How I became a member of Mensa

Mensa. The largest high IQ society it is. 

I remember I firstly noticed its existance when I was about 12 years old. There was a TV show group of new guests were invited every week and go through some sort of survival quiz. Once the guests were the members of Mensa Korea and it made me curious what Mensa was. And then I felt I wanted to join it when I happened to watch the Mensa episode of The Simpsons. 

Making good score on mendatory IQ test conducted at middle school, I thought I could might make it and taking the Mensa Korea test had been in my bucket list ever since.

The test is mostly taken place in big cities such as Seoul and Busan. I had to wait until I got a job in Seoul because I didn't want to spend too much money and time for a trip to take the test. Unfortunately Mensa Korea had not been much active since the covid outbreak and the test had been suspended. After two more years of waiting, I noticed they were conducting test again this summer and applied right away.

Apparently it wasn't only me who had been eager to try their intelligences. 80 places for applicants were filled up within half an hour. 

The test was conducted in a conference room located in Youngdeungpo train station. To be honest, it wasn't easy to find with a map they provided. 

I heard the proctors are volunteered Mensa members. They weren't particularly kind but I felt they were trying their best to execute the event in order. There were multiple kinds of test books containing difference questions and I assume it's to prevent cheating. Each books were sealed and not to be opened until the mark of the proctor. The test was difficult. Confidence-destroyingly difficult. Finishing the test not finding the answer for more then several questions, I left premise with bitterness.

So imagine my surprise when I checked the test result.

I passed!

 

I am not attending their Halloween party this October but looking forward to take a seat at the year end party.

 

As there are some people believe that Mensa is a huge skam and some others might build undesired expectation, I am not telling this to people except for my family and close friends. After all, it's not actually a big deal but it helps me reminding myself that I am not a dumb - which I've felt quite often since I started learning programming language.