Mensa practice test

Mensa admits people who score in the top 2% on an approved, supervised intelligence test. Online tests cannot qualify you, with one exception: Mensa UK runs its own proctored online test.

The practice options are separate from the real thing. Mensa UK's Mensa Workout is 18 questions in 15 minutes and is described as entertainment, not an IQ test. American Mensa sells a paid practice test that also cannot be used to qualify. Neither is a substitute for the supervised admission test.

Threshold

Top 2% (98th percentile), close to an IQ of 131 on the standard scale

How to qualify

A supervised Mensa test, or prior evidence from an approved test

UK routes

Supervised in-person test or proctored online test (about £49 each at the time of writing), or professional results

US routes

Supervised test through a proctor or testing centre, or scores from a listed test

Online tests

Not accepted, apart from Mensa UK's own proctored version

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%.

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 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.

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