There are many people out there who really struggle with math.
This anxiety around equations, and a general lack of numeracy, might be something that's discouraging you from taking an IQ test and measuring your own brainpower.
Yet according to Mensa, the world’s oldest and most exclusive high IQ society, it turns out that you don't need to be a mathlete to prove your own smarts; and you can test your IQ with a very simple puzzle.
In a recent interview with Daily Mirror, Mensa spokeswoman Ann Clarkson talked about one such test, which uses numbers, but is actually a pattern-finding/problem-solving logic puzzle.
Clarkson explained that the question asks participants to find the missing number in this sequence:
1, 3, 6, 10 _ 21 28Although it appears to be an arithmetic question at first glance, the only math you require is the number order as well as the number of missing numbers between each entry.
Thus, in following on from the example above, since there are two numbers between 1 and 3, three between 3 and six, four between six and 10, and so on, logical inference leads us to deduce that the missing number in the sequence can only be 15.”
Commenting on the test, and IQ tests in general, Clarkson explained: "People always assume high intelligence and maths correlate. Actually, they don't. There are a lot of Mensa members who will tell you they are rubbish at maths.
"In reality, a genuine IQ test doesn't have maths in it, beyond very basic arithmetic. An IQ test assesses logic, pattern recognition, and speed of thought; not learned knowledge."
She added that, out of the many Mensa members who find math and arithmetic difficult, most of them still outperform others when it comes to problem-solving, intuition, and the speed at which they learn new things.
So if you'd like to test your own intelligence and want to see how many points you score, then why not head over to Mensa's official website and book one of their IQ tests? You might be surprised at how smart you really are.