Three-year-old becomes youngest Mensa member

[VegasWolf]

<snip>
A three-year-old boy has become the youngest member of Mensa, it was confirmed today.

Mikhail Ali has an IQ of 137, a level of intelligence which puts him in the top 2% of the population for his age.

The toddler, of Bramley, Leeds, was accepted as a member of the high IQ society after undergoing psychological tests at the University of York.

<snip>

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,5500,1412657,00.html?gusrc=rss

Another proud member of the intelligentsia on the way.

[Melodybe]

1. My IQ is 136 does that mean I could be a mensa member?

[TroglodyteScholar]

2. Sorry, you're dumber than a 3-year-old. Better luck next time (j/k :) n/t

[katinmn]

17. LOL! n/t

[AllegroRondo]

5. Dont waste your time

I attended one meeting and it was a bunch of people trying to impress each other with how big their brains were. You get much better conversation here at DU.

[Ravenseye]

10. Bingo

Mensa is just one big circle jerk for smart people with low self confidence in my opinion. I'm sure you can have a good time with certain groups, and each is different but my experience was pretty much the same thing. I went to more than one, thought the first was an anomaly. No such luck.

Not to mention that IQ tests are bogus anyway. What was Einstein's IQ again?

I had to take so many IQ tests growing up. We moved alot and every new school we got to made me take an IQ test to get in the gifted program because they didn't trust the last school's scores (probably because my IQ is over 150 -- again...this is meaningless). One school made me take a written test, didn't believe it, made me take another test, didn't believe it, then made me take a one on one test with the school psychologist. That's where I scored the highest. Each time I scored higher. I even played with the guy...One of the things was he'd show pictures and I'd have to name it. I was getting bored, so when he showed me a picture of a lobster I named it straight down from Kingdom to Species...I was lucky in that I had just studied that a couple weeks earlier.

He asked me who discovered america, and I said 'the native americans'.

'No,' he replied 'Who do we conventionally say discovered america?'.

'You mean, like, from Europe?"

"Yes."

"The Vikings."

"No...What one man do we traditionally say discovered America?"

"Oh Traditionally! That'd be Columbus."

Of course there were other sections of the test where you had to rearrange blocks and whatnot. Whatever. IQ tests are BS in my opinion. Mensa is just a waste of time and the people in it from my experience the most annoying.

[Mr. Sinister]

15. Sounds like Cristobal Colon would have been a wrong answer

n/t

[genieroze]

39. He asked me who discovered america, and I said 'the native americans

LOL, good answer.

[Book Lover]

13. What the man said

There's no point to the meetings, plus I encountered some really rude folks. When my peeps at the role-playing store have more manners than you, something's really wrong...

[laundry_queen]

6. I can't remember what the cutoff is...

But I do remember that I don't qualify and my IQ is 131. Maybe the cutoff is 135?

[LibertyLover]

9. Cutoff for MENSA

MENSA accepts several different IQ tests in addition to its own for qualifying for admission. Since each test has a slightly different measurement scale, it all depends on the test you use to qualify. Some tests would have a cutoff of 135, but others might be a bit different. I am weak in math and knew that I would never be able to pass the standard MENSA qualifying test since it is heavy into math and logic. But at the time I joined, MENSA accepted the Miller Analogies Test with a cut off of roughly 38 (I think, but don't quote me since it has been a really long time since I did it). As with so many organizations, I've met really great people at MENSA events and total boors.

[CBGLuthier]

7. Depends upon the test

The Mensa requirement is stated as a percentile.

You must place above the 98% mark per the particular test.

[henslee]

18. I just heard on cspan that if your SAT scores were 1250 or over, you

can get into mensa. The guy that read the whole encyclopedia and who know has a book out a bout it... he said it.

[trogdor]

19. Actually, yes.

I think the cutoff is somewhere around 135 or so. There are other ways to prove you're a genius, like SAT/ACT scores.

[Red State Rebel]

3. Slacker! I'm quite sure I was 2 years and 364 days!

hahahaha! sure!

[Maestro]

4. Funny

Subtract my IQ from the three year old's and you get *'s IQ.

[candy]

8. I hope his parents nip this Mensa business in the bud,and fast!

God,he's only three years old. Socializing skills are very important in those early years,not Mensa membership.

