You Have No Need to Prove Your IQ Level

As an owner of several sites, related to IQ tests and improvement of intelligence quotient I surprisingly often get questions like: “How can I officially prove my IQ level?”. People ask me for explanation, how could they become members of such organizations as Mensa or some other high IQ clubs. People think, that if they get high IQ, they really need to become a part of some society, where they can position themselves as an "intellectual elite". Please let me give an instructive story, told by one of participants of my forum, related to IQ tests :

“I have only taken two "proctored" exams in my lifetime. They were, on both occassions, time tests. On both occassions, they had a proctor watching you for any suspicions of cheating.

My favorite was the Miller Analogies Test that I took for potential admission into graduate school. I drove down to a location about 60 miles from my hometown. I presented the exam proctor with some ID and he allowed me to use the men's room to clean up and refresh and collect myself prior to taking the exam. It was raining real hard the morning of the exam, so they even gave me a towel...

The proctor then confirmed that the test form I was to use conformed to the form for which he had instructions. The test had 9 different "forms", to mitigate the possibility of cheating and to prevent "test-retest" bias for people that had taken the exam more than once.

The test took exactly 50 minutes. Within that interval I was to examine 100 analogies, the old "this is to this" as "that is to that" kind of a format with multiple choice responses. I was the only one in the examining room, and the proctor was eyeballing me the whole time.

I finished the test in about 46-47 minutes and used the additional time to check my work. At the conclusion of the fifty minutes, the proctor called "time" and advised that I had the opportunity to "cancel" the results of the exam, if such was my wish. I confirmed that I wanted the test scored and left the testing center.

Some 10 days later I had the test results, and was delighted to learn that my raw test score was a 74, 8 questions higher than what was required for Mensa. The folks who scored the test, even interpolated my IQ, on a standard deviation 16 basis, IQ =140.

The whole experience took me the better part of a Saturday morning and cost me $50 US.

The other test I took was Mensa's proprietory exam. The first test consisted of a twelve minute examination using the Wonderlic Personell Test, the same test used at the NFL combine to quickly estimate the IQ of prospective atheletes. The second test was approximately 40-45 minutes in length, (not factoring in intermittent 2-3 minute breaks between test segments). This was the test actually designed by Mensa. The rules were rather simple, pass either or both tests with the requisite score, and you qualified for Mensa. The test cost $30 US.

I "failed" that one, at least by Mensa's standards...I don't recommend the test if you want to know the raw numbers and interpolated IQ. Mensa has a new "pass/fail" report policy and will not give you the raw numbers. This was done at the suggestion of their legal department to mitigate the possiiblity of lawsuits by malcontents.

I one day look forward to taking the WAIS-III (Wechsler Adult Intelligence Survey). It is regarded as the "gold standard" of IQ tests in the United States. It is administered only by trained psychologists and can cost as much as $400-500 for a test administration. I don't know if I want to take it that badly at that kind of expense...

Peace”.

To sum up all of the described above I’d like to give an advice. Is your IQ level really high? Just be happy with it , do not waste your time trying to prove it to others!