Official Mensa® Challenge | June 2024

American Mensa is where brilliance belongs – it’s where friendships are forged for life, business connections and opportunities are made, and where brilliant minds find the chance to engage with others in an intellectually stimulating environment.

Just for LOCAL Life readers: Take the Mensa Practice Test for just $5! Visit americanmensa.org/mht and use offer code: Local21

Questions

1. Two ladies were comparing their bargains at the market, and one had clearly done much better than the other. One had bought three pairs of socks for $1, and the other bought eight pairs for $2.50. Obviously, the eight for $2.50 were a better deal, and that buyer gloated that she had paid 50¢ less on her total purchase than had her friend. How many pairs of socks had they each bought?

2. If 3 is a prime number, cross out all the X’s in the line below. If it is not a prime number, cross out the R’s. If Miami is not south of Casablanca, cross out all the T’s. If 100 divided by 1/2 is 50, cross out all the G’s. If 50 divided by 12 is 4 1/6, cross out all the A’s, M’s, N’s, and W’s. If 16 is a perfect square, cross out all the remaining vowels except I. Are you right or wrong?

X M A E R N W E I O G W N H U A E T W M X

3. The following diagram may be divided so that one circle is in the first region, two in the second, and so on. Use only
4 lines to divide the box into 9 regions.

4. A three-digit number multiplied by a two-digit number gives a product of 17,820. There are two possible pairs that yield this product that use each digit from 0 to 9 exactly once (ignoring intermediate steps). What are those two sets of numbers? (Example: 402 x 39 = 15678.)

5. The couple were married anyway, despite the difference in ages. When they were married, one was exactly one-third older than the other. When they were married 21 years, however, the difference was down to one-fourth the age of the older at the time of their marriage. The wife, after 21 years, was 49. How old is her husband today? (No fractions in answer.)