Mensa membership letter

[Kythas]

If I remember correctly the ASVAB scores are a part of your original enlistment contract. Unless they were burned/destroyed in the fire that hit St Louis a number of years back, they should be in your National Records file.

This assumes that you took the ASVAB and subsequently enlisted. Many folks just took the test at their High School.

My records WERE at the St. Louis building that burned. I found that out a few years ago when the IRS withheld my tax rebate because they said I owed them money for GI Bill benefits. I had a very difficult time contesting that because of the difficulty in getting my records.

[KD5NRH]

Is there a forum member in the Arlington area who can go by the office and verify? The address is : American Mensa, Ltd., 1229 Corporate Drive West, Arlington, TX 76006-6103

Hard to say for sure from the StreetView shot, but nothing stands out as big enough to be a 30-06 posting. That was taken last year.

[magillapd]

They put me at 135 in junior high school and wanted me in accelerated classes but I was too lazy so I declined. Military had me at 145 but I question their testing methods. I have met a lot of high IQ folk who couldn't change their own spare tire so not too impressed with the numbers game.

You may or may not be surprised at just how accurate the ASVAB test was...not sure if they still use it anymore. I was a Recruiter for 3 years and found that it is does an extremely thorough evaluation of ones abilities and is an excellent indicator of IQ.

I remember when they came to my school to administer the ASVAB test to everyone in my grade. I don't remember what grade it was, but I made sure to be absent that day. Never joined the military nor did I have an interest in doing so. I thought it was stupid to try to force me to take the test. Great respect for all you military folks, just wasn't for me.

As for Mensa, I don't remember ever having an IQ test and frankly I could care less what it is. Never went to college, so never took an SAT. I function in society just fine and have a job that I love, it' pays ok and my wife and I get by just fine. Funny thing is she has a bachelors degree and I make more money with my public high school diploma.

Oh well, not knocking anyone. I'm sure that if I put my mind to it I could acomplish anything, but that would require me actully not being lazy.

This was probably a stupid post, sorry for wasting your time....

[stevie_d_64]

I dunno, maybe having a CHL bumps yer IQ up 20-25 points, regardless...

Who needs MENSA anyway...Really intelligent people don't want to be in a room full of other intelligencia anyway...It's like preaching to the choir...

I'd much rather be in a room full of gunowners...It would be correct to point out that it would be the safest place to be...Especially next weekend in Mesquite...

[srothstein]

How does ASVAB relate to IQ? I'm curious because when I took it I scored 67% and was extremely embarrassed. The recruiter then told me that it was a very good score.

If you took the test relatively recently then the ASVAB has nothing to do with intelligence anymore. The score you got is a percentile ranking based on the scores of the normalization group. Every few years, they give the test to a test group and predict scores from their results. Your score means that you scored in the 67th percentile, which is another way of saying that you scored higher than what is expected of 66% of the people taking the test. To see why that is a good score, consider that most of the services have set their cut off for enlisting in the 30 to 35 % range, with as low as 25 being able to enlist with a waiver.

Way back when (like when I took it in the early 70's), the ASVAB was composed of a variety of different sections and the scores on the sections could be combined to reveal your aptitude in certain areas. For example, there was a score for mechanical aptitude, a score for clerical, etc. All of the scores were straight numerical scores, not percentile rankings. I was told that the GT (general technical) score plus 5 points was equivalent to your IQ. I don't know how true that is, but MENSA accepts the GCT score from prior to 1980 for proof of entry but does not accept the ASVAB now.

[Purplehood]

How does ASVAB relate to IQ? I'm curious because when I took it I scored 67% and was extremely embarrassed. The recruiter then told me that it was a very good score.

Was that the full battery test? It sounds like you took the EST (pre-test), because a percentage is not used on the ASVAB itself.

[Dave2]

Nothing encourages genius like ambitious laziness.

Heinlein wrote a story about it in Time Enough for Love (IIRC): "The man who was too lazy to fail". It was an amazing analysis that shows this could be a very true statement.

There's an old saying popular among Mathematicians: "The best Mathematicians are lazy." Translation: Mathematics is all about strategies, and the best strategies are the simplest ones.
I've personally extended it to Physicists and Computer Programmers....

