I joined Mensa when I was a teenager. That long ago, the two-part test consisted of a self-administered screening test that one sent in by mail, followed by a proctored test given at various locations (assuming you scored high enough on the first test). Since Mensa was founded in England, the self-test was the British version of some standardized IQ test. One of the math questions involved currency, looking for some total out of pounds, pence, shillings, and crowns. I couldn't answer it; instead, I wrote on the form, "I'm American - I have no idea how many shillings there are in a pound." (They let me take the more intense test anyway.)

Once I'd been scored on the second test, I was a member of Teen Mensa for three or four years, and of course I also received the main newsletter. All that the organization ever seemed to do was to hold elections and then argue over the results. Eventually I decided I had better uses for my money than paying the annual dues... but I think I still have a yellow map-pin in my jewelry drawer somewhere.

Some while after that, I saw a free self-test for the Triple-Nine Society (which I believe was calling itself Sigma at the time). I glanced at it and saw that most of the questions seemed to be mathematical in nature. I felt this was unfair, because it was known even then that there are more facets to "intelligence" than simply the ability to do complicated math in one's head. I didn't take the test, partly because of the heavy mathematical bias... and partly because I wouldn't have been able to bear it if I didn't get in...