r/iamverysmart • u/ampftw12 • 26d ago
Showing image of IQ test results in every single reply to show intellectual superiority
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u/Ver_Nick 26d ago
Do they think IQ means memorizing shit or what lmao
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u/Rols574 26d ago
There's a ton of humble braggers on the IQ subs. This guy is not one of those
They take that shit so seriously
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u/ThoughtfulLlama 26d ago
It is widely agreed that the highest standard of IQ test is found on the esteemed: www.realIQtest4tokers.cz
Btw, I graduated from there with a 420 IQ.
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u/Ver_Nick 26d ago
I think I took a test once on some random website for funsies (i know they aren't accurate). Got like 140 or some shit. But I'm fucking stupid
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u/prole6 26d ago
Since I’ve experienced some senior moments lately I took one that would theoretically predict the likelihood of me getting Alzheimer’s. The test was for $1. I immediately cancelled any further exercises “designed” to stave off yada yada yada.next month I noticed a $40 deduction from my account & raised Cain until it was removed.
I think that showed I’m not as dumb as they had hoped.
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u/the_ben_obiwan 26d ago
Thats so fkn predatory. Who sits down at a desk and thinks "how can we scam people and filter for old and vulnerable.. i got it, Alzheimers test that starts a subscription!"
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u/NoBlueberry566 24d ago
Yeah if you take an online IQ test and get less than 130 or so, that's when you should panic because those tests regularly hand out 130-140s as a minimum baseline even though that's 2 full standard deviations above what should be the norm.
I'd love to see an actual distribution of the scores these sites give to people as I don't think I've ever seen someone take one and score less than "gifted" ranges
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u/FlashInGotham 26d ago
I'll always remember comparing my childhood IQ score (136) with a friend of mine, who was much MUCH smarter than I was. Their childhood score was sub-85.
Thinking about it logically we came to this conclusion: IQ tests in the United States were created and standardized by a population that, for various reasons I could expand on but wont here, included a disproportionate number of degree educated, professional, east coast, Jews. Like my family. So what type of intelligence do IQ tests measure? The type that are very much, for historical and cultural reasons, part of the the Jewish intellectual tradition. Literacy. Procedural thinking. Mathamatical competency. Language comprehension.
My friend, who grew up in the sticks outside Lawrence, Kansas didnt grow up in a house filled top to bottom with books. Didn't have multiple doctors, lawyers, and teachers (so many teachers) in their family. Was raised by a single working mom with a highschool degree, not two working parents who were college graduates. But they excelled effortlessly in college while I struggled to keep my head above water.
I'm basing this on very little data, a hunch, and a chance to lowkey be proud of my parents and my people (my people have....not made it easy lately). So take it all with a huge grain of salt. But I think I'm on to something.
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u/Far_Cardiologist6931 24d ago
did you two study the same thing in college?
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u/FlashInGotham 24d ago
Political science (me) and Economics (them) so same field, different subject? Or vice versa?
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u/Wingnutmcmoo 25d ago edited 25d ago
Yeah my childhood score was like 150 something and they wanted to put me into 12th grade from kindergarten. (Parents declined then I flunked out of school the first time in 4th grade, partially from problems with untreated autism and partially because I was in and out of the hospital so much, and they pulled me out of school to "homeschool" me in middle school. Which was just me teaching myself with zero oversight.)
As an adult I'm a dumbass failure. iq means nothing. At best it's just made people think I don't need help through my disabilities because "he's smart enough he doesn't need help" which has harmed me alot more in the long run.
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u/gmwdim 26d ago
Every Mensa person I’ve known (luckily not too many of them) has been an insufferable prick. And none of them are what I would describe as smart.
