OK, I recently did an IQ test, scoring 152. So… What does this mean? Am I stupid? Am I smart? Is your score “rated”?
That’s probably pretty good, but what range you fall into depends somewhat on what IQ test you took.
For the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (a very common IQ test), the range I believe they still call “superior” starts around 140 if memory serves. Below that is “high normal” I think. It’s been a long time.
As for my score, well … modesty forbids. 
Though I do remember losing points because it took me an inordinant amount of time to assemble the puzzle pieces into a human hand.
Sorry, I just found this, which may shed some additional light on the subject. I cannot vouch for it’s authority, but according to it’s math your IQ score is higher than 99.94% of the population tested by that instrument.
Who did the test? Was it a psychologist? Was it an individual test? Group test scores mean very little and are not accurate. Self administered tests likewise (and that includes web based testing ) 
Different IQ tests might give different scores but that is often to do with the ceiling effects at the extremes. If you did a real IQ test with a psychologist then they should give a written report giving details of strengths and weaknesses. That’s more useful than the raw number.
The Weschler tests use a different deviation score than the Stanford Binet but roughly the categories remain the same. A normal IQ is considered to be 100, 2 standard deviations above 100 which is 130 is considered to be in the superior range. 4 standard deviations from the norm which is 160+ is in the exceptionally gifted range. Profoundly gifted is 180 and above but an adult is not able to score that high because of the mental age vs chronological age issue. Supposedly Standford Binet are bringing out a test which will be accurate up to 300. Well, they’re definitely bringing out the new test but I can’t fathom how it could be accurate that high. How would they norm it?
Thanks for that.
So what was your score?
Who, me? You’ll have to take my word on this: You Don’t Want To Know
Apparently it wasn’t high enough for you to spell “inordinate” right…
I did many IQ test in high school.
They quantified my IQ as 145+. I had to do them ofen due to the high scores.
I did the admitrance test at Control Data (I think they’re Interim now), they said I scored the highest score ever, world wide.
It has done me no good at all. IQ = 100, circumstances as they are; IQ = 120 ,ditto ; IQ = 140, ditto ad infinitum.
I never claimed to be perfect. Just above average. 
I took an online IQ test, got a 132 (average 100-110). I think it is incorrect, as I feel like my IQ is more likely 90. But the questions on it were pretty simple problem solving puzzles a child could accomplish, And IMO seems to be wide open for inaccuracy to strike.
Me…I didn’t get into Mensa, But I get hounded to join Densa all the time.
- Not bad for a 16 year old.
And 130+ is considered gifted.
If you got your score from an online test or from a book with a name like “Find Out Your IQ!”, take your score with a large grain of salt. Those tests aren’t created by trained psychologists and are frequently very inaccurate.
The smartypants over at Mensa have found a way to deal with the problems of disparate scores from test to test:
“The term “IQ score” is widely used but poorly defined. There are a large number of tests with different scales. The result on one test of 132 can be the same as a score 148 on another test. Some intelligence tests don’t use IQ scores at all. Mensa has set a percentage as cutoff to avoid this confusion. Candidates for membership in Mensa must achieve a score at or above the 98th percentile (a score that is greater than or equal to 98 percent of the general population taking the test) on a standard test of intelligence.”
I happen to like this test, myself.
What I would be interested in is the teachers’ (who administer the tests in high school) reactions to a teenager who scores extremely high.
I imagine it must be uncormfortable for an adult teacher to realize that a young student is smarter than they are.
In my own case, I was a 6 foot plus, 200 pound lacrosse and football playing jock at 16. I corrected my English teacher in class during a SAT practice test and she responded by asking the principal that I be removed from her class.
I guess I was a disruption; but it couldn’t have been good for her ego to have me, “a dumb jock” teenager , point out that she was wrong.
Two points: First, the online tests are worse than meaningless. Their sole purpose is to try to get you to fork over money, and the easiest way to do that is flattery. Try answering all the questions randomly, sometime: You’ll still end up average or a litle above.
Secondly, good teachers not only don’t mind working with students smarter than themselves, they love it. If nothing else, it makes their job easier, and most smart people enjoy the company of other smart people. If a teacher was ever so intimidated by you that she put you in another class, you’re probably better off there, anyway.
from Sci-Am.
I’m not sure how convinced I am by all the correlations they give, but hey. It does seem to suggest that there’s a major correlation between class\upbringing and IQ.
And my sig seems appropriate for this topic:
FWIW, regarding reliability of IQ testing, I was tested twice in high school, about two years apart. I don’t know which test was used - whatever an American high school would have been using in the 1960s. My scores were 163 and 123. What d’ya do - average 'em? (I seem to remember being told at the time that anything over 140 was not a “real” score, i.e., everything over 140 was just “over 140.”)
Outside of gaining admittance to Mensa perhaps, one’s IQ score bears no currency in real life.
Chronos, I tried answering the questions randomly and I got a 61. Not really flattering.
I used this test. http://www.queendom.com/tests/iq/iq.html
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Unless they’ve changed IQ tests in some amazingly clever way (unlikely), they were explained to me when I was given an individual test as a boy as intended to measure ability to learn, and NOT how “smart” one is. One could have an IQ of 150 and be a couch potato with a vocabulary taken from the evening news. The people who developed the IQ test were quite aware that others might come to think their tests measured intelligence, and took steps to stop that from happening. That all got lost in the numeric dust of our modern society.
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IQ tests never claimed to measure things such as artistic, athletic, spiritual, humorous qualities–just to mention a few. One could score high on an “IQ test” and be without attainments most people think are highly important.
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IQ tests (that schools give for example) are meant to measure people in the usual range, say between 70 and 130. They become quite inaccurate at the 99% percentile. Part of the reason is obvious enough: geniuses (at my high school) were learning college level physics in 11th grade. The IQ tests don’t have too many questions about space-time effects.
Chronos–I agree totally with your first point–and with your second.
I now work at a university and I love the fact that I can interact with people who I consider alot smarter than me. I get to attend lectures by Nobel Prize winning speakers and other speakers who are tops in their field and ask them questions.
My anecdote about my highschool English teacher is probably an exception. The first day of classes she told me she was going to make me want to learn. I had the reputation of being a smart guy who didn’t apply himself except on the playing field (I loved beating the crap out of people with my lacrosse stick or shoulder pads). My test scores were just as high, if not higher, than the pencil neck National Honor Society members of my class.(In fact, there was a photo in the paper of the National Merit Semi-Finalists in our class, 10% of the class, and I’m the goon in the back row who towers over everybody else).
As an arrogant 16 year old, my attitude was that no teacher is going to MAKE ME WANT TO LEARN (which she told me the first day of classes), especially a teacher who would score less on the SAT than I would. I was just a smart-ass teenager then.
In retrospect, I did her wrong, and I applaud teachers who care (my mother was an elem. school teacher). I just think she went about it the wrong way. I like to learn, but at 16 yrs old, who wants to to be TOLD that they will be made to do something.