[Tyler Durden]

11. No offense to anyone who dug MENSA...

...but I was never so bored in my life. Normally, I LIKE boredom, but when the highlight was the "play chess in your head" contest, I had to bow out.

I may have been homeless with an IQ of 167 (they did feed me well; I have to give them that) but even the homeless have their limits.

[devilgrrl]

12. SFW???

Who gives a rats ass?

[dhinojosa]

14. I did an online IQ test and got an 80.

Yet, I am a business owner as a programmer, a democrat, and a home owner. I can beat a good majority of people at trivia and chess, and I read reference books, programming books, and math books for fun.

Something is wrong with my picture.

[Vladimir]

16. Yeah, the IQ tests...

the most flagrant instruments of bullshit psychoanalysis known to humankind.

[TahitiNut]

21. They're descendants of the Benet Tests ...

... which had the original purpose of predicting the probability of success in the (19th century) French public school system. At the time, the French public school system wasn't large enough to accommodate all children for the entire course of an education. Thus, Benet composed his test to select those students most likely to learn the most.

It should be noted, therefore, that it was originally designed with a conscious social bias and predetermined context ... as well as presumed criteria for "success."

This is also why some IQ tests are still called "Stanford-Benet" tests.

[Vladimir]

24. Most interesting

I take it the social bias you are hinting at was biased against ze poor? Or am I getting cynical in my old age?

[TahitiNut]

34. It was a question of economics.

They French wanted their school system to yield the greatest benefit to the nation. Thus, girls scored lower than boys and poor kids scored lower than rich kids. This was NOT regarded as a weakness in the testing. It was regarded as consistent with their goals in designing it.


FWIW, I was required to do the background research into this when I was in Junior High School in the late 50's. That's when the IQ test results came back from the time when all of us were tested. My civics teacher nearly had a shit hemorrhage. (I'd apparently busted the test.) A real believer in such tests, he was immediately disappointed that I wasn't getting straight A's (I got some B's) and became quite "avuncular." One of the extra assignments I got was to research the history of IQ tests. I can sure say I wasn't very pleased - getting extra homework felt more like a punishment than a pat on the back for doing well.

[Vladimir]

38. LOL! n/t

[dhinojosa]

36. Question:

What checks are we assured that the tests weren't written by complete dumbasses?

[HeatherG.]

45. That Doesn't Seem Right

Are you sure the results didn't really say you were in the 80th percentile of test takers? I took an intelligence test that was in a book once. It put me in the 85th percentile of test takers. For one scary moment I believed the results gave me an IQ of 85. If you are sure it doesn't matter anyways. It was probably just an unfairly slanted test. If there was more math in the test I took I wouldn't have done nearly as well.

[Orsino]

20. Does this mean...

...we'll need two constitutional amendments to allow the little Brit genius to be our prez?

[TahitiNut]

22. A 3-year-old with an IQ of 137 is as smart as a 4-year-old. Big deal.

I'm very skeptical about both the significance and the relevance of this story. Such 'tests' are notoriously widely-varying for kids that age.

[Endangered Specie]

26. I fail to see how he could have done that good without

knowing hardly any of the english language, or high level math :shrug:

[TahitiNut]

33. He'd only need to know as much as a 4-year-old.

Since a 4-year-old wouldn't know "high level math" then neither would the 3-year-old.

While scores are nomalized to portray a distribution, the term "quotient" still applies quite loosely.

Originally, such tests were only designed for school aged children. The term "Intelligence Quotient" was intended to indicate whether the child had mental skills/abilities of an older or younger 'average' child. Thus, an IQ of 125 for an 8-year-old was an inidcation that the 8-year-old had the skills/abilities of a 10-year-old, i.e. 10/8 = 1.25 or 125%. That's the original meaning of 'quotient'.

While there's been a lot of change, the loose interpretation still works as a rule of thumb, imho.

[VegasWolf]

30. but, he is already has a higher IQ than half the state of mississippi.

[Endangered Specie]

23. In case you are wondering...

I believe most IQ scores are composed so that your score is a normal score that reflects how you do against the "average" person (or the whole population).


Its nomalized so that the mean is 100 (avg score is 100) and a change in 10 is 1 standard deviation, using a normal (bell curve) distribution, which means 68% of the population scores between 90-110; 95% score between 80-120; etc...