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u/MaxLovin 26d ago
I mean, it’s just a form of insecurity. Involves people that are probably not happy or insecure about certain facets of life and can hide behind something they are objectively good at and can provide them with a certain self-worth. It takes a certain maturity to find your self worth not in numbers or achievements, but to acknowledge and respect yourself for who you are as a total package, with all your flaws too. Probably summarizes all posts on this sub tbh
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u/SnuffSwag 24d ago
I was abused quite a lot as a kid but was very much in mensa range. You can believe that I developed an identity around being smart to bandage my self esteem. But it didnt take too terribly long to start seeing people who worked hard bypass me. In college, I went from the 99th percentile during undergrad to what was effectively the 50th percentile in my phd program. Some of the people there... humbling is all I can say. Nowadays, im very proud of what i accomplish coming out of homelessness to here. I care more about that and i guess proved what i needed to prove to myself. I learned that being "smart" and caring about that label is kinda cringe lol what matters is what you actually do. And also that there will always be a bigger fish lol
Edit: i couldn't imagine a more obnoxious environment being surrounded by a bunch of people who needed mensa to sate the void that is their self worth
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u/DefinitelyNotMasterS 26d ago
Yeah if you are actually smart and have some drive you can express that in academia or the private sector. Getting a phd in math? Probably smart. Getting some made up points in a test that doesn't achieve anything? Not very impressive.
I would suspect if you have the former you'd never care to get the mensa thing
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u/zanasot 26d ago
It’s the ultimate scam. Getting smart people to pay a subscription fee to be told how smart they are and anyone trying to convince them it’s a scam is “jealous”
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u/Agile_Oil9853 26d ago
I'm half convinced all the high IQ societies are. I know someone who's been accepted, but I've never met anyone who's been rejected
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u/Random_Guy_12345 26d ago
Isnt there some kind of requirement? I would assume they'll reject someone blatantly stupid
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u/Substantial-Set-7724 26d ago
I think for Mensa you need to score an 135 (or so) in their IQ test
So they might accept stupid people, but these stupid people are at least good in Mensa IQ tests lol
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u/-Kerosun- 26d ago
There is no specific score requirement, you just need to be in the top 2% of IQ. They do accept certain standardized testing and have their internal metrics for what is "top 2%" of the particular test. They also provide their own test as well (which they don't release your score results, just give you a "pass" or "fail" on if you tested in the top 2%).
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u/Spare-Plum 25d ago
IQ tests have a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. This means, quite literally and mathematically, that the top 2% has an IQ of about 130.8. IQ is based on a normal distribution which means that the score of an IQ test literally translates to a certain top percentile
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u/-Kerosun- 25d ago
Yes, 130.8 is top 2% on an SD15 IQ test. But not all IQ tests use 15 as a standard deviation and taking Mensa's test doesn't return a score, hence why I didn't want to specificy a number.
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u/Agile_Oil9853 26d ago
It's possible that it's just a case of people who already suspect they'll do well on the test, it's who are just really good at standardized tests even bothering to take it. It's just a lot less impressive to hear someone say they got in when almost no one ever says that they didn't.
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u/staticpop 26d ago
In Europe, for at least the youth MENSA, they have lots of camps and events for the kids. They arrange very affordable trips and talks. A lot of those kids are encouraged by their schools or teachers to take the tests so they could take advantage of the opportunities it gives.
It can be really incredible for networking. I’m not sure about how much the value is for adults who join MENSA later.
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u/Instantcoffees 26d ago
I wanted to join them back then because I struggled to feel connected to people after leaving university. I figured it could be a place where I could find people with similar interests who are willing to have deep and meaningful conversations.
I ultimately did not go through with it because visiting the mensa sub gave me an ick and the entire joining procedure felt very elitist. Still, I do understand why some people get something out of it.
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u/FlashInGotham 26d ago
Jamie Loftus, an LA based comedian, joined MENSA and did a podcast about the people she met there.
Basically, you're right.
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u/clonea85m09 26d ago
They are usually very good at German style boardgames, which are my favourite, so I meet them regularly, they are not that bad; it's good for networking!
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u/Dopecombatweasel 25d ago
Supposed high IQ people tend to lack in social intelligence and when youre told youre smarter than everyone as a child, it gives you an illusion that life will somehow be easier for you and that you wont have to put effort into anything as if you can easily manipulate anything to your liking. A high IQ can make your life hell
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u/wouldyoufightakitten 26d ago edited 26d ago
My flatmate was one. I can confirm.
I beat him at chess, 32-1 - and he then gave me his ostentatious glass chess set, giving up the game forever... I'm pretty shit at chess.
