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MetaChat is an informal place for MeFites to touch base and post, discuss and chatter about topics that may not belong on MetaFilter. Questions? Check the FAQ. Please note: This is important.

20 January 2006

I just got 19! That makes me a genius, apparently.→[More:]Bored at work on a Friday? Take this quiz with me. I didn't want to post it till I was officially a genius, but I'm still working on it.
post by: mike9322 at: 12:50 | 64 comments
Make that 20...
posted by mike9322 20 January | 12:50
I'm stalling out at 16, but give me time.
Google is so tempting...
posted by me3dia 20 January | 13:04
There is one in particular that, if you figure it out, it gives you two more instantaneously. I thought that was kind of lame. I'm stalled at 21...
posted by mike9322 20 January | 13:09
Answers here.
posted by brainwidth 20 January | 13:12
18. One more and I'm a genius... or something.
posted by me3dia 20 January | 13:12
I was in Mensa (along with my dad and my brother) when I was about 15 through high school graduation. I suppose I could get back in under some sort of grandfather clause (or else using my GRE scores) if I wanted to, but I'm frightened of the level of sheer antisocial nerdiness I would probably encounter at the meetings. I'm sure if I took those tests now I wouldn't do so good - I am so much less smart than I was when I was a kid. I blame Teh Internets.
posted by matildaben 20 January | 13:13
23! Posting this has triggered something in me. Can't geniuses like me not work and get paid just for being universe-bendingly smart?
posted by mike9322 20 January | 13:14
Woot! 20!
posted by me3dia 20 January | 13:14
TWENTY-SIX! Shit, people, it must be the collective metachat consciousness inspiring me.
posted by mike9322 20 January | 13:21
Whatever. I got 27 in about 5 minutes and I'm sure I could get them all.

Not because I'm smart but because I

1. know sports
2. live in america
3. know religion

very very very culturally dependent
posted by gaspode 20 January | 13:21
24. this is fun.
posted by unknowncommand 20 January | 13:21
Congratulations on being a genius, me3. Come, discuss the cosmos with me. Let's quit our jobs and just be smart.
posted by mike9322 20 January | 13:22
Aw, sorry. I sounded really snotty. It was fun, too mike.
posted by gaspode 20 January | 13:22
Sheesh, gaspode, way to poo on my thread. I don't actually think I'm a genius, and agree that the quiz is bunk for that purpose.
posted by mike9322 20 January | 13:23
Yay! I retract my retort. Let's hug and crap.
posted by mike9322 20 January | 13:24
*hugs mike, whispers sweet answers in his ear*
posted by gaspode 20 January | 13:25
I got 19 and so absolved my self esteem, I think I might stop. You know I've never ever met anyone that volunteered that they were in Mensa without prompting who was not a huge idiot. I think this would have been more fun without the mensa trappings. But it is fun. Ok I'm off to do more after all.

Mazel smarties.
posted by Divine_Wino 20 January | 13:27
*jams fingers into ears*
LA LA LA LA, I CAN'T HEAR YOUR FILTHY ANSWERS, GASPODE!!!
posted by mike9322 20 January | 13:28
Got the rest. Just to sound like more of an ass. Phew, I can go do some work now.
posted by gaspode 20 January | 13:32
I have 19 so far, so that certainly settles that! But, I have to keep going... HAVE. TO.

Actually, I love puzzles like this. We should make some of our own along these lines. For example:

21 c i t t (s f)

gaspode!!!!!!!!!
posted by taz 20 January | 13:34
Eh, 9. I felt bad, until I looked at the answers. Very arbitrary answers, apparently written for sports watching Christian South Africans.

(But I will admit, my success at trivia contests has declined precipitously with age. Part of this I think is general decline, part is that I now prefer to concentrate an a few subject areas of interest.)
posted by orthogonality 20 January | 13:34
Congrats, gaspode. Only 2 MENSA members achieved full marks. You're the cream of the metachat crop, poopy-head comments aside.

But can you name those boobs?
posted by mike9322 20 January | 13:36
Good thing there was no time limit. Cause I HAD to keep going till I got to 19. Then I quit. I don't live up to my potential, but I have a huge ego. All in all, fun.
posted by rainbaby 20 January | 13:39
heh. I don't believe that only 2 mensa members achieved full marks. And as ortho points out, I am definitely at an advantage coming from a commonwealth country, with my knowledge of its sports.

