How to join Mensa: the test, the dues and what each country asks

0 The short answer

To join Mensa you must show a score within the upper 2 percent of the general population, and the only ways to show it are to pass a supervised Mensa test or to submit earlier results from an approved test given by a qualified professional. An online test cannot be used for admission, so the route is always: choose your national group (or Direct International Membership if your country has none), book a sitting or send your evidence, then pay annual dues once invited. On official pages read on November 4, 2026, American Mensa charged 60 dollars for a local group sitting or 99 dollars at a private center, plus dues of 107 dollars a year, and British Mensa charged 49 pounds for its supervised test, either online with a proctor or in person. ACIS is one concrete way to see where you stand first, with a normed adult battery from 25 dollars (Quick, about 45 minutes), but it is not accepted by any high IQ society and cannot tell you that you will pass.

1 What does it take to join Mensa?

Mensa asks for exactly one thing, a score within the upper 2 percent of the general population on an approved intelligence test, and every form, fee and waiting list in this guide exists to prove that one fact. Mensa International's own About page describes the entry rule as scoring within the upper 2 percent of the general population on an approved intelligence test, and says the worldwide membership "currently stands at around 170,000", with established national organisations in almost 50 countries. The Mensa International FAQ on getting your IQ tested words it the same way: membership is open to people who have attained a score within the upper two percent, and the candidate qualifies by taking a Mensa administered test or by submitting a qualifying score from another approved test.

That gives two doors. The first is a Mensa sitting: a supervised, standardized test run by the national group or by a testing center it approves. The second is prior evidence: the report or score record from a test you took earlier, given by a qualified professional in a traditional testing setting, which the national group checks against its list of accepted tests. A person with a psychologist's report in hand can skip the sitting. A person who has never been tested books one.

Everything else follows from the way Mensa is organised. Mensa International's home page sends you to your national group to find a test date, and the groups set their own fees, formats and waiting times, which is why the same question has different answers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. Countries with no recognised group are handled through Direct International Membership, covered in its own section below. The rule about the score is shared, but the price and the paperwork are national.

One line from the Mensa FAQ deserves to be read before anything is booked: "online tests cannot be used for admission to Mensa." The same page says Mensa only accepts tests given by people qualified to carry out testing privately, and that achievement tests are not accepted. Two consequences matter for a reader deciding how to start. A free online test, however well made, is a way to learn something about yourself and never a way to enter. And a test you took years ago may still count, if it was a qualifying one and you can obtain a verifiable copy of the result, because the same page warns that "non-verifiable copies may be rejected."

This page covers the route and the bill. Which published tests are accepted belongs to the page on Mensa qualifying test scores, estimating your own score is the job of the page on the score Mensa requires and how to estimate yours, and the home tests that circulate under Mensa's name have their own page on the Mensa home test. Here the question is narrower: in which order do you do what, and what does each step cost.

2 What does the top 2 percent mean as an IQ score?

The top 2 percent is a percentile, not an IQ number, and Mensa deliberately speaks in percentiles because the same IQ number means different things on different scales. American Mensa's testing page, read on November 4, 2026, says a qualifying score indicates a result at or above the 98th percentile of the general population and that detailed scores, percentiles and IQ figures are not provided. Mensa Canada's join page, read the same day, says it does not provide IQ scores and requires a percentile of 98 or above. The Mensa International FAQ puts the reason plainly: "The term 'IQ score' is widely used but poorly defined."

On the usual modern scale, with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, the 98th percentile sits about 2.05 standard deviations above the mean. That works out to roughly 130.8, which is why guides round the Mensa line to 130. That figure is our arithmetic on the normal curve, not a number any Mensa page prints. On a scale with a standard deviation of 16, the same percentile falls near 132.9, and on a scale with a larger spread it moves further still. A person told "you scored 132" therefore cannot know whether they cleared the bar without knowing the standard deviation of the scale that produced the number. The page on why the standard deviation of 15 matters explains the mechanics, and the table on converting percentiles to IQ lets you check the arithmetic.

Two practical points follow. First, the line is a cut score, and a cut score creates a cliff: a person one point below it and a person one point above it are, for every practical purpose, the same, yet one is invited and the other is not. Any single score has measurement error around it, so a result close to the line is far less certain than a result 10 points above it. Second, percentiles and IQ scores cannot be averaged or swapped casually. The page on why you cannot average IQ and percentile shows how that goes wrong, and it matters here because people often compare a percentile reported by Mensa with an IQ reported by a psychologist.

