Find out if you are Mensa material by accepting the challenge of this mini-quiz. These questions, developed by psychologist and quiz book author Abbie Salny, are similar to those administered in the actual admissions test.

Seriously interested potential members may want to practice online with The Mensa Workout or the American Mensa Mind Challenge at www.us.mensa.org. Online tests are good only for personal reference; an actual proctored test ($30) must be administered to officially qualify for membership. A passing score and another payment for annual dues ($49) gets you a membership card attesting to the fact that you are a bona fide smart person.

Make that a “smarter-than-average” person.

1. The following breeds of horses or ponies have had letters omitted. Fill in the letters.

P __ __ O __ __ __ O
__ P __ A __ __ O __ A
S __ __ T __ __ __ __

2. Following the pattern shown in the number sequence below, fill in the missing number.

1 8 27 __ 125 216

3. What is the word that means the same as the definitions below?

A possibly neglectful act of omission
The act of supervision

4. Jane runs up a 3-mile hill at 3mph and down the hill at 6mph. What is her average speed?

5. What is the number that is one-tenth of one-half of one-fifth of one-fifth of 6,000?

6. Each number shown has a certain rule. Figure out the rule and fill in the missing number.

January 20
April 10
May 5
November 15
July __

7. When they are unscrambled, which of the following words is the odd man out?

PEIPNPELA
BNNAAA
RNOAEG
HCAEP
LVGOE

8. What word best completes the following series?

Apple, boxes, cherry, _________, eggplant
A. pair
B. plum
C. dogwood
D. potato

9. You have the same number of nickels, dimes and half-dollars. You have a total of $5.20. How many of each coin do you have?

10. What is the 11-letter word that all smart people spell incorrectly?

This article appears in Feb 22-28, 2001.

14 replies on “Mensa mini-quiz”

  3. 1.PASOFINO,APPALOOSA,SHETLAND
    2. 64 (They are all cubes of the numbers 1,2,3,4 etc)
    3. Overlook
    4. 4 mph (she takes 1 hr for 3 miles up; 30 mins for 3 miles down i.e. 5 miles/1.5hrs)
    5. 12
    6.July 10 (Add 5 for each syllable in the month)
    7. GLOVE (Pineapple, banana, Orange, Peach are all fruits)
    8. Dogwood (a,b,c,d,e…)
    9.8 of each (8*(0.5+0.1+.05))
    10.i-n-c-o-r-r-e-c-t-l-y

  7. Ah, question 1…

    Mensa material: I see Mensa wants people who are both smart and pony-loving. Kidding.

    Now, how much money do these people make, with all these tests and whatnot? Playing on human ego to make money – old, but I suppose it still works like a charm, considering their membership figures.

  9. #9 is a trick question? The words “nickel” and “dime”are meaningless in most of the world.

  10. Actually, if you look up horse breeds starting with P, Palomino is on there. It is considered a color breed. Therefore, it should be palomino, because Paso Fino is two different words and there is no space for a separation of words.

  12. I’ve taken the WAIS test and find it to be considerably more accurate than this. Frankly, this is nonsense. The test is extremely biased and completely excludes people from other countries. It also relies heavily on previously gained knowledge, that’s not how you test intelligence. Someone who happens to love horses can get an extra point over someone who has zero interest in horses. That’s ridiculous.

  13. Sorry “Mensambr”, lease is right and you’re definitely wrong. Palomino is the color of the horse. Here’s wikipedia’s entry on it. “Palomino is a coat color in horses, consisting of a gold coat and white mane and tail. Genetically, the palomino color is created by a single allele of a dilution gene called the cream gene working on a “red” (chestnut) base coat.”

  14. 1. Palomino is a type of horse / breed and a color. It was classified as a horse type BEFORE the genetic component was understood. Yes, different breeds can have a tan color However, Palomino is still considered a “breed.” Look it up on petbreeds.com

    2. YES. Questions that are knowledge based are absurd. No MENSA test would quantify a person’s intelligence quotient using questions that would appear on Jeopardy, or in Trivial Pursuit. The questions are designed to test your ability to see patterns where most people see randomness; to problem solve, etc.

    3. How is the last question a test of intelligence? Really, do highly intelligent people know that “incorrectly” is spelled incorrectly by smart people? My IQ is over 170 and I didn’t know that. Why would I? Is there a cutesy clue in the question itself, like a “wink, wink” isn’t this cute?

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