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u/Gold-Part4688 26d ago
32 games to 1? or points. Not that it matters but either one would be hilarious
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u/Solid_Homework 26d ago
People that havent particularly accomplished anything of note boast about their IQ because it reassures them that theyre actually smart, accomplished people let their work speak for them. Basically the potential-men of society
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u/CaptainProfanity 25d ago
IQ is a measurement of horsepower of the brain; as it was explained to me by my (basically head of dept) psychologist, when I had mine assessed as part of an autism diagnosis. It's more of a processing speed and connecting the dots type of thing.
It doesn't mean you draw the right conclusions or ask the right questions or have important or interesting thoughts outside of a designed context like an objective test or exam, where you get feedback on what is correct, and/or are guided towards some sort of logic/conclusion/structure/insight.
I qualify, but imo anyone interested in joining such an organization is either one or more of the following:
The extremely insecure
Not very smart (as in their assessment of situations/evaluation of their experiences and understanding of the world is off/misguided)
So desperate to connect with someone they can relate to because they lack the social skills (or interest or otherwise) to connect with other people generally.
Not that there aren't some struggles, but such is with any (valuable) relationship.
To play devil's advocate, people on that end of the spectrum also usually struggle with mental health issues/ their brains are literally wired differently (like my autism) so sometimes they don't make the best impression initially, but I don't think that outweighs everything else.
So yeah, people who value their intelligence as anything more than a tool that they can use (and some pride with their applied proficiency with the tool, e.g. celebrating getting a university degree) aren't generally great people.
I t's not a defining characteristic of who I want to be; both currently and my future.
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u/Comprehensive-Pin667 26d ago
I had a colleague who was in the mensa. She was very chill and working with her was great.
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u/ktwhite42 26d ago
I just don't go around telling people, because...why would I? My Mom dared me to take the test a couple decades ago; it's not something I want to brag about.
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u/tookurjobs 25d ago
I briefly considered joining when I was younger for networking purposes. I'm pretty glad I didn't
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u/ialsohaveadobro 24d ago
The only Mensa member I can think of is that psycho chemist who left poisoned Coke on his neighbors' porch because the neighbors' kids were loud.
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u/DonutDracula 26d ago
My IQ is 98th percentile. The thought of mingling with pretentious assholes whose only claim to fame is a number makes me physically cringe.
As I've gotten older, the only benefit this so-called IQ has given me is I can probably understand instructions a little faster than the average person. But I'm just as clueless as the next guy about a lot of things.
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u/SlightOfHand_ 26d ago
I have an uncle who was a Mensa guy, but didn’t make it his whole personality. He is just an odd duck who really liked taking tests.
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u/Feisty-Tooth-7397 26d ago
My Dad was in Mensa, he left because he said they were boring.
Edit: Of, course my Dad was a sarcastic smart ass and this could be a lie.
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u/MjolnirPants 26d ago
In my almost half-century of life, it has been my experience that there is precisely one thing that having a high IQ makes a person good at: Being stupid.
Source: Have a very high IQ. Am phenomenally stupid.
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u/Instantcoffees 26d ago
Having a high IQ just means that you are good at taking the tests. That's it. I used to be really good at them. I recently had to take one again, but I have been struggling a bit with thinking fast due to health issues and medication. I did a lot worse than I used to. Did I get dumber? No, not really. I can process the same kind of information on the same topics that I always have done, I just got worse at performing in those tests.
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u/InterestEqual3332 23d ago
IQ tests measure your ability to analyze and interpret new problem sets to generate solutions.
There are a lot of flaws. Skewing higher by being good at tests is one. They mostly measure mathematical based problem solving which is only one aspect of intelligence. Most are validated in first world western cultures.
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u/Frequent-District859 26d ago
That it not what it means. If you train to do it, it just doesn't reflect you real IQ any more, sure. While not being perfect, reflect quite well the level of many cognitive abilities we have, and it is not used as a standard by professional for no reason.
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u/bastard84 26d ago
In the late 90s, every internet argument involved at least one party claiming to be a member of mensa.
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u/upsetusder2 26d ago
They will be in the comments any second now they are a notorious shit poster.
Or an actual moron
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u/xv_boney 26d ago
Unbelievably obvious troll.
Basically wearing a brilliant neon sign that reads I AM A TROLL where the word TROLL is in bright red and blinking so it is constantly spelling itself out letter by letter.