The consequence for planning is simple. If a recent professional report puts you comfortably above the line on a recognised test, the evidence route will probably suit you. If your best estimate sits near 130, the supervised sitting is a real gamble with a real fee, and the sensible move is to learn more about your profile before paying.

3 How do you join American Mensa?

American Mensa joins you in two steps, a qualifying result (a local group sitting for 60 dollars or private testing for 99 dollars, or accepted past scores) and then annual dues of 107 dollars, prorated by the month you join. All figures in this section were read on American Mensa's own pages on November 4, 2026, are regular prices, and can change.

The American Mensa join page lists the options. You can take a supervised, standardized test with a certified member volunteer, or test at one of the more than 400 approved private testing centers across the country, or submit earlier scores. The testing page prices the two sittings: Local Group Testing costs 60 dollars and is proctored by volunteers of the local group, and Private Testing costs 99 dollars at an approved facility, with the private exam administered electronically. The page says the test takes one to two hours, that you bring a photo ID showing your date of birth, and that you may take a test or test battery once every eight weeks. Anyone who has taken every available test or battery without qualifying is encouraged to submit evidence of prior testing instead.

The second door is the past scores page. It says American Mensa accepts scores from approximately 150 different standardized intelligence tests and that the list it shows is not complete. The testing must have been administered by a neutral and qualified third party in a traditional testing environment, and the page states: "We do not accept unsupervised testing as proof of eligibility", which it applies to unsupervised electronic or internet based tests. Tests with "achievement" in the title are generally not acceptable. You create a user profile, submit the original or a notarized copy of the original, and the evaluation "should take two to four weeks." Scores, the page says, are acceptable forever so long as they meet the admission requirements. The pages we read do not state a regular fee for this review, so check the amount at checkout.

Then come the dues. American Mensa's dues page states the membership year runs from April 1 to March 31 and prices a primary membership at 107 dollars. An additional family member in the same household and Local Group pays 72 dollars. Multi-year options are 290 dollars for three years and 475 dollars for five, and lifetime membership is priced by age band. New members and members who lapsed for more than a year have the dues prorated by the month they join: the page shows 53.50 dollars for a one year membership in October and 35.67 dollars in December, and it says there is no proration in the last three months of the membership year. The page does not mention any initial or joining fee, and it says American Mensa does not currently offer a discounted dues program.

Our arithmetic on the table: a first year that starts in April and uses a Local Group sitting comes to 167 dollars (60 plus 107), and a first year with private testing comes to 206 dollars (99 plus 107). Joining later in the membership year lowers the dues part through proration. After you qualify, the join page says you pay dues online with your acceptance letter or bill to hand, membership cards arrive within 10 business days, and former members do not need to retest to rejoin.

Two details worth knowing before you book. The testing page says detailed scores, percentiles and IQ figures are not provided, so a pass tells you that you cleared the line and nothing about by how much. And the Local Group option runs on scheduled sessions that you find by entering a ZIP code, so the date you can get may matter as much as the fee.

4 How do you join British Mensa?

British Mensa offers one supervised test at one price in two formats, 49 pounds either at home with a proctor or in person at a test centre, and then charges a yearly membership from 68 pounds for an adult. The figures here come from British Mensa's test page and membership page, read on November 4, 2026. They are regular prices and can change.

The test page describes the Mensa Supervised IQ Test in two formats. The online supervised test is taken at home in a proctored environment and lasts one and a half hours. The in-person test is held at test centres across the British Isles and lasts two and a quarter hours. Both cost 49 pounds, and booking runs through the links on the page or through the Mensa shop. Applicants must live in the United Kingdom or Ireland. Results are sent after marking, and anyone in the top two percent is invited to join. The page does not say whether or how often you can retake the test.

The online option is the part of this route that surprises people. British Mensa's online test is supervised: a proctor is part of the session, which separates it from the unsupervised online tests that Mensa International says cannot be used for admission. It is British Mensa's own product, not a licence for any unsupervised "Mensa test" found elsewhere. The page on IQ testing in the UK compares the routes beyond Mensa, from clinical psychologists to personal online assessment.