Now taz's one one the other hand...
posted by gaspode 20 January | 13:39
Oh I got one...

W 2 R I L B P
posted by Divine_Wino 20 January | 13:41
ortho, yes. At the bottom, in tiny print, it says "Believe it or not, this type of test can be a good estimate of intelligence (if you excuse the cultural bias)." Clearly not in any way a test of "intelligence".

I'm still stuck at 26.
posted by mike9322 20 January | 13:43
150 K of the RT
posted by unknowncommand 20 January | 13:48
150 knights of the round table?
posted by mike9322 20 January | 13:49
Spoiler...

3 B M (S H T R) = 3 bowel movements (in the shitter)
posted by eatitlive 20 January | 13:53
1 R T R T A

/geek
posted by gaspode 20 January | 13:58
I'm only up to 13, but I just got #19 correct without really meaning to.
posted by nobody 20 January | 14:10
gaspode, I was thisclose to posting that one!

taz and wino, I have no idea on yours.

My lame attempt:
8 S on a S S
12 E on a C
posted by mike9322 20 January | 14:14
Divine_Wino, I admitted I was in Mensa but I admitted I hadn't been to a meeting for over 20 years. Does that make me no longer a big idiot?
posted by matildaben 20 January | 14:17
When 2 R in Love by Prince.

Hee hee.
posted by Divine_Wino 20 January | 14:17
No Matildaben
You said you were in mensa in a thread about a mensa test, which means that you are not a big idiot. I'm talking about people who would be like, "can you hand me that book, it's under my mensa card" and so on. Not mensans, just people who mensa drop, so to speak.
posted by Divine_Wino 20 January | 14:19
matildaben: Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party?
posted by orthogonality 20 January | 14:20
Okay, 25 for now. I'm going back in the morning, when I'm usually smarter.

Now I'm trying to figure out the ones here...
posted by taz 20 January | 14:26
Thanks, D_W. And ortho, no, although I was a DemSoc in college.
posted by matildaben 20 January | 14:28
I got 22 and then was distracted by a brownie.
posted by sciurus 20 January | 14:37
Count me among those doubting the validity of this, but it was fun and I will totally brag about getting 26.
posted by kyleg 20 January | 14:43
There is only one possible conclusion: metachat is the pinnacle of internet brilliance, and gaspode is our malevolent dictatress. (I have 28 now.)
posted by mike9322 20 January | 14:47
OK, I stopped at 21 and went to lunch. Glad to see we've got so many smart people 'round these parts.
posted by me3dia 20 January | 14:50
Ooh, I hope she dictatrixes me!
posted by sciurus 20 January | 14:53
I have 32 and I'm sure about the last one but the site isn't accepting it..

Fucking MENSA. You've been pwned!!1! Accept it so that I can come over and give you all the atomic wedgies and swirlies you rightfully deserve.
posted by drpynchon 20 January | 14:58
I stopped at 20 because I'm a lazy genius.

Also, I know sports but got none of the sports answers.

This one is totally unfair: 11 P in a F (S) T
posted by mullacc 20 January | 15:12
I'm talking about people who would be like, "can you hand me that book, it's under my mensa card" and so on. Not mensans, just people who mensa drop, so to speak.

I know someone who mensa-drops in AA meetings. Or at least he used to, until someone said to him "how fucking clever are you to end up in AA?"
posted by essexjan 20 January | 15:15
Okay, I got to 30 before I gave up and looked at the answers. I only missed #s 28, 31, and 33. Turns out I would only have been capable of getting #28 because 31 and 33 were things I did not know.

I think the lack of a time limit turns this more into a "knowledge" test than an "intelligence" test. In about 3 hours, I was able to figure out all the ones I could've (except one), given my knowledge.

But, damn, was it a great way to kill the last three hours of work before my vacation! Later genii!
posted by mike9322 20 January | 15:22
Guestion 24 is marked as wrong if you put the apostrophe in the right place. Some real geniuses put this POS together.

