental influences on intelligence. In it they also indicate what IQ predicts in general — and that it has a positive correlation with school and job performance and years of education.
According to the “standardized tests” link above, I am qualified to join (I meet the criteria in three of those categories). Think about that. ME.
Any brainiac goup that would let me join can’t be very prestigious.