Triple Nine Society

For the television series, see Triple Nine (TV series).

The Triple Nine Society (TNS) is an international high-IQ society for adults whose score on a standardized test demonstrates an IQ at or above the 99.9th percentile of the human population.^[2][3][4] The society recognizes scores from over 20 different tests of adult intelligence.^[5] The society was founded in 1978 and is a non-profit, 501(c)(7) organization incorporated in Virginia, USA. As of August 2023^[update], it reports a member base of over 1,900 adults in 50 countries.^[1]

Triple Nine Society

Formation	1978
Type	High IQ society
Membership	≈ 1,900^[1]
Official language	English
Regent	Thorsten Heitzmann
Website	www.triplenine.org

Organization

Executive Committee Officers serve for two-year terms. Six are elected and three are appointed.^[6] In 2015 TNS established a 501(c)(3) subsidiary charitable organization, the Triple Nine Society Foundation, to provide scholarships to intellectually gifted students pursuing higher education goals, to educate the public about the needs of very intellectually gifted people, and for other charitable work.^{[citation needed]}

Communication

TNS publishes a bimonthly journal, Vidya, which contains articles, poetry and other creative content contributed by members conversant with a variety of subjects, as well as Officers' Reports and other official business of the Society.^[7] TNS members communicate with one another online through email lists, a Facebook group, a LinkedIn group and a scheduled weekly IRC chat; European members have established a group in XING. In the autumn, the society sponsors an annual meeting in the United States called the "ggg999" meeting,^[8] with "ggg" referring to "Global General Gathering".^[9] A European meeting ("egg999") is arranged in the spring.^[10]

Qualifying test scores

To qualify for membership, an applicant must submit a qualifying score earned on any of the standardized tests recognized by the Society; these include IQ tests as well as various college admissions exams and military classification tests.

For IQ tests, a qualifying score corresponds to an IQ of at least 146 for tests with standard deviation of 15 (e.g., WAIS-III/IV/V, Stanford–Binet 5, Raven's APM), at least 149 for tests with a standard deviation of 16 (e.g., Stanford–Binet IV and CTMM), or at least 173 for tests with a standard deviation of 24 (e.g., Cattell III-B).^[11]

The society also accepts applicants based on standardized test scores that have well-established psychometric correlations with IQ, including pre-2005 SAT (1450 or 1520 depending on year taken), pre–November 2001 GRE (1460 or 2180 depending on year taken), LSAT (46, 48, 173 or 730 depending on year taken), ACT (32 or 34 depending on year taken), and the Miller Analogies Test (472 scaled or 85 raw).^[5]

Notable members

• Robert Forster (1941–2019), actor in Jackie Brown and Breaking Bad.^[12]
• Andrew York (b.1958), American classical guitarist and composer.^[13]
• Henry "Hammerin' Hank" Milligan (b.1958), American retired professional boxer.^[14]

See also

• Mensa, high-IQ society
• Intertel, high-IQ society

References

1. "What is TNS?". Triple Nine Society. 2023. Retrieved August 16, 2022.
2. Groeger, Lena (January 2015). "When High IQs Hang Out". Scientific American. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
3. Cox, Jack (June 20, 2005). "Smarter than 99.9% of the rest of us". The Denver Post. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
4. Collins, Terry (December 12, 2014). "Luke Millanta has become a member of the world's IQ elite after joining Mensa". The Daily Telegraph (Sydney). Retrieved September 8, 2022.
5. "Test Scores". Triple Nine Society. 2017. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
6. "Constitution of the Triple Nine Society" (PDF). Triple Nine Society. August 1, 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
7. "Vidya". Triple Nine Society. 2020. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
8. "ggg999 – The annual gathering of the Triple Nine Society". Triple Nine Society. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
9. "Vidya 258" (PDF). triplenine.org. Triple Nine Society. Retrieved March 31, 2019.
10. "egg999 – The European gathering of the Triple Nine Society". Triple Nine Society. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
11. Hunt, Earl (2011). Human Intelligence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 8. ISBN 978-0-521-70781-7. OCLC 900268273.
12. Haring, Bruce (12 October 2019). "Robert Forster Dies". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved Oct 27, 2019.
13. York, Andrew (December 2016). "Bowling Balls and Binary Switches" (PDF). Vidya. Triple Nine Society. Retrieved September 8, 2022.
14. "11 Famous Mensa Members". iq-tests.org. n.d. Retrieved September 8, 2022. Better known as Hammerin' Hank, Henry Milligan was a professional boxer.…You'd never suspect that he was a member of both Mensa and the Triple Nine Society.

External links

• Official website