I got 21 and stopped, this is not an IQ test, and to call it culturally biased would be an understatement. #33? Sure I got it. Would a UC grad student from Korea? Probably not. And if he didn't does that make him less of a genius than me?
posted by George_Spiggott 20 January | 15:27
To test true genius, they should have included:

S on a M P
posted by kyleg 20 January | 15:48
I know someone who mensa-drops in AA meetings. Or at least he used to, until someone said to him "how fucking clever are you to end up in AA?"


I shouldn't have laughed so hard at that. hee!

Yeah, I had to fiddle around with Q24.

And here's another couple:

O T 3 T A L
14 D in a F (again maybe less easy for americans)

On preview: kyleg you are awesome.

posted by gaspode 20 January | 15:50
Shouldn't that be M F S on a P?
posted by George_Spiggott 20 January | 15:55
420
posted by danostuporstar 20 January | 16:17
I only ever met one Mensa member who volunteered her status to me. She was my nursery school teacher, and she was canvassing my parents neighborhood a few years ago for some local political office or other. I remember her as being a good teacher, but as a politician, whew! She said to me, "Unlike my opposition, I'm very intelligent. I'm in MENSA."

I responded, "You're in menses right now? I'm not sure if I should invite you in; you might pollute the altar."
posted by Hugh Janus 20 January | 16:53
I got to 23 or so pretty fast, then I stalled at 27. I'm impressed with Gaspode's results.

I think that intelligence tests of any kind have some usefulness if you keep in mind that they are measuring a poorly defined and often mostly arbitrary subset of intellectual skills. I just think about this with a sort of "it measures what it measures" state of mind.

What I found most interesting about this test was the experience of how I discovered most of the answers. I would usually get the answer as I look back at one I had been considering a few minutes earlier. The minority were the result of exclusive concentration, most seem to have been processed in the background. It was a weird feeling when the meaningless phrase became, suddenly, obviously the answer. Did anyone else find this sort of strange?
posted by kmellis 20 January | 16:57
I know someone who tells people they're in Mensa. I'm usually embarassed on behalf of people who like to mention their Mensa membership—I associate it with second-raters, although there are of course some members who are truly first-rate.
posted by kmellis 20 January | 17:10
kmellis: I had a very similar experience. It reminds me of those 3D art posters - you have to focus on not focusing, or something like that.

The only strategy I was able to use at all was to try to think of numbers I encounter in daily life, then go look for a phrase in the list that matched it. Though, to be honest, this was mostly the case with the low-hanging fruit (baker's dozen, time conversions). But I never started with a phrase and willed the answer.
posted by mullacc 20 January | 17:14
Yeah, same here.

I just looked at the answers. Three of the four sports questions were three of the answers I couldn't get. Those I'd never have come up with. I probably would have gotten the other three—two of them I partially had. (That I couldn't get 28 is embarassing.) 19 seems arbitrary to me if it's not an aphorism, but I can see that people should be able to get it, anyway.
posted by kmellis 20 January | 17:23
the last two I got were 10 and 20. And they are kind of similar, I think.

Most of the ones that I had to think about, I pretty much just tried to figure out what had that number. Oh yeah, 28 is kind of tricky, not because people don't know it, but it kind of doesn't fit in so much with the others.

Oh yeah, and I am not especially gifted with IQ tests - I suck at visuospatial processing and random pattern recognition.


posted by gaspode 20 January | 17:54
I answered 25 - I think it's the sports the questions I'm missing.
posted by deborah 20 January | 18:21
I got 27 and I'm as thick as a plank.

Mensa just exists so ugly people can feel superior.
posted by dodgygeezer 20 January | 18:51
I got 23. Woo! I'm a genius. : )
posted by sisterhavana 20 January | 22:04
I have ONE left to go. Aargh.
posted by taz 21 January | 04:31
Okay, I got all of them. I used google on a couple of the sports ones. Also, for #20 8 T on an O, I haven't figured out what they really want yet, but my answer is perfectly CORRECT! (8 tentacles on an octopus).
posted by taz 21 January | 05:49
Ah. Never mind. An extra space in there kept it from coming out as correct. My answer is the answer they wanted.
posted by taz 21 January | 06:04
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