it seems that mensa is for simpletons.

it recently came to my attention that the most well known high-iq society on earth is actually at the bottom of the pile when it comes to intelligence based clubs, a world presumably filled with a huge amount of back-slapping and cryptic in-jokes, and is probably scoffed at by members of other clubs whose mere existence is baffling to normal humans.

let’s first take a look at the statistics for our slightly stupid friend:

name: mensa
iq required for entry: 132
percentage of the population who would fail: 98%
number of members: approx. 100′000

at first glance the numbers look impressive. an iq of 132 is more than respectable and to be in the top 2% is good going.

until you look at these (click on the society’s name to go their website and apply for membership)…

8. ultranet
iq required: 164
percentile: 99.997%
members: <100

7. prometheus society
iq required: 164
percentile: 99.997%
members: 65

6. helliq society
iq required: 164
percentile: 99.997%
members: 39

5. mega society
iq required: 176
percentile: 99.9999%
members: 26

4. pi society
iq required: 176
percentile: 99.9999%
members: 8

3. pars society
iq required: 180
percentile: 99.99997%
members: 37

2. olympiq society
iq required: 180
percentile: 99.99997%
members: 12

1. giga society
iq required: 196
percentile: 99.9999999%
members: 7

incredible. to put that into some kind of perspective, the giga society is so difficult to gain entry to that approximately 6 out of every 6 billion people on earth are eligible.

at present there’s no high-iq society with a stricter entrance requirement and the club’s founder, paul cooijmans, says the aim of giga is

“to honor the efforts of the very highest scorers, who are of great importance to the development of ultra-high-ceiling tests for mental abilities. a secondary goal is to make members of other iq societies realize they’re not all that, although they may think they are“.
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