Or course, 'normalizing' it is not a perfect process, so this in only a 'rough' estimate.

[Ravenseye]

27. That's One Reason I Think They're BS

According to that my IQ is in the top 1% and I'm a dumbass. If it is accurate then I weep for humanity becuase then we're really really really dumb.

[VegasWolf]

31. Not true, at least you know how much you don't know, unlike Republicans.n/

[Ravenseye]

44. The first step in wisdom

is realizing you know nothing eh?

That's even scarier.

[Redstone]

25. That poor kid...

His parents are going to push and nag and prod him unmercifully to "achieve his potential" until he ends up feeling like killing himself. Or them.

Been there...

Redstone

[coreystone]

28. "An intelligence tests what an intelligence tests!..or, something to ..

that effect.

Basically, there are approximately 200 various standardized tests which would be considered by MENSA for acceptance. The following link indicating what the minimum scores would be for various tests.

LINK: http://www.us.mensa.org/join_mensa/testscores.php3

"Tests administered by the military

Army GCT*** prior to 10/80 136
effective 10/80 N/A

Navy GCT*** prior to 10/80 68
effective 10/80 N/A

N/A These tests no longer correlate with an IQ test. Note that the acceptance date applies to the date you took the test, not the date you join Mensa. You can still join Mensa by using older scores.

* Many intelligence test scores will qualify you for Mensa, but Mensa's supervisory psychologists will have to individually appraise the documentation. Almost any test with "achievement" in the title is not acceptable to Mensa. American Mensa does not accept unsupervised testing as proof of eligibility, specifically unsupervised testing administered electronically or via Internet-based tests.

*** The only scores that Mensa can accept are the AGCT scores from the Army and the GT scores from the Navy - before the use of the ASVAB (9/80). The new military tests are vocational aptitude tests and are not suitable for Mensa admission.

-----------------------------

We must always understand that in the example of the military tests that the top 2% of the population taking the test would not necessarily correlate with the general population. I would tend to think that the curve that would be compared to other tests which would have a greater population sample with greater categories of demographics, etc. would be a better indicator. However, it should be understood that the Psychological community that dreams up these babies, really don't have much of a broad based empirical definition concerning what intelligence is, or, isn't.

I scored a 138 on the Army GCT which only requires a 136 by MENSA. The reality is that the population taking that test would tend to be skewed downward in assuming that the upper 2% was valid.

And, what does it really test anyway! It really is kind of silly!

:-)

[VegasWolf]

32. Well, at least i can solve 3D puzzels quickly! n/t

[suston96]

42. Low IQ and happy.

I scored way up in the 140s years ago and got into all kinds of trouble because I "was so smart and so much was expected of me".

Whatta pain.

So I retook the test and scored a 98 and had all my records corrected.

Now I am happy. People just look at me and smile that knowing smile that says: "poor dumb shit!"

I smile back and go my way, and spend my time eating potato chips and watching TV.

It's so nice to be a dumb shit. Nobody bothers you.

[Generator]

29. Yeah, but is he potty trained?

[coreystone]

35. I wasn't until much later, but, I had other things, ......

"Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"


:silly:

[coreystone]

37. As I delve into the "FOURTH DIMENSION"...

I barely understand that there has never been a perfectly "straight line" ____________________________________ .

Oh, perhaps I have traveled too far into the "space continuum"?? Oh, maybe, "Time Is On My Side" - Norman Meade (Covered by the Rolling Stones)

:-)

[ernstbass]

40. I bet this kid doesn't have a lick of common sense!

just kidding

[genieroze]

41. Well, he's smarter than me. eom

[progressivebydesign]

43. I have 150, and still don't have a dime to my name. IQ is overrated. n/t

[geniph]

46. Well, HE's going to have a lot of fun at the meetings

(NOT)

There's some great folks in Mensa, but the ones I met tended to be a bit self-congratulatory, not to mention conversationally deficient. And I cannot for the life of me imagine how they'll deal with a 3-year-old. Poor kid would be better off growing up around other smart little kids, not forced into contact with adults who do well on tests.

No offense to those who enjoy their membership in Mensa, but it was not my cup of tea. I think I went three times - I mean, I know I sometimes have little enough tact and diplomacy, but those people made me look like Gandhi.