Mensa Norway IQ Test: How It Works and What Your Score Means

How is the Mensa Norway test scored?

Each correct answer is worth one point, all 35 puzzles count equally, and wrong answers cost nothing, according to test.mensa.no. Finishing early earns no bonus. With no penalty, answer every puzzle: a blank can only lose you a point you might have guessed.

The 25-minute limit works out to about 43 seconds per puzzle (25 minutes × 60 seconds ÷ 35 puzzles = 42.9 seconds). Plan your pace around that figure and fill in a guess before the clock runs out.

Your raw score, from 0 to 35, is then turned into an IQ value between 85 and 145 on a scale with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. The pages do not publish the conversion table, so you cannot work out your score by hand. The two pages also describe the bottom of the scale differently. test.mensa.no gives 85 as the lowest value. The mensa.org page says that if you do not get a score of 100 or more, the answer is that your score “lies outside the range that the test is currently able to measure”. That message describes the test’s range, not you.

What does my Mensa Norway score mean?

A Mensa Norway score tells you where you rank against a comparison group: 100 is the average and the standard deviation is 15, so every 15 points is one standard deviation. A percentile is the share of the group that scored the same or lower, so the 84th percentile means about 84 of 100 people scored the same or lower. It does not mean 84% correct.

The top of the scale is a ceiling. The value 145 sits (145 − 100) ÷ 15 = 3 standard deviations above the mean. The share of a normal curve below +3 SD is 0.99865, so only 0.00135 of people, about 1 in 740, score higher. A test that stops at 145 cannot tell those people apart, and a 145 is not a measured upper limit. For comparison, Mensa International’s entry line is the 98th percentile, which is 100 + 2.054 × 15 = 130.8 on this scale. See what counts as a high IQ score for the bands below and above that line.

How do Mensa Norway, American Mensa and IQMog compare?

Mensa Norway is the free 35-puzzle practice test, American Mensa is the supervised admission route, and IQMog is the 10-minute estimate with a report you keep. The table puts the three side by side.

Is the Mensa Norway test accurate?

The Mensa Norway test is a quick read on how well you solve visual patterns. Mensa Norway describes the result as an indication of general cognitive abilities, and the mensa.org page presents the challenge as “provided for entertainment purposes only”.

Read the number as an estimate of one skill. All 35 puzzles are the same type, so the score reflects pattern reasoning, not memory, vocabulary or speed of thought. The conversion from raw score to IQ is not published, and neither page links to a technical report with reliability figures, so how far a single result moves on a retake is not documented.

A full clinical test such as a Wechsler scale is longer, covers several abilities and is given by a trained examiner, which makes it a different tool from a 25-minute online puzzle set. Our guide to how accurate online IQ tests are explains what any online score tells you, IQMog included.

Can a Mensa Norway score get you into Mensa?

No. Mensa International states that online tests cannot be used for admission, and its entry rule is a score at or above the 98th percentile on an approved, properly administered and supervised intelligence test. National branches run their own sessions, so your branch sets the details. Use Mensa Norway as practice, then book the supervised test.

American Mensa does not accept unsupervised testing, including tests administered electronically or over the Internet without a supervisor. It accepts approximately 200 approved intelligence tests, including school-district tests, college entrance tests and tests given by psychologists. If you already have one of those results, American Mensa’s list is the place to check it.

If you have no such result, American Mensa runs its own admission test. In a group it costs $60 and a private session costs $99. It takes one to two hours, starts at age 14 and does not report a score. The page showed discounted offers of $30 and $49.50 on 24 October 2026, valid through 31 October. Other countries’ Mensa branches set their own fees. For the full rules, see what Mensa requires for admission.

Why did my score change when I took it again?

Scores change between sittings because practice, tiredness and mood all move a result, and Mensa says so itself: “it’s common to get different scores” on the same test taken at different times. You can retake the challenge as often as you like, which makes practice the first thing to suspect when a second score is higher.

A meta-analysis of 107 samples and 134,436 test-takers estimated this on cognitive ability tests in job and school settings. On a second try, scores rose by 0.26 standard deviations on average, and by more when the same form was repeated. The figures below are the study’s pooled effect-size estimates from the author manuscript, not gains observed on any one test. The point values are illustrations: they multiply each estimate by 15, the standard deviation of the Mensa scale.

These studies did not include the Mensa tests, so the average retest gain on Mensa Norway is unknown. If you see the same puzzles again, the identical-form row is the closest published comparison, at about 7 points as an illustration. Researchers attribute such gains to practice effects, meaning familiarity with the test, which is not evidence that reasoning ability improved. For a clean second attempt, follow test.mensa.no: a ventilated room free of distractions for the full 25 minutes, and another browser or computer if plug-ins or settings stop the scoring from working. Our guide on whether you should retake an IQ test covers how long to wait.

How does IQMog differ from the Mensa Norway test?

IQMog is a shorter, untimed test with a narrower scale: 20 Raven-style puzzles in about 10 minutes, scored on a 70 to 130 scale. The Mensa Norway test has 35 puzzles, a 25-minute limit and a scale that reaches 145.

IQMog is built for pace. There is no strict time limit, so you answer carefully instead of racing a clock. You get an IQ estimate with its score range and a percentile in about 10 minutes, plus a PDF report to keep. The test is free to take, and the full report is a one-time $4.99 (€4.99 incl. VAT in euro countries) with no subscription. Because the scale stops at 130, IQMog does not separate people at the top the way a 145 ceiling does.

Take both and you get two estimates from two different sets of puzzles on two different scales. Use IQMog to see where you stand before you book Mensa’s supervised test. Both measure the same narrow skill, pattern reasoning, so a gap between them is normal: scores move between sittings and between tests.