Took the test, passed, said “You want me to pay how much money to join?” :eek: and decided the ego boost wasn’t worth it.
Does Mensa still accept standardized test scores (SAT/GRE/etc) in lieu of their IQ test?
I’m an M, and an active one. Among other things I’m program chair for my local mob’s RG. Jr8, they don’t accept some standardized tests, but it depends on the year you took it. I got in on my old SAT scores.
For me, it is a social club. I don’t need the ego reinforcement – I’ve found this silly IQ more of a bother than anything else at times. What I have found on the RG circuit anyway is a bunch of interesting, warm, funny, intelligent people who have a way of converting or discouraging the whiny asshole types. In other words, to me, they resemble Dopers.
I admit Mensa has it’s share of arrogant, obnoxious types, and that’s why when the two gentlemen who seduced me into joining said they were Mensans, as one of them put it later, the look that crossed my faith said, “Oh, and you were such nice people.” I’ll even admit to having wanted to deck the odd Mensan or two. On the other hand, this is a bunch of people who don’t care how geeky you are, and who even think geekiness is sexy. The events I go to tend to have a preponderance of good chocolate, bad puns, and ugly card playing. Then there is the habit of doing MST3K-style dialog to porno movies. As for the cost, I’d do much worse spending $50 USD in a bar trying to find someone. It balances out.
CJ
Hell’s Mensan and Mensa Alligator Wrestling Champion!
I hang out with the local Mensans but don’t plan to take the test. I just don’t see what I’d gain by paying the fees and membership dues. They make occasional suggestions about it, but they haven’t asked me to leave.
I’m an occasional member. Right now I’m lapsed, as I’ve found that I really can’t tolerate the smoking that goes on at most of the meetings. But yeah, I took the tests and passed them years ago.
One thing you have to remember…people who are eligible for Mensa membership are by definition not normal. They have proved themselves to be on the far end of at least one bell curve. In many cases, I’ve found, they are not normal in other ways. However, I’ve enjoyed my membership in the past, and if they change the smoking rules at meetings, I may again enjoy going to the gatherings.
I’m lapsed too. I really only took it to see if I could join, so I paid for a year, lapsed for a year, paid again, and lapsed again a few months ago. I never went to a meeting and don’t see the point in paying the membership fee, just to read their magazine.
I’ve been a Mensan for about 20 years. Second everything CJ says. (CJ: Is Hell’s Mensans still active? I have one of the original shirts with the owl on the BACK!)
Ditto what Lynne said with one exception: They allowed smoking at your meetings? The local group here (CNJM if you’re interested) never, even 20 years ago, allowed smoking in the meeting room. They had a practice called CASBA (Clean Air, Smoking Break Allowed) whereby halfway through the meeting we’d have a CASBA break and then resume. Nowadays we don’t even do that, there are so few smokers any more; those that do just leave the room for 5 minutes.
Obviously, I love the organization, attend meetings, local events and regional gatherings frequently. I’d be glad to answer any questions anyone has about the organization.
BTW, here’s a link for American Mensa. You can follow links from there to International Mensa, or to local American groups.
I was a member.
In Montana there were no social things to do, since there were only a couple of us registered and we were about 300 miles apart.
Had some fun with the SIG “Hells Mensans” because I was the only member in Montana. I’d post party reports:
“The Montana Hell’s Mensans SIG went out to supper. Then I drank beer. than I drank tequila. Then I went to a different bar.”
But I got a couple of cool “Hell’s Mensans” t-shirts that I still wear.
What pissed me off about Mensa was that in a couple of house moves I lost my membership certificate. Called Mensa, asked if I could get another copy.
“Yes you can get another copy. It’s just $75 to re-up your membership, $40 for a search and $85 for a new certificate.”
Piss on Mensa, $200 is too much for a piece of paper I only wanted to hang on the wall of my office to piss my boss off.
Whistlepig
Used to be, but A. DC Mensans are a bunch of boring whiners and B. why should I pay $45/yr to get the intelligent conversation I get from the Dope for free?
It seems to me that Mensa’s inherent flaw is its raison d’etre–namely, that its only criterion for membership is scoring at or above the 98th percentile in intellignece tests. Generally, I find that people join initially out of curiosity, “Am I clever enough to get in?” The trouble is that the hardcore members are often (but not always) socially dysfunctional people who have nothing going for them except their test scores. Genuinely intelligent yet functional people are going out and accomplishing things with their abilities–Colin Powell, Buzz Aldrin, Penn & Teller, The Bad Astronomer–they’re not validating their lives based on a score on an IQ test they may have taken 20 years ago.
Isaac Asimov was a member of Mensa, but he resigned his membership because he noticed that a society putatively dedicated to the meeting of intelligent people was rife with people who subscribed to claptrap like astrology and Tarot reading.
Yes.
The SDMB is my place to find intelligent people with whom to converse, so who needs the Mensa tag. Doper is good enough for me.
I considered taking the test when I was younger and might have passed it. But now everything’s slowing down, and I’m pretty sure I’m going though Mensa-pause.