The membership page says you can join if you receive an invitation after a qualifying score in the supervised test, or after submitting prior evidence of an IQ in the top two percent. It prices adult membership at "from 68 pounds" a year, with a joint rate of 36 pounds a year for additional members in the same household. The page lists what members receive in general: a bi-monthly magazine, online community access, a member only website, event invitations, interest groups and merchandise discounts. It does not say how the "from" price varies, so confirm the exact adult rate at checkout. Our arithmetic on the minimum first year: 49 plus 68 comes to 117 pounds, with currencies not converted.

For someone who already holds a report, the prior evidence route replaces the sitting. The page on what an IQ test costs is the place to compare a private assessment from a psychologist with a 49 pound sitting. The two are not like for like: a psychologist's battery gives a profile and a written report, while the Mensa sitting gives an invitation or a refusal.

5 How do you join Mensa in Canada and Australia?

Canada and Australia both let you either sit a supervised entrance test or submit prior evidence, and both charge for the evaluation first and for membership second, at 90 dollars in Canada and 75 dollars (standard) or 60 dollars (concession) in Australia. The figures below were read on each group's own pages on November 4, 2026.

In Canada, the Mensa Canada join page lists three routes: submit official proof of a qualifying score from an accepted certified test, have a local psychologist administer an accepted test and submit the result through the prior evidence process, or take the Mensa entrance test at a supervised group session across the country. The entrance test costs 90 dollars for an individual and 70 dollars for a student, who must have been a full-time student in December of the previous year and show a student ID. The prior evidence evaluation costs 90 dollars for an individual. The page says that a person who has never belonged to any Mensa organisation receives complimentary membership for the remainder of the current year with the verification fee, and that joining after October 1 brings membership through December 31 of the following year. Renewal dues for existing members are 75 dollars for an individual, or 135 dollars for two years. As in the United States, the page states that Mensa Canada does not provide IQ scores and requires a percentile of 98 or above. It also mentions a new online test and gives no detail on its fee, supervision or registration, so treat that line as something to check, not a route to plan around. The page on IQ testing in Canada compares Mensa with psychologist assessment.

In Australia, the how to join page says there are two ways to join: the Mensa Supervised Entrance Test, or prior evidence. The supervised test is held in person in capital cities, usually around the end of February, May, August and November. You register on the site as a Test Applicant, pay online and then book a session; the proctor in your state contacts you with the time and place. The administrative fee is 75 dollars standard or 60 dollars for concession holders, paid in advance, and you bring photo ID. The page sets candidate ages at 10 to 75 inclusive, which means an older adult is directed to the evidence route. Prior evidence costs 60 dollars including GST and must be a score at or above the 98th percentile on an accepted test given by a psychologist with general registration with the Psychology Board of Australia. Anyone who tested outside Australia is told to contact the testing address before applying. After an invitation, annual membership is 88 dollars for full membership and 66 dollars for concession, with 44 dollars for a second member in the same household.

The group's frequently asked questions add two statements that apply well beyond Australia. The first is flat: online tests cannot be used to qualify, and the page says there are currently no self administered online tests accepted by psychologists as valid IQ tests. The second concerns retesting: the page says "You may be able to re-sit our tests at some time in the future," and advises contacting the recruiting officer before reapplying. The FAQ describes the test itself as taking 75 minutes, while the how to join page describes a session of about two hours. Plan for the longer figure. For the wider Australian picture, including what psychologists charge, see the page on IQ testing in Australia.

Our arithmetic on the totals, in each country's own dollars and not converted: an Australian standard first year is 75 plus 88, or 163, and a concession first year is 60 plus 66, or 126. In Canada the 90 dollar fee already includes the first stretch of membership for a first time member, and the renewal rate afterward is 75.

6 How do you join Mensa if your country has no national group?

If you live where no national Mensa group has been recognised, you join as a Direct International Member, and the same top 2 percent proof applies, but the route to a supervised sitting is longer and Mensa International's pages do not state a fee. Mensa International's About page says that some people reside in a country where there is not yet a formally recognised Mensa group and that these individuals are known as Direct International Members. Its FAQ tells such people to contact Mensa International "for more information about where, when and how you can get tested."

