Why Didn’t We Make it Into Mensa?
By danderma | February 13, 2013
Ever since I was a child I’ve heard about fellow humans with super intelligence joining the Mensa That is, an organization whose members are people who scored a very high level in some IQ test. I always fantasied that I would one day take that test and discover I had a super human IQ too and be accepted too, but growing up, no one ever subjected me to any IQ test of any kind thus my IQ level remains unknown.
Yesterday I decided to check if any intelligent people from Kuwait, or the GCC region, or the Middle East, might have made the Mensa list. Surely we have some super intelligent individuals amongst us? Its not like you can teach a child from an early age to become clever with high IQ, its a gift and you can either be born with it or not. To my dismay, I found no one on the list! Now, is that because we had not one person with a high IQ born in the Middle East region? Or is it because we don’t really care?
All parent’s and teachers seem to only care about is to teach a child to collect half a grade here and quarter of a grade there to become “The first in class” with an average of 30 students per class! So academic achievement is the cutthroat in determining the level of intelligence per child. This child knows math, therefore he is intelligent. This child can’t do math, therefore he’s stupid. I don’t think that’s fair, or true, for there are different kinds of intelligences. Is intelligence the same thing as IQ? I don’t really know! I do hope so though.
Now I went to check on Mensa’s website to see if there are any Mensa chapters around and the nearest one is in Turkey. In Mensa‘s British chapter though, I found out you can take the Mensa IQ test at home and check if your level of IQ qualifies you to join Mensa! I also found an iPhone app for the Mensa IQ test which of course I downloaded right away. I will use it soon and check how I would do in the IQ test. Afterall, I might have a very high IQ and wouldn’t know about it because no one ever bothered to test my IQ!
Did you ever take an IQ test? What was your score?
9 Comments
N on February 13, 2013 at 12:15.
I know several Egyptians who were on the Mensa list. Where did you check? I didnt spend much time on the site but I couldn’t locate the list.
danderma on February 13, 2013 at 13:19.
I read it in Wikipedia’s list of Mensans (link)
N on February 13, 2013 at 16:10.
ah! this is the list of “notable” Mensans, i.e. the ones half famous.. I had a couple of professors at university and a guy I know who also belonged to Mensa. So hopefully we will have more Arabs there who are just not announced.
danderma on February 13, 2013 at 18:02.
That’s reassuring! At least we know three now! Why aren’t they ever mentioned in the Arabic media is beyond me.
viper on February 14, 2013 at 13:15.
Try highiqsociety.com..
What the Dog Saw and the Cat Didn't on February 14, 2013 at 19:05.
Is there like a local chapter of Mensa in Kuwait?
danderma on February 17, 2013 at 13:45.
No there isn’t. The nearest chapter is in Turkey!
Ahmad on May 23, 2013 at 21:10.
I’m listed in both mensa and the highiqsociety.org
Mensa’s problem is that they have no office in the arab world which makes it harder for us to get into
danderma on May 29, 2013 at 00:31.
Masha2 Allah! Good thing we have one Kuwaiti
Did you get tested in Kuwait or abroad? Are there others?
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