Mensa

 I have always been fascinated by "Mensa". I thought that if you tested your IQ and it was very high, you were Mensa. I have since learned that Mensa is an organization. It was founded in England in 1946 to serve as a round-table society for highly intelligent people to meet monthly. It is now an international organization with over 150,00 members throughout 100 countries. Mensa is open to people who have an IQ score within the upper 2% of the general population on an approved intelligence test. Someone qualifying for Mensa has an IQ higher than 130, Albert Einstein's IQ was 160.  

I was curious as to what an average IQ was, and on average it is about 100. There are several factors involved in determining IQ which include: memory, math skills, reasoning ability, processing speed, language and vocabulary and visuospatial processing which is like keeping track of the location of moving objects. The most interesting part is that IQ is compared to other people the same age. 

As of April 2021, Anushka Dixit, an eleven-year-old British girl of Indian origin, has one of the highest IQs in Mensa. This young girl has proven to be smarter than Albert Einstein with an IQ of 162. She memorized the periodic table in 40 minutes. The youngest member of Mensa is a 2-year-old from Kentucky. She scored an IQ of 142. I watched an interview with a 6-year-old and his mother. The interviewer said he was Mensa. They showed a video of him reading at one-year-old, and other outstanding milestones he has achieved well before he should. We have all read articles of 12-year old's graduating from High School or getting a degree from University by 16. I watched a Mensa person read once. They read an entire page at warp speed. The thing is they not only read at the speed of light, but they also retain the information that they just read. 

I hope you enjoy these fun facts about people with a high IQ. 

1. I think it goes without saying that people with high IQs are highly educated because they like to learn. But, if there is something that they have little understanding about or have never heard of before, they want to learn lots about it. They will learn by themselves and discover as much information as possible. In their free time they will increase their knowledge by reading books, watching documentary films and joining educational courses.

                            

2. The eldest sibling often has a higher IQ.         

3. Left-handed people are known to have a higher IQ score than right-handed people. 

4. People that raise cats often do better in IQ tests. Scientists explained that people raising dogs often walk their dogs and so become more open. While people raising cats often stay at home, read books and care for their cats. This leads to the difference between them. 

I have to share the information I found in one article. I find this hard to believe but, according to the article, people between 65 and 69 years of age have an average IQ of 114 which puts them on the above-average end of the scale. People between 70-74 years have an even higher average score of 119. The article stated that IQ goes up as we age. There are a couple of things to remember, one is, that the test is against other people the same age. That would explain why we can stay at the same IQ even though we can't do math, certainly couldn't keep track of a moving object, and for sure we can't rely on our memory for much. But you can't beat us on wisdom and that would send an IQ high in any sense of testing for intelligence in my world. 

Let's just face it, although we may not have a high IQ on the intelligence scale, we all have a little "practical" Mensa within us. If they tested IQ on a life ability, I would like to think I am "Mensa" when it comes to baking and cooking. Some of you are "Mensa" about cleaning, growing plants, sewing or many other talents. I think we all have a topic that we are very knowledgeable about or let's say, "Mensa". I love having practical people in my life, and I hope everyone has their own little Mensa society to guide and help you along your way. What's your Mensa?