The how to join page describes four ways in. The first is prior evidence: if you already hold a qualifying score, you send a scanned copy of the documentation to Mensa International. The page specifies accredited documentation, signed by a licensed psychologist, that shows a score in the top 2 percent of the population, together with where and when you took the test. The second is to sit a supervised test while visiting another country, by asking that country's national group. The third is a visit from test supervisors of neighbouring national groups, with advance notice published on Mensa International's news page. The fourth is an online adaptive test.

That fourth route needs care, because Mensa's own pages describe it with different degrees of certainty. The FAQ, read on November 4, 2026, says Mensa International "is in the final stages of implementing computerised adaptive testing" and will roll out the test "in the very near future", with details to be published by national groups. The how to join page, read the same day, says Mensa is working to introduce an online adaptive test and has no launch date. Both agree on the main point: it is described as coming, not as a route you can book today. Neither page gives a fee, an age limit or a list of countries. If you are planning around it, ask Mensa International directly rather than relying on third party guides, some of which describe unofficial "Mensa tests" that are not Mensa's. The page on the Mensa Norway online test covers what one national group has published about an online format, and the Mensa Germany page covers another national group's route.

Two honest limits apply. The pages we read do not state a Direct International Membership fee, so check any figure you see elsewhere with Mensa International. And the evidence route puts the burden on you to obtain a signed, verifiable document, so if your earlier test was taken in a school or a clinic, ask now whether the provider can issue a copy with the psychologist's signature.

7 What are the real options, side by side?

There are several ways to find out whether you are in the top 2 percent, and only two of them, a supervised Mensa sitting and a psychologist's report on an accepted test, can get you in. The table sets them against the questions that matter before you pay. Prices are regular prices read on the dates shown and can change. ACIS sells one of the options, so treat that row as a disclosure and check it against the others.

Read the table by the last column. Only the first four rows end in something a society will act on. The free screeners and job practice tests can be pleasant or useful for their own purposes, but they are not normed adult intelligence tests, and Mensa says online tests cannot be used for admission. The page on free IQ tests explains what a free test can and cannot tell you.

ACIS sits in its own row for a reason. It is an online, unsupervised battery with adult norms, which gives a profile by index, and the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing say that unproctored administration calls for caution in interpretation (the wording is quoted in the last section). That is why ACIS answers a different question from a Mensa sitting: where you stand, roughly, across several abilities, before you decide to pay a society fee. It does not answer whether Mensa will invite you. The prices in the ACIS row were read on the home page on November 4, 2026, and may have changed again.

8 Which route fits which reader?

The right route depends on one question, whether you already hold a result from a test that Mensa accepts, and the answer changes both the price and the waiting time. The facts below come from the national pages read on November 4, 2026, and each is tied to its country because the rules are not the same everywhere.

If you hold a report from a psychologist or a school, a clinic or the armed forces, start with the evidence route. In the United States, the page says scores are acceptable "forever" so long as they meet the admission requirements, the evaluation "should take two to four weeks", and you submit the original or a notarized copy. In Australia the evidence must come from a psychologist with general registration and be at or above the 98th percentile, and Australian candidates above the supervised test's age range of 10 to 75 are sent this way. In Canada the same evidence process serves both people with old results and people who visit a local psychologist for an accepted test. Internationally, the document must be signed by a licensed psychologist. The question to ask first is whether your test is on the national group's accepted list, because an unlisted test is the commonest reason an evidence application stalls. The group's own list is the authority.

If you have never been tested, the supervised sitting is the shorter path, and the cost is modest: 49 pounds in the United Kingdom, 60 or 99 dollars in the United States, 90 dollars in Canada and 60 or 75 dollars in Australia. If the dates are the obstacle, look at format. British Mensa offers a supervised test you can take at home with a proctor if you live in the United Kingdom or Ireland. Australian sessions run roughly every three months. American local groups publish their own sessions, and private testing is scheduled through the center.

If you live outside any national group, plan around Direct International Membership, and ask early whether you can reach a supervised session in a neighbouring country. If you are not sure you are near the line, the cheapest information is not a sitting at all. A rough estimate has its own sources of error, and the page on a gifted test for adults covers what an adult can do to confirm where they stand before a formal assessment. Some readers are really asking whether they are gifted, and Mensa is only one answer to that; the page on gifted adults covers signs, assessment and outcomes without the society question attached.

