To think that if you have an IQ of 170 it wouldn't go unnoticed at school?

[MarksandSpencerfoodjunkie]

Just that really. My MIL says SIL was tested age 7 at school (we are based in the US) and was told she had this IQ. Mil kept it quiet from DS - my now DH - in case he felt inferior with his 140 plus IQ. But my MIL was later told SIL was dyslexic because she wasn't getting on at school; this was in the UK as they both went to school in the UK for a while. But SIL was and is a good reader - she sometimes misspells too and to and their and there but has a good job. She didn't do A levels in fact fought against doing them and went to a technical college instead. My cousin who is a member of Mensa (and quite an oddball it must be said) has this IQ and argued with me that either SIL was badly let down by the education system in both the US and the U.K. Or my MIL's memory isn't all it should be. or are IQ tests just pants?

My H has an IQ of 171, he has absolutely no common sense whatsoever.

My Dh was sent for an official Mensa test when he was 16. It came back at 178. Now he is clever academically in an all rounder way, has a very logical mind and excels in Maths. But he is no bloody genius. As he says himself the tests just really suit clever people with his skill set. I haven't done one, am average at Maths but academic in other sujects with a pHD. I can bet you I'd do rubbish in an IQ test especially if there were any spatial reasoning tests. When it comes to absorbing and analysing information I beat him hands down. Sometimes his failure to grasp the point makes me want to kill him.

Sometimes his failure to grasp the point makes me want to kill him. Oh I feel your pain!

Just to reiterate scores without %-ile are meaningless...Mensa uses Culture Fair (top score 183) and Cattell B (top score 161) tests in the UK. Your percentile score is expressed according to result and if above 2% you get in. Simple.

Extract from the Mensa website: "Comparison of IQ Tests: As different IQ tests were developed, each was given its own scoring system. Therefore, an IQ of 150 is a meaningless claim unless you know the actual test which was used. In order to compare one IQ test against another, the scores are converted to 'percentiles', i.e. where a person's score falls in comparison to the rest of the population by percentage. Mensa offers membership to anyone whose IQ score places them within the top two per cent of the population, no matter which approved test was used. A top 2% mark in recognised IQ test qualifies you for entry to Mensa. IQ tests accepted by Mensa include the Cattell III B, Culture Fair, Ravens Advanced Matrices, Ravens Standard Matrices, Wechsler Scales and Stanford Binet (this list is not exhaustive)."

mensa.org.uk/what-is-an-iq-test

High-IQ kids (and by that I mean very high IQ of 2%-ile or higher) are, supposedly, frequently (but not always) "let down" by a standard schooling system because they are wired as non-standard by definition as well as what PP have said about frequently co-existing LDs (2e or "twice exceptional" concept). So, OP, it's perfectly possible your MIL is remembering correctly.

I took the 11+ in the mid-80s. It was an IQ test pure and simple (composite of culture fair as NVR/maths and cattel B as VR/english). Food for thought!

My Mum was a member of MENSA when I was a kid. It was a BIG DEAL in our house, and was mentioned as often as possible

that is the whole point of MENSA !

Since schools and IQ testing has been mentioned, anyone know what tests were in use in 1980, in UK (London) schools ? They came in a set of 3 and were scored out of 9, but it was possible to get 9+/9 (which makes me suspect there was an age correction at work).

Lurking is that really the whole point of MENSA? So that when your teenage DD's mates come for tea your Mum declares "we've never had Whooo tested because she has her Dad's brains but I am a declared genius"? I always though it made her sound a bit batshit bringing it up all the time!

The point of MENSA is to make money by allowing people to go around saying they are "in MENSA". That's why there are annual fees, meetings and newsletters. It's just a social club with a purported entrance criteria of "Intelligence".

If there's one thing members of MENSA must know, being experts in logic, it's that someone who is not a member of MENSA does not necessarily have an IQ of less than 120 (or whatever their current benchmark is).

Anyway, I can't immediately think of any roles where membership of MENSA is a criteria . Apart from, maybe, treasurer of MENSA ?

Pickled -Not all IQ tests are multiple choice- when my DD was being assessed I was out of the room but I overheard a bit and she was being asked some quite searching questions by the ed psych ( I was still thinking when my DD gave a very succint answer). Not a stealth boast but just an observation to explain the probing nature of the question.

As regards the original observation & the MIL still quoting her DD's IQ maybe she feels partly responsible that her DD has not had the opportunities that MIL would have liked for her.

Maybe MIL feels DD has under-achieved & that this is somehow a reflection of her.

At the end of the day how do we define success? Glittering academic career/ highly paid job / caring partner or mother?

My DH went to Oxford and also did Mensa IQ test but decided not to proceed to membership. He used to compare himself unfavourably to his DB ( larger than life character v DH being reserved). His DB left school at 16 but has had very well paid jobs & travelled the world, has looked for a partner but not found one. Now DH says - "I have a family who love me- what more could I want?" & means it (I think!)

@LikeDylanInTheMovies
A stealth boast was my first though. If so, how hilarious! And poor form.

MIL sounds v misguided in her parenting, then and now!

It does seem likely that if SiL is dyslexic, whatever her abilities, she WAS "let down" - SEN identification and provision of help was woeful in many schools!

Does MENSA membership consist of carrying a card and talking about it? Or are there meetings? For some reason I'm picturing lots of people drinking tea and telling each other that they're MENSA members

Society, and very often educators too, tend to perceive giftedness in terms of output or achievements.

Giftedness is, I think, better understood as an internal set of out of the ordinary mental processes which may or may not lead to achievement.

It's actually remarkably easy for gifted children, especially those at the exceptionally gifted end of the range, to be overlooked in the classroom. We're better at spotting the conventionally high performing "bright child" than those with very out of sync minds. They actually don't always perform at all well academically - whether through boredom, or a conscious decision to coast or blend in socially, or because they don't learn study skills or exam technique in their primary school years when everything comes easily and intuitively. As was said up thread, it's also a well established pattern for exceptional intelligence and dyslexia to "mask" each other: the exceptionally intelligent child finds coping strategies to enable them to muddle through at close to average performance and nobody notices or supports either of their exceptionalities.

So your MIL may well be remembering correctly and your SIL may indeed have been poorly served during her school years.

IQ is of course just a number or a label, it's not a passport to academic or career success, and the tests do have their shortcomings, as has been said here, but it still has relevance for your SIL simply in terms of self-knowledge and understanding what makes her tick. This may be interesting reading
www.stephanietolan.com/gifted_ex-child.htm

...thought...

I've been tested using the WAIS-IV and the Stanford-Binet (a cool 15 years apart too) and they were definitely not just multiple choice - I remember the WAIS being mind-crunchingly difficult, especially the digit span and reverse digit span, which really strain the memory.

The sections on Verbal Comprehension are also not multiple choice. They are however very, very biased towards people who read a lot of English language books.

Mine was 138. A schoolmate who scored lower did much better because she worked harder and was less flighty than me. I don't think it means much unless it's really, really low. Even then, someone can succeed in life compared to their higher IQ peers.

To buck the trend of 'my DH is a genius but has no common sense' - my DP is a genius, and he has shit loads of common sense and a highly logical and analytical mind.

It is exceedingly useful most of the time but exceeding annoying sometimes, like when you ask a simple question 'Thai curry or pasta for tea' and he spends 5 minutes carefully analysing the choice and the impact of the decision. ARGH JUST TELL ME INSTINCTIVLY WHICH ONE YOU FUCKING WANT

That IS a deficit of common sense, isn't it Yello? Or at least an impaired sense of proportion.