And I am not expecting that this site would attract them so much. They’d look for a more narrow focused site of that narrow interest, maybe find or create some subreddit. Alternatively I could see a few polymaths (or wannabes) here.
She was talking about kids. By the time they get old enough to be on here (about 100 years later, apparently) most have learned to know more about more things.
I’m pretty sure there’s a strong self-reporting bias in this poll.
Huh. Did not know that was possible. According to the requirements, my SAT scores would qualify me.
I didn’t answer the poll, because I don’t remember the actual number. I know that my results at my first evaluation in kindergarten were not good enough for me to enter the gifted program. A few years later my mother insisted that I get tested again, because I was bored in class. That time my scores were enough to qualify me for the gifted program.
The kindergarten evaluation did result in an IEP which led to daily speech therapy throughout elementary school. I had had constant ear infections due to allergies which deceased my hearing by 30%. After the allergies were treated I could hear better, but my speech was already impaired.
IIRC, Mensa has either stopped accepting SAT scores now, or they only accept them before a certain cutoff, the mid-1990s or before, I believe - the revised SAT from then on afterwards was/is no longer considered good for IQ purposes.
I remember something about that - if you took it before a certain year, it had to be above this score, but if you took it later it had to be higher. I took the SAT in '79 so it was well before the cutoff
Looks like I would have qualified at the time but just barely.
I didn’t know Mensa would accept an SAT score. I scored a 1330 in 1996 with zero prep or practice. Whoo hoo! Am I in?
Oops, looks like they stopped taking SAT scores in 1994.
(Not sure why I bothered taking it. I didn’t go to a four year college until 2000, and they took anybody who applied.)
I never really did badly on standardized tests, but I always scored lower in math than the other sections, not because I don’t know how to do math, but because I don’t know how to do math quickly. In high school I had straight-As in everything, including math, but I was almost always the last one to finish a math exam, and sometimes had to stay after. I just have a slower processing speed than other people, or I need to check and recheck things, I don’t know if it’s working memory or perfectionism.
So I don’t think a composite score on an SAT, or even my IQ really, is a great measure of my actual capacity for learning. But for me we’re talking the difference between a B and an A or A+. At that stage in my life, though, the idea of a B in any subject was intolerable. I was that kind of kid. Then I went to college, and, well… probably the IQ distribution there was about what it is here. And I’m not at the top of that distribution in either case.
I feel for people with real test-taking issues like test anxiety and stuff where they don’t do nearly as well on tests despite knowing all the information. That would drive me crazy.
I’m surprised they accept them from after the time SAT prep became common. I took them in 1968, before they had to release the tests. There were test prep classes, but the College Board officially said that they didn’t do much good. I got a 1563. I was never interested in joining Mensa.
Oh yeah, I was pretty good at standardized tests, the taking of which is a skill that doesn’t really translate to much. 1450 on the SATs in the 1980s, followed by 1550 on the GRE in 1989 or 1990 (with no test prep classes or similar for either).
Meanwhile the aforementioned 160+ IQ wife is shit at such tests, but brilliant in real life.
The MENSA site specifies 1994, and my last SAT test was in the late 80s. I also took the SAT when I was 14 as part of a study, and I didn’t score as well then. Just about average.
I wonder how Dunning-Kruger would factor into that calculus?
I don’t know mine. Yet skipped the last year of high school (having taken every class available) and was accepted in college as a sophomore.
OTOH, I knew of others who were 12 in my freshman class! I truly felt sorry for them as there are many social skills that only come with age. And, many activities that are only (legally) available accoringly!
For me, the opposite was true. Math was something I could do in my sleep. But, language-based activities always felt difficult.
I received the school’s “English” award in High School and no one was more surprised than me (actually, I think I blurted out an F-bomb in the surprise – WTF?)
I think schools look more towards accomplishments to determine aptitude. Its only in the absence of these (which is not unheard of with younguns… they just haven’t had much time to actually DO anything) that test scores might come into play.