There is also the question of what comes after. Mensa is the best known society, not the only one. Other societies set different lines and use different evidence, and a reader who expects to clear 130 with room to spare might care about them. They are compared on the page on high IQ society requirements, and one of them has its own page on the Triple Nine Society. Measurement at the top of the scale has its own problems, which the page about high range IQ tests explains.

Finally, count the whole bill and not only the sitting. Our arithmetic from the figures above puts the first year at 167 or 206 dollars in the United States at full dues, at least 117 pounds in the United Kingdom, 90 dollars in Canada for a first time member, and 163 or 126 Australian dollars. Dues then recur every year, so membership is a subscription to a society, not a one time purchase.

9 What happens at a sitting, and does retesting help?

A Mensa sitting is a one to two hour supervised test that returns a pass or a refusal, and the rules on retaking it differ by country, so the sensible plan is to treat the first sitting as the one that counts. American Mensa's testing page says the test takes one to two hours, requires a photo ID showing your date of birth, and allows a test or battery once every eight weeks. British Mensa lists 1.5 hours online or 2.25 hours in person and does not state a retake rule. Mensa Australia says you may be able to re-sit at some time in the future and asks you to contact the recruiting officer first. Mensa Canada's page, as read, states no retake policy. Since policies vary, check the national page before assuming a second sitting is available.

Retesting is not a neutral second draw. A meta-analysis by Scharfen, Peters and Holling in Intelligence (2018) pooled 174 samples from 122 studies, with 786 test outcomes and an overall sample size of 153,185, and reported significant retest effects with no further score gains after the third test administration. It also found that the size of the effect depends on the ability measured, the content, how equivalent the forms are, the interval between tests and the age of the participants. That is a finding about cognitive ability tests in general, not about any Mensa test, and it should be read for what it says: scores tend to move on retesting, in ways that depend on the design. For someone near the line, the consequence is uncomfortable. A pass on a second sitting is evidence that the person scored above the line on that occasion, and a refusal on the first is evidence about one occasion too.

The practical reading is that preparation can matter and cheating cannot be part of it. Mensa International's FAQ is clear that its pre-tests are practice only: it says a pre-test cannot be used to qualify even if you score at or above the 98th percentile. The same FAQ explains the move toward computerised adaptive testing by the age of paper tests and the way their items can circulate online, which is why this page will not link any site that publishes items from real tests. A candidate who has seen leaked items has not proved the ability the cut score is meant to certify, and Mensa says it may reject non-verifiable proof.

What you can legitimately do to prepare is simple: sleep, arrive early, bring the accepted photo ID and read the format instructions your national group sends. Mensa Australia's FAQ says online tests may still help with practice, which is the honest role of any online test: practice and information, not entry.

One more point belongs here for readers who treat the sitting as a verdict on their worth. A cut score at the 98th percentile classifies people by a single number from a single occasion, and a refusal near the line does not mean the ability is absent. It means this test, on this day, gave a score on the other side of a line that sits in the thick of the measurement error.

10 What does a qualifying score measure?

A Mensa qualifying score is a result on an approved intelligence test, and what such tests sample in common is general intellectual ability, which the Cattell-Horn-Carroll model describes as a stack of broad abilities, none of which is the whole of intelligence. Mensa does not publish the content of its tests and neither does this page. What can be said without reproducing anything is how the field names the abilities that approved batteries draw on, and the standard reference is the CHC model. McGrew's 2009 article CHC theory and the human cognitive abilities project, in Intelligence, describes how the Cattell-Horn and Carroll traditions were joined into one framework. The page on the CHC model summarises it for non-specialists.

In that framework, five broad abilities are the ones most intelligence batteries draw on. Fluid reasoning (Gf) is solving unfamiliar problems by detecting relationships and applying rules. Comprehension-knowledge (Gc) is the language and knowledge acquired through schooling and everyday exposure. Visual processing (Gv) is working with visual patterns and spatial relations. Working memory (Gwm) is holding and manipulating information over seconds. Processing speed (Gs) is how fast simple tasks are done accurately. Which of these an approved test emphasises differs by test, which is one reason scores from different tests are not interchangeable.

