Official Mensa® Challenge – March 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. The following cryptogram will give you the answer to what happened when Old Mother Hubbard went to the cupboard to get her poor dog a bone. When she got there, the cupboard was bare,

     UQ   UJG   JCF   VQ   VCMG   QWV   C   DCPM   NQCP.

2. There is a list of words below. Change the first letter of each pair of words to make a new word – using the same letter for each pair. Then place the new letter you have just used in the space between the two words. When you have replaced the 5 letters, you will find you have made a new word, reading down. (Example: BROWN – BLOWN would be changed to CROWN – CLOWN)

     CLIP _________ GLIDE

     PART _________ LOVE

     LISLE _________ STILT

     COUGH _________ HEADY

     SHREW _________ RAILED

3. The following 6 letters, if rearranged properly, can spell 6 common English words. How many can you find?

     E A P D R S

4. You’ve got a pocket full of change again. This time you have the same number of nickels, dimes, quarters, and half dollars, and you have a total of $9.90. How many of each coin do you have?

5. The following 14 letters consist of one scrambled 13-letter word and one irrelevant letter put in to make it harder. The actual word is also a difficult word to spell!

     I R N E D L E F T I A A G B

Answers

1. So SHE HAD TO TAKE OUT A BANK LOAN. (Move the alphabet 2 spaces, A = C) 

2. SMART, (SLIP, SLIDE; MART, MOVE; AISLE, ATILT; ROUGH, READY; THREW, TAILED) 

3. DRAPES, PARSED, RASPED, SPADER, SPARED, SPREAD 

4. 11 of each coin 

5. INDEFATIGABLE