Mensa practice test: Mensa-style questions and the 130 line

Six questions in the general style of high-range reasoning tests: pattern matrices, number series and one analogy. Answers and worked solutions are included.

Searches for a Mensa test turn up four quite different things. Only the first can get you a place.

If you already have an IQ score from a professional assessment, you may not need to take a Mensa test at all. American Mensa publishes a table of qualifying scores. The numbers differ by test because the tests use different scales, even though every one of them corresponds to roughly the top 2%. Our Mensa qualifying scores by test table lists them side by side and checks any score against the line.

Mensa's top 2% works out at a little under 131 on a scale with an average of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. People usually round it to 130. On that scale, 130 is two standard deviations above average: about 1 person in 44 scores that high or higher.

Small differences matter near the line. A good supervised test has a margin of error of a few points, so someone whose true level is 128 can score 131 on the day, and the reverse. If a practice result puts you in the mid 120s or above, a supervised test is a reasonable next step. If it puts you well below, the test fee is probably better spent elsewhere. What an IQ of 130 means has the full picture, and the IQ percentile calculator shows any other score.

IQ scales are defined by an average of 100 and a standard deviation, and the standard deviation is not the same for every test. Wechsler tests and the Stanford-Binet 5 use 15. The older Stanford-Binet used 16, and the Cattell scales use 24. Two standard deviations above average is the 97.7th percentile on each of them, and that is what the number represents: 130 on a scale of 15, 132 on 16, and 148 on 24.

So a Cattell score of 148 is not "higher" than a Wechsler score of 130. They are the same level. The standard deviation guide shows the conversion, and the Mensa eligibility checker converts between the scales.

Mensa tests, like most tests of reasoning, use unfamiliar puzzle-style questions that cover pattern completion, sequences and logic. Practising with similar items has two benefits: you become comfortable with the formats, and you learn to check rules one feature at a time.

What practice cannot do is change your reasoning ability much. The practice questions below are original and in the general style of these tests. They are a warm-up, not a prediction.

Two practical notes: the tests are timed, so it helps to move on from a question that is stalling you, and Mensa says the practice options are separate from the qualifying test, so do not expect the same questions.