WHAT IS MENSA?

Mensa is a society that fills a void for many intelligent people who would otherwise be cut off from other good minds. It offers a contact that is important to them, but elusive in modern society. Besides being an origin of many new friendships, the Society provides members with a receptive and responsive audience on which to try out new ideas.

The society recruits new members by scientifically selecting people whose intelligence quotient is in the top two percent of the population, as tested by means of standard, approved IQ tests. Members are able to think for themselves, unlike other societies which persuade people to think as they do, or search for a particular narrow common interest.

Mensa is an international society, with a membership of more than 100 000 in over 20 countries and embracing almost every occupation. It has three main aims:

• Social contact among intelligent people;
• Research into psychology and the social sciences;
• Identification and fostering of human intelligence.

The society is a non-profit organisation that has no political or religious affiliations, nor does it recognise discrimination of race, creed, class, sex or education level. Whilst its members may have many opinions, Mensa itself has no opinion.

Mensa is a Latin word for table: we are a round-table society, where no one has special precedence.

The society recruits new members by scientifically selecting people whose intelligence quotient is in the top two percent of the population, as tested by means of standard, approved IQ tests. Members are able to think for themselves, unlike other societies which persuade people to think as they do, or search for a particular narrow common interest.