You are correct

[steve817]

How does ASVAB relate to IQ? I'm curious because when I took it I scored 67% and was extremely embarrassed. The recruiter then told me that it was a very good score.

Was that the full battery test? It sounds like you took the EST (pre-test), because a percentage is not used on the ASVAB itself.

Honestly I couldn't tell you. I took it back in 92 at the MEPS in Houston.

[68Charger]

Haha.. Mensa American? You know what mensa means in spanish, right? Like.. stupid/dummy (f). Just funny..

I'm sure this post didn't contribute to this thread in any way, form, or fashion, but I just had to laugh.

Cheers!

[SecedeTX]

I took the ASVAB and being the son of a Cheif Warrant Officer, I was REALLY wanted in military service. The ASVAB tested heavily for mechanical apptitude. Lots of physical "what happens next" questions. I tested top of my class but was not interested in military life since I had grown up on military bases for a majority of my life.

I guess moving every 6 months to a year for your entire life made military not the most desireable life choice for a 17 year old.

ASVAB concentrated on math, factoring, and mechanical ability...pretty cool test. I remember a question that had 5 gears with different teeth counts, and the question was if the main gear did "x" revolutions, how many revolutions did gears 3 and 5 make.

That being said, I am a test geek and have to take tests ALL the time in my profession.

[Thomas]

How does ASVAB relate to IQ? I'm curious because when I took it I scored 67% and was extremely embarrassed. The recruiter then told me that it was a very good score.

I honestly have no idea, but I would think a recruiter would say anything (legal and vague) to get someone to enlist.

I just sent an e-mail to see if I can get my score. I took it in high school some years back. I never got a copy, just a message on the answering machine from a recruiter saying my score was very high and that he would like to discuss it with me. Obviously I never called him back.

[LikesShinyThings]

Who needs MENSA anyway...Really intelligent people don't want to be in a room full of other intelligencia anyway...It's like preaching to the choir...

Got that right. Nothing against any Mensa members here, and there are exceptions to every rule, but I tend to think that those who feel that they need to join Mensa in order to prove how smart they are, are far too full of their own "intelligence". I also feel that common sense is a far more useful "intelligence". Would that I had some.

I'd much rather be in a room full of gunowners...It would be correct to point out that it would be the safest place to be...Especially next weekend in Mesquite...

Got that one right, too.

Brought to you by your friendly neighborhood, not quite lazy enough yet, programmer.

[Purplehood]

How does ASVAB relate to IQ? I'm curious because when I took it I scored 67% and was extremely embarrassed. The recruiter then told me that it was a very good score.

I honestly have no idea, but I would think a recruiter would say anything (legal and vague) to get someone to enlist.

I just sent an e-mail to see if I can get my score. I took it in high school some years back. I never got a copy, just a message on the answering machine from a recruiter saying my score was very high and that he would like to discuss it with me. Obviously I never called him back.

Speaking strictly for myself, I never lied to a prospect (Yes, that was the term back in the day). I looked at it this way: I was going to be a career Marine and the people that I enlisted could one day work with me. I know that I came across 2 of my 3 Drill Instructors and 2 of my Recruiters in my career.

I didn't see any point in lying or stretching the truth. I also had one of the best rates of graduation among my enlistee's in Boot Camp.

[Kythas]

Speaking strictly for myself, I never lied to a prospect (Yes, that was the term back in the day). I looked at it this way: I was going to be a career Marine and the people that I enlisted could one day work with me. I know that I came across 2 of my 3 Drill Instructors and 2 of my Recruiters in my career.

I didn't see any point in lying or stretching the truth. I also had one of the best rates of graduation among my enlistee's in Boot Camp.

So you were the exception to the rule of "How can you tell when a recruiter's lying? His lips are moving"?

[jimlongley]

I didn't see any point in lying or stretching the truth.

I wish the same could be said of every recruiter, after the Marine recruiter turned me away, the Navy recruiter down the hall lied like a rug, a fact that I still resent to some extent 45 years later. He played games with my life.