Re:Schooling in adolescence raises IQ scores (2011) [pdf]
by alasdair_ on Wednesday December 14, 2016 @07:29PM
(#13181159)
The Mensa tests are generally done in a room with an experienced practitioner. The "take home" tests are just used as a marketing tactic and/or as a way to decide if you should even bother with a formal test.
This is why there's so much confusion about "how can the IQ test be considered studied and reliable, bah!" - because the ones that are properly performed are labour-intensive and require a lot of training - and this is why results are all over the place. It's just not the case that $RANDOM_YAHOO[1] on the internet knows more about the caveats around IQ tests that the professionals who apply and study them.
Disclaimer: have formally studied 'intelligence' (and cognition, perception etc) and been given a partial IQ test myself by a properly trained professional, which came with the caveat "the results can't be properly used, because you're familiar with the process, which confounds the results".
[1] I don't mean you, I just mean that this is a common complaint