The ACIS subtest pages show what each family looks like as a task format, without any item. Matrix Reasoning is a fluid reasoning task: the ACIS page describes rule discovery in unfamiliar visual patterns, in which the examinee infers a transformation and selects the option that completes the structure. Figure Weights belongs to the same fluid reasoning index in ACIS. Vocabulary is a comprehension-knowledge task about the depth and precision of word knowledge, and the ACIS page notes that it reflects reading, conversation and education. Similarities, the other verbal subtest in the Quick form, asks the examinee to compare concepts, and Digit Span and Alphanumeric Sequencing, the two working memory subtests in the Quick form, present their items as audio.

Two cautions come with this. First, none of these tasks equals intelligence; the page on what IQ measures and its limits explains why a Full Scale IQ summarises a profile and does not replace it. Second, a verbal or knowledge task carries the mark of language and education. The ACIS Vocabulary page says that a weaker result may reflect limited exposure or second language effects, and the ACIS technical documentation says that verbal and knowledge tasks are affected by English proficiency and educational exposure. For a reader whose first language is not English and who plans a Mensa sitting in English, that matters. It is also a reason profiles are more informative than a single number, and a reason to read the page on index score differences, which covers how often normal people show gaps between indices.

11 How should a score be read, and why can one number mislead?

A score is an estimate with a band of error around it, and the closer you are to a cut line the more that band decides the outcome. On the standard scale used by most adult batteries, an index or a Full Scale IQ has a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, and a subtest scaled score runs from 1 to 19 with a mean of 10 and a standard deviation of 3. A percentile says what share of the norm group scored at or below a result. The page on how IQ scores are normed explains how a raw score becomes a standard score against a reference group, and the reference group is part of the meaning: a percentile is always a percentile of someone.

Precision is the second half of the story. The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA and NCME, 2014), Standard 2.14, call for standard errors of measurement to be reported near the cut scores used for classification, and the comment to that standard says the error near the cut has important implications for the trustworthiness of the decision. In plain words, a pass or fail at a line that was drawn through the middle of the error band should be read as probabilistic. That is why professional batteries, ACIS among them, report a 95 percent confidence interval around the Full Scale IQ and not only the point estimate. The general principles of reliability and validity are on the page about reliability and validity in IQ testing.

Why does a battery help? Because one subtest samples one narrow ability on one occasion. A Full Scale IQ is built from many subtests across domains, so a bad five minutes on one task is diluted. This is general psychometrics, not an ACIS figure, and the same holds for any battery. The ACIS Quick form samples six subtests in three domains in about 45 minutes. The Optimized form samples 13 subtests in five domains in about 110 minutes. The Full Scale form samples all 20 subtests in six domains in about 175 minutes. Every form reports a Full Scale IQ with its 95 percent confidence interval, and any domain you complete returns its index. The documentation, without quoted statistics here, is on the ACIS technical manual page.

Conditions matter for an unsupervised session. Digit Span, Alphanumeric Sequencing and Arithmetic present their items as audio, so they need working sound. Breaks are allowed, progress is saved between subtests, and you have 30 days to finish, which lets you pick a quiet room and a rested hour for each subtest. None of that replaces a proctor. APA's Guidelines for Psychological Assessment and Evaluation (2020), in Guideline 8, say that psychologists strive to follow standardized administration procedures to support valid interpretation of norms and classification decisions, and an unsupervised online session cannot guarantee that. The right use of an unsupervised result is therefore as one piece of information, which is how the ACIS site itself presents it, and which is also why a society does not accept it.

If speed is the part of a profile you want to test separately, the page on a processing speed test shows the quickest normed route to one index.

12 Where ACIS sits, and what a buyer should do

ACIS is an online, unsupervised, adult normed battery that can show you a profile and a confidence interval before you pay a society fee, but it is not accepted by Mensa or any other high IQ society, it cannot tell you that you will pass, and it is not a clinical instrument. ACIS sells assessments, so this section is a disclosure. The research page states the limit literally: ACIS "is not intended for clinical diagnosis, hiring decisions, accommodation determinations or admission to high IQ societies". Nothing on this page implies that Mensa accepts, runs or endorses ACIS. The site is also English only, and the manual says verbal and knowledge tasks are affected by English proficiency and educational exposure.

The Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA and NCME, 2014) state in their chapter on fairness that unproctored administrations, where standardization cannot be ensured, could give some test takers an advantage over others and that in those situations results should be interpreted with caution. That statement applies to ACIS and to every online test, and it is the technical reason a society asks for a supervised sitting. The same document says standardized administration is important for interpreting many scores, and that the interpreter of the results should be informed if a test was unproctored. APA's Guidelines for Psychological Assessment and Evaluation (2020) make a similar point in Guideline 8. Read an ACIS result accordingly: as a norm referenced estimate under uncontrolled conditions, not as a certificate.

What does the buyer get? One time payment, no subscription. Quick costs 25 dollars and takes about 45 minutes (Similarities, Vocabulary, Matrix Reasoning, Figure Weights, Digit Span and Alphanumeric Sequencing). Optimized costs 35 dollars and takes about 110 minutes. Full Scale costs 59 dollars and takes about 175 minutes. These prices were read on November 4, 2026, and can change again. A Custom Test costs 10 dollars per subtest. The free trial needs no card, and one trial is allowed per person. The guarantee reads: "Full refund within 5 days if the report does not deliver the features described at checkout or a technical issue prevents you from accessing your results." It is not an unconditional money back guarantee. Each of the three forms can be previewed in an example report before payment.

What should a buyer do? A concrete order, from our own reading of the official pages, is as follows. First, decide which door applies: evidence if you already hold an accepted result, a sitting if not. Second, confirm the fee and the date on your national group's own page, because those are the numbers that change. Third, if you are unsure how close you are to the line, run a normed adult battery first and compare the profile and interval with the 98th percentile line, so you know whether a 49 pound, 60 dollar or 90 dollar sitting is a reasonable bet. Fourth, never pay a third party that sells a Mensa result, a certificate or practice material copied from real tests. A buyer who does those four things loses nothing, whatever the final result.

13 Sources Behind This Page

Every fee, rule and quotation above is traceable to one of the following, each linked at the point of use and opened on November 4, 2026 where it is a web page. Arithmetic on published figures is ours and is labelled as such in the text.

• American Mensa. Join American Mensa. American Mensa, ways to qualify and annual dues overview, read November 4, 2026.
• American Mensa. Testing: Mensa Admission Test, local group and private testing. American Mensa, test fees, format, retest interval and percentile statement, read November 4, 2026.
• American Mensa. Join Mensa using past test scores. American Mensa, accepted evidence, supervision requirement and review time, read November 4, 2026.
• American Mensa. Dues. American Mensa, membership year, annual and multi-year dues and proration, read November 4, 2026.
• British Mensa. Test your IQ: Mensa Supervised IQ Test. British Mensa, test formats, fees and residence rule, read November 4, 2026.
• British Mensa. Membership. British Mensa, routes to an invitation and membership rates, read November 4, 2026.
• Mensa Canada. Join Mensa Canada. Mensa Canada, routes, test and evaluation fees, dues and percentile reporting, read November 4, 2026.
• Mensa Australia. How to join. Mensa Australia, supervised test, prior evidence, fees and age range, read November 4, 2026.
• Mensa Australia. Membership frequently asked questions. Mensa Australia, test fee, annual subscription, online tests and re-sitting, read November 4, 2026.
• Mensa International. How to join. Mensa International, Direct International Membership routes, read November 4, 2026.
• Mensa International. About us. Mensa International, the upper 2 percent rule, membership size, national groups and Direct International Members, read November 4, 2026.
• Mensa International. Getting your IQ tested: frequently asked questions. Mensa International, accepted tests, online tests, pre-tests and the adaptive test, read November 4, 2026.
• American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association and National Council on Measurement in Education. Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing. American Educational Research Association, 2014, Standard 2.14 on page 46 and the discussion of unproctored administration in the chapter on fairness on page 65.
• American Psychological Association, APA Task Force on Psychological Assessment and Evaluation Guidelines. APA Guidelines for Psychological Assessment and Evaluation. American Psychological Association, 2020, Guideline 8.
• Scharfen J, Peters J and Holling H. Retest effects in cognitive ability tests: A meta-analysis. Intelligence, 2018, volume 67, pages 44 to 66.
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14 Frequently Asked Questions