Lexington, KY

Testing group: Blue Grass Mensa (403)
Saturday, October 8, 2011 02:00 pm - 05:00 pm

216 Hillsboro Avenue
Lexington, KY

Contact: John Barnes

Additional Information:
Monica, Bluegrass Mensa will hold two proctored test sessions in Lexington, Kentucky on Saturday, October 8, 2011. On Saturday morning we will give the regular test suite-- the Wonderlic Personnel Test and the Mensa Admissions Test. Registration opens at 9:00am, we will start testing at 10:00am sharp, and we should be done by noon. On Saturday afternoon we will give the culture-fair test suite-- the SRA Pictorial Reasoning Test, the Cattell Culture Fair Test, and the Nonverbal Reasoning Test. Registration opens at 1:00pm, we will start testing at 2:00pm sharp, and we should be done by 5pm. Scoring in the top 2 percentile on one or more of these tests qualifies you for Mensa. You must be at least 14 to take the Mensa tests. If you are under 18, one of your parents or a guardian will have to sign a Testing Consent Form. We will have these forms at the test sessions, or we can send them out in advance by E-mail, fax, or snailmail. You will need to bring a photo ID and $40 in: * Cash. * A check made out to American Mensa, Ltd. * A money order made out to American Mensa, Ltd. OR * A credit card. Both test sessions will be at John Barnes' house, 216 Hillsboro Avenue, in Lexington. To get there: 1. Take New Circle Road to Leestown Pike (exit 7), and head into town. 2. Turn left at the first red light, onto Taylor. 3. Go 1-1/2 blocks on Taylor, and turn right onto Meadowthorpe. 4. Go 2 blocks on Meadowthorpe, and turn left onto Hillsboro. 5. 216 Hillsboro is the 2nd house on the right, a brick two-story duplex with cream trim, and a large white garage in back. If interested, please contact John Barnes by E-mail at jrbarnes@iglou.com, or by phone at (859)253-1178, before Thursday, October 6. We may be able to handle a few walk-ins, but people who have pre-registered will have priority. You can also qualify for Mensa by Prior Evidence-- submitting a qualifying official test score from a supervised, standardized intelligence (IQ) test-- see /in-the-spotlight/be-mensa-brilliant-in-october/ for qualifying scores on a number of IQ tests. For many years, American Mensa would only test you once. Now, if you took one test suite, but didn't quite qualify for Mensa, you can take the other test suite (with the payment of another testing fee) to get a second chance. American Mensa's National Office will grade the tests and mail the results directly to you, usually within two weeks of the test session. If you pass one or more of the tests, Bluegrass Mensa will be notified, and we will contact you again at that time to join us. On a practical note, about 2/3 of the candidates who take the Mensa tests do in fact qualify for Mensa. Both the Mensa Admissions Test and the Wonderlic Personnel Test have a mixture of: * Simple mathematics (up through multiplication, division, and fractions). * Visual problems. * Logic problems. * Word comparisons/contrasts/meanings. The Mensa Admissions Test also has a listening/comprehension/memory section. The following webpages have IQ tests with questions similar to the ones in the Mensa Admissions Test and the Wonderlic Test: * http://www.iqtest.com/ * http://www.mensa.org/workout2.php * http://www.queendom.com/tests/iq/classical_iq_r2_access.html Most people are more comfortable taking the proctored tests--and seem to do better--when they have "limbered up" by taking some or all of these free online tests. Pay close attention to the instructions, the format of the questions, and exactly how they are phrased, because most IQ tests follow a similar format. If you are given the correct answers, go back to all the questions that you missed or weren't completely sure of. Carefully study the phrasing of these questions and the possible answers, to better understand what the test designers were thinking when they created those problems. Don't worry about the exact IQ scores that you get from these tests. I've taken a number of IQ tests online and from books, and have scored from the low 120's to the mid 160's. The tests used by Mensa are designed to have an expanded range at the high-IQ end, to differentiate between people in the top 10-or-so percentile range. They are also normed by age (but only for ages 14 and above). IQ tests are maximum-performance tests, trying to measure the very best you can do. So you will usually do best if you are: * Rested. * Relaxed. * Happy. * Focused on the test. * Used to taking tests. The time for each IQ test/section is deliberately kept short enough that almost no one will be able to answer all the questions correctly in the time allotted. Your goal is to correctly answer as many questions as possible. You do not lose points for wrong answers, so guessing is better than not answering a question at all. I recommend going through each test section in three passes: 1. Answer all the questions whose correct answers jump out at you (if I can whittle the selection down to two possibilities, my first guess is right 80% of the time). If the answer to an earlier question comes to you while reading a later question, briefly stop, put down that answer, then resume your top-to-bottom flow. 2. Go back to the questions you haven't answered yet, and give them a little more time. 3. Just before time runs out, guess at any still-unanswered questions, even if you are just marking them down at random (if you wish, I will warn you 1 minute before the time for each test section runs out). Here are some books with IQ tests that you can take at home: * The Brain Game, by Rita Aero * Check Your Own I.Q., by H. J. Eysenck * How Intelligent Are You?, by Victor Serebriakoff * Practice for Scholastic Aptitude Tests. * Take the IQ Test, by Philip J. Carter & Ken A. Russell * Test Your IQ, by Hans Eysenck * Test Your IQ, by Alfred W. Munzert. * Test Your IQ Skills, by Martin Lubin * Test Your IQ Skills, by Norman Sullivan, Philip J. Carter, & Ken A. Russell * Test Your Intelligence, by Norman Sullivan * Test Your Intelligence 2, by Norman Sullivan * Test Your Own IQ, by Norman Sullivan * Test Your Own IQ Again, by Norman Sullivan John R. Barnes Proctor Coordinator