{"id":218,"date":"2004-03-17T09:38:30","date_gmt":"2004-03-17T09:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=218"},"modified":"2016-09-19T17:08:24","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T17:08:24","slug":"the-real-quiz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/?p=218","title":{"rendered":"The Real Quiz"},"content":{"rendered":"

It wasn’t too long ago that I was missing from work on Sunday, on a date to exist once every 4 years. I was at the National Science Center for a MENSA IQ test. (Thanks to Hannna<\/a> for the information.)<\/p>\n

I sat for the Advanced Progressive Matrices test. I forgot most of the details, but there were no words, just 3×3 patterns, where you’d have to pick the missing one from 8 answers. There were no “if A is B and B is C therefore…<\/i>” questions; all the questions were abstract patterns free from the constraints of language. I think there were 36 questions, for a maximum of 180 marks. The passing rate was 148 for entry to MENSA; whether that implied that you’d have only 6 chances to answer wrongly at 5 marks per question, or that the answers were weighted differently, I did not know. I did not even know if your score translated directly into the classic benchmark of your Intelligence Quotient<\/b> or IQ<\/b>. The guy said he’d send the results by courier in 2 weeks.<\/p>\n

Anyway, enough of sounding smart.<\/p>\n

Yesterday my momma, she tella me-a to go eat dinnah and go home mahself. And so I called Shaz and he was in KLCC dependably as a lepak buddy. He brought Penang dudes from the Incubus<\/a> concert! (P.S. My review is here<\/b><\/a>.) The Penang dudes, they uh say hey let’s be at the Kinokuniya, the bookstore upstairs, and we go up the escalators. Hmm if a place has no stairs, like getting to Fitness First on the 2nd floor of Maxis Tower (which is dumb for a fitness center), can we still say upstairs<\/i>? (Whoa Hannna-ism there.)<\/p>\n

Speak of the devil or at least the gollum-lookalike, she was there at Kinokuniya, standing at the counter, so coincidentally near more 4D puzzles. We walked, we talked, we bade farewell to the Shaz-in-a-rush and the Penang dudes about to watch a movie. We convinced Nora<\/a>, Hannna’s friend, (come to think of it I don’t remember if her real name has one N or two Ns but heck) to get a squirrel 4D puzzle for her friend’s birthday. We chose Starbucks over DOME and watched the Hannna-the-MENSA-member struggle with her oh-so-cute-and-yet-elaborate hedgehog puzzle. (Yes the same one<\/a> Aznin made me get her.)<\/p>\n

When I reached home, a letter was waiting. It was from the Malaysian MENSA society, and had a 30 sen<\/i> stamp on it. Nope, none of the grandeur of a courier mail. What, were they considerate enough to tell me I didn’t get in anyway? *does a Dick Solomon egoistic pose* (Of course, if I got 180, they’d be camping outside my house ready to shake my hand and toss me in a duffel bag for shipping to an underground lair where they would extract my brain and conduct experiments without my consent yes?)<\/p>\n

Anyway, back to sounding smart.<\/p>\n

It said I got 156 out of 180. Yes I barely passed. That means if you’re thinking I’m bombastic, then you must feel stupid, and if you’re not as smart as I am, you probably wouldn’t pass. (And yes, I was braggartly deliberately complicating my sentences.) Of course, if you’re already in MENSA, then you must be equal or greater in intelligence to me. I bow to you.<\/p>\n

The membership application form was attached. You could be a genius and be a lazy procrastinator at the same time, and so I did not rush out in the dark night to a Pos Laju<\/i> (speedy courier mail) office and send my application. Plus I had no experience with money orders or cheques (despite my father’s attempts at forcing lessons down our throats.)<\/p>\n

What would I want with MENSA anyway? To meet brainy chicks? Well, that, and to find some Rubik Cube<\/a> enthusiasts, perhaps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It wasn’t too long ago that I was missing from work on Sunday, on a date to exist once every 4 years. I was at the National Science Center for a MENSA IQ test. (Thanks to Hannna for the information.) I sat for the Advanced Progressive Matrices test. I forgot most of the details, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geek","category-travelling"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11715,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions\/11715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glaringnotebook.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}