

Are you Mensa smart? Take the quiz - edw519
http://www.usatoday.com/yourlife/mind-soul/education/2010-10-11-mensa11_VA1_N.htm

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nuclear_eclipse
As an existing member of Mensa, I can probably answer "yes". However, I
generally do not like to mention the information because every time I break
down and attend a local Mensa meeting, it always strikes me as just a group of
self-righteous bastards who revel in being able to say "I'm smarter than you".
The perks of membership, including the sometimes interesting bulletins and
magazines, ntm discounts at various retailers and travel vendors, are
interesting and enough to keep me paying the fees.

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donohoe
Agreed. I'm in (at one point anyway) the original British & Irish Mensa. It
seems that out of all the bright people who are in Mensa, only the pompous
arrogant ones tend to turn up and organize meetings so they can hear
themselves talk.

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zck
It seems like 2 is improperly specified:

>2\. Jane went to visit Jill. Jill is Jane's only husband's mother-in-law's
only husband's only daughter's only daughter. What relation is Jill to Jane?

Here's the reasoning I think they want:

Jane's only husband's mother-in-law is Jane's mother.

Jane's mother's only husband is Jane's father.

Jane's father's only daughter is Jane.

Jane's only daughter is Jane's daughter.

But wait! Just because Jane's mother has only been married once doesn't make
Jane's mother's husband Jane's father! Children can be born out of wedlock. So
Jane's mother's husband could have had a daughter who _isn't_ Jane. What does
that make Jane and that person's daughter? Absolutely nothing.

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adamtj
If and only if you make the obvious assumptions, there is a really nice
answer, easy to explain in a newspaper article. Otherwise, you'd need to spend
three pages clarifying a three sentence question.

Some people have two wives. Sometimes it's legal, and sometimes it's not;
either way, it happens. Maybe Jane's only husband divorced her and remarried,
and his new mother-in-law is in the same boat with respect to her husband.
Also, one or more of the daughters may have been adopted. Also, there are
multiple definitions of "relation" and of "husband" that you might use. And,
it all depends on what the definition of "is" is.

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zck
Ha, when first formulating the argument, I realized that the husband could
have been married multiple times, but forgot that when I wrote my post.
Excellent point.

But it seems to me that if the whole reason for your group existing is that
you're smarter than most people, you shouldn't have flaws in your exam like
this.

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fish2000
I love me a good arithmetic/algebra review -- but in the end, I am not
qualified to rub elbows with the geniuses of Mensa, as I lack the essential
requisite domain-specific kitten/mitten training.

References aside, I certifiably lack enough legit brains to step to Mensa's
gatekeepers. But now I'm curious -- has anyone got any anecdotes of Mensa
gatherings that defied stereotypes? Such as for example those alluded to in
Mr. Onstad's synopsis of Mensa here:
<http://achewood.com/index.php?date=03222005>

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tkt
In the poem, the kittens find their mittens, so shouldn't the answer be 0.

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KoZeN
I'd love to know if this is an accurate representation of how difficult Mesna
tests are.

I've always fancied joining but assumed that I would never qualify and to be
honest, having sat a few IQ tests in my time I would consider that to be an
example of a pretty easy quiz.

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jm4
From an old comment of mine: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=735499>

_The admission test itself is surprisingly simple. There are actually two of
them and you only need to pass one. The first test is the Wonderlic and the
second is a test designed by Mensa. If you fail both you don't get to reapply.
You never learn your score. You're only told whether you passed or failed.

The tests contain nothing like those ridiculous Mensa brain teaser books.
They're the types of questions that most reasonably intelligent people can
answer fairly easily. They're not unlike the questions you see on the online
Mensa practice test or one of those tickle.com IQ tests. What makes it
difficult is that you've got insane time constraints. You end up with about
12-15 seconds per question. One test is fill in the blank and the other is
multiple guess scantron. You basically have to be writing your answer while
reading and solving the next problem. The person who proctored my exam said
that there's about a 60% failure rate. It probably says more about the people
applying than the actual test, but I thought it was interesting._

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TallGuyShort
Is it just me or is the one about word similarity extremely arbitrary? There's
any number of reasons you could come up with for any answer.

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mhill
Yeah, I thought MORE is an adjective while the other three are names.

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Thanatos
"1. What is the four-digit number in which the first digit is one-fifth the
last, and the second and third digits are the last digit multiplied by 3?
(Hint: The sum of all digits is 12.)"

I don't understand how they got the answer to this one; it makes no sense to
me at all.

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fredleblanc
The only digit that can be 1/5 the last would be 1 if the last were 5 (because
2/10 doesn't work, 10 isn't a single digit and they need to be whole).

From there, digits 2 and 3 are the last (5) multiplied by 3. So: 1155. Add
those up: 1 + 1 + 5 + 5 = 12.

I think. :)

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Thanatos
I get it now. Was trying to multiply them individually, which doesn't work at
all. Thanks. =D

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swah
No.