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u/RadonArseen 26d ago
The other replies include him just adding that test score image to a bunch of replies seemingly for no other reason than to flex, definitely a troll
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u/Gubzs 26d ago
An IQ of 125-130 is not impressive either. That's just 'marginally smarter than the vast majority of everyday people you meet', that's it. There are well over 100 million humans smarter than that, and of those 100 million, at least 10 million of those are massively more intelligent.
The human race is huge and humility is important.
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u/AliMcGraw 26d ago
Yeah, like, congrats on probably taking some AP classes, but 140 is where the scale tops out for minors who are legitimately tested by development psychiatrists or neuropsychs.
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u/StellaNettle 25d ago
I think this might not be accurate because I was tested by my psychologist as an adolescent and my score was more than 140. I think juvenile testing might top out closer to 160?
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u/Wingnutmcmoo 25d ago
Not wholley true. At least not always in the past I don't know about now.
When I was a child I was tested at 150 something by a group of legitimate doctors and stuff. It was part of an autism test that my dad removed me from because "he didn't want an autistic child". So I think it was a legitimate test at the time. This was in the 90s.
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u/visforvienetta 26d ago
It's almost two standard deviations above the mean, being smarter than around 98% of people is impressive.
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u/Obviously-Lies 26d ago
“People who boast about their IQ are losers” Issac Asimov.
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u/bertina-tuna 26d ago
Fun fact: I was in Mensa while in college back in the ‘70s, mostly because the Boston group met in the back room of a pub in Harvard Square every week and they had a lot of parties. One woman was friends with Tom Lehrer, Isaac Asimov, and others and they would occasionally come to the parties, too. At one of the parties Asimov just sat on the sofa like a bump on a pickle and had nothing to say unless a topic came up about which he has an anecdote. He’d tell his story and then sit back until something else prompted a story. He was incredibly boring, which kind of surprised me. He also grabbed me in the hallway and stuck his tongue down my throat, which kind of repulsed me. I told my friend who’d brought him and she said he was going through a bad divorce at the time and it appears that he did that sort of thing all the time (hence the divorce?) So, boring and boorish.
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u/Obviously-Lies 26d ago
I’ve just realised I’ve attributed Asimov instead of Stephen Hawking.
He was on my mind as there’s a disappointing bit about him being a sex pest in the article.
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u/NigerianFriedChicken 26d ago
If you’re so smart, why don’t you fix cancer and cure drinking water?
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u/Apprehensive-Till861 26d ago
I took IQ tests out of sheer curiosity and that result is what I've had from every free, online test.
It's not anywhere near proof of genius.
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u/0905-15 25d ago
Free online tests don’t mean anything
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u/Apprehensive-Till861 25d ago
...That's my point.
Dude's citing the numbers that may or may not be garnered from a free test off a website and got the same results anyone with five minutes to spare can get, which may be entirely bullshit simply because they're free and online.
Now the kicker: The paid tests don't mean shit either.
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u/ChaoticDissonance 25d ago
Anyone with a high IQ would know it doesn't mean anything in real practical application.
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u/NoBlueberry566 24d ago
As the old observation goes, Mensa is full of athletes and models, but not a whole lot of scientists.
The truely intelligent don't need to tell others they're intelligent, being a member of Mensa is something people insecure about their intelligence prioritise because they're afraid others don't think they're intelligent and they want a way to "prove" they are without actually demonstrating anything. If you're really intelligent that's not an issue, other people can tell just from interacting with you.
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u/a4techkeyboard 26d ago
I bet their livejournal would have had their Hogwarts house and which TBBT character they are.
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u/EffectiveAmbitious53 26d ago
This is what happens when someone’s IQ becomes their entire personality.
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u/WakeoftheStorm 26d ago
If your IQ score is the only way people know you're intelligent, the test was probably wrong
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u/Hillsideplace 26d ago
Gives major LiveJournal era vibes. Like someone still thinks their profile header defines their worth in 2026. So cringe and outdated.
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u/slphil 26d ago
You'd think that if you were doing this kind of shit you'd have a better score than that. Being really good at logic puzzles and the other things on an IQ test does in fact generalize to other skills, so it's not *nothing*, but bragging about being one in a hundred is kind of stupid and pathetic in a totally different way.
