PJ, the Flynn Effect is of great interest to lawyers defending capital cases.

Dad, what percent of Mensa members find it necessary to flaunt it by letting the press know.

Matlock, you’re definitely qualified, no matter how many times you had to take those tests. You should join Mensa and put it on your r?©sum?©. You’ll be a shoo-in for elected office.

For the record, LSAT of 169. ACT of 34. SAT of 1390. Does that qualify? (Remember, I’m still young enough to remember this stuff.)

But I’m just a humble small business owner trying to, as Stuart Kinard said, protect those who have fallen short of perfection from the wrath of those who believe they have attained it.

Of the 132 million earthlings who qualify for Mensa based on their superior IQs, fewer than one tenth of a percent of them find it necessary to flaunt it by actually applying.

No. The premise of an IQ test is that you don’t know what’s coming. Indeed, if one takes too many of them, particularly in a short amount of time, they are deemed less useful due to a “practice effect” that “artificially” raises the score. Some people practice really hard for the LSAT. (I wasn’t one of them.)

Practicing and studying for a standardized test is gaming the system. (The sample on which the norms were based did not practice.) This goes for a test like the SAT as well, where better-off families effectively buy higher scores. Plus, there are other nuances to the measurement of IQ–such as the Flynn Effect–that have implications for interpreting standardized test scores that, frankly, I doubt even the officials of Mensa organizations know about or understand.

I think there are many more self-professed geniuses than there are positions for the opening. A person’s membership in Mensa says 1000 times more about that person’s social outlook (and probably self-esteem) than it does their intelligence. In short, I don’t think Kelly Siegler’s a genius. Far from it.

More here.

Gary, do you think someone scoring in the top 2% on the LSAT is probably in the top 2% of the general population?

Anon, BTDT. Bender’s description is fair, isn’t it?

Also, remember that Mensa is a purely social organization – not a think tank, not a philosophical debate society, just a social club.

At Mensa meetings the conversation is not noticeably different than in any bar or other social setting – except that the members are much more impressed with themselves.

That means that if the Mensa claims of membership being in the top 2% is false.

So maybe the press about whats-her-name being a Mensa member is a way of saying that she frequently misrepresents herself?

I needed some fresh air. Fortunately, I strolled around the sofa and found some near the scotch. Turning back to the problem, I realized that the logo resembled an abstract stick-figure – a member I suppose – doing the “Chicken Dance.” Cool, and strangely Texan, but still not intellectual enough for Mensa.

But then I squinted and the logo’s detail took on new meaning. I realized the abstract globe actually looked more like the abstract aerial view of a basket. Poised as it was above some weirdly bold pitchfork, I realized that the Mensa logo actually symbolizes the world going to Hell in a handbasket.

Now I can rest.

By the way, did anyone else notice that Mensa looks a little too much like mens’a, the rarely used, contracted form of mens rea?

Gotta sleep . . .

So how about it, lawyer readers: was your LSAT over 167 (out of 180) or under?