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u/0905-15 25d ago
What surprised me when I joined M was just how completely incapable so many of the members were. I expected awkward but not MAGA idiots who have zero reasoning skills, or people who have no education and just can’t hold down a real job.
Reversion to the mean in IQ is a real thing and many who scored high as a kid are fucking morons as an adult.
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u/Bun_Wrangler 24d ago
The debate tactic of "beating your opponent into submission, by weaponizing your academic knowledge". Can only be used, if you have that knowledge. This guy in the post a moron
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u/anrwlias 24d ago
When I was a kid I was having serious trouble with my schoolwork. It was so bad they sent out a psychologist to see if I have any developmental issues. She came back with news that my IQ was in the top two percent.
This information ended up destroying me. They concluded that I was just bored, so I got filtered into the GATE program for gifted children. It turns out that it wasn't boredom and being in an advanced program while still having terrible study habits was the worst possible thing. Worse, no one would accept that my continuing problems were real and they insisted that I just needed to be challenged even more. This kept on until I nearly failed out of high school.
It legitimately screwed my life up for decades. I spent a lot of my adult life wondering why, if I was so smart, I kept doing stupid things.
Ultimately I decided that IQ was a meaningless measure and that I needed to ignore it to get my life back on track.
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u/randomlyheather 26d ago
Pattern recognition does not equal intelligence.
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u/Dull_Ad7282 26d ago
I mean this is not true, and is backed by research.
But most of you have not seen people on the IQ subs, this guy is the amateur version.
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u/PaleoBibliophile917 26d ago
I have never had an IQ test and can only estimate it based on correlative charts between standardized tests and IQ. Based on my PSAT and ACT scores (taken long ago when there was such correlation), I would qualify for Mensa membership according to the criteria they post. But my brother always said Mensans were pretentious losers, so I never had a good opinion of them. Also, he was clearly brilliant, which left me not imagining that I could also be smart because smart must be someone like him. Which brings up another thought about Mensans. There are other high IQ societies that leave them in the dust. It’s a bell curve, “sweetie,” and top two percent don’t mean sh*t compared to top one percent or top 1/10th or a percent or…well, you get it, I’m sure. Wherever you choose to draw the line, there will always be someone measurably higher, and a good number of those who wave their own results like a badge of honor are insufferable twits with less sense than social or emotional intelligence. Basically, a need to parade their intelligence is like an admission that they can’t hack it by any other measure of competence.
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u/KeyPresentation6154 26d ago
I remember when my brother memorized random trivia just to flex on his friends, it's not the same as actual understanding.
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u/Candle_Flower 24d ago
I've read some comments and as a mensan I feel like I have to apologise for the bad behaviour of others in this association🫠
I PROMISE that not all of us are bad people🤦🏻♀️
Most of us are just regular people who happened to have a high IQ, whatever that means😶🌫️🤓
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u/Lil-LordFuckPants 12d ago
Lol I just posted this as i saw it and came to this sub for first time in years. After posting i scroll down to see how active it is and lil, see this post. Fuck it im leaving it up because this is hilarious.
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u/Objective-Lettuce-46 9d ago
Something really hilarious about this “mensan” genius is that they’re really into AI and consider their experimentation with chatbots to be them “creating neural networks for a living” 😭
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u/wouldyoufightakitten 26d ago
I would flop any standardised IQ test. I missed like three years of Secondary School, which doesn't help with what they look at/test.
Frequently get called a genius - in the creative field, because of the shit I concept/create. I'm incredibly smart at a purview, but if you asked me to do the plumbing in my flat, there's no way I'm touching that shit.
Funny thing that's lost on these pretentious fucking idiots...
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u/MrPZA82 26d ago
IQ tests are meaningless. They just show how good you are at completing IQ tests.
Mine was 127. I am nothing special intellectually, I don’t have a particularly great job and the other day I tried to get out of my car without taking my seatbelt off.
People who shift off about how high their IQ is online are not clever people, they’re cunts.
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u/Sevrdhed 26d ago
"I'm a Mensan, sweetie" is up there with "it's for a church honey, NEXT!"