# What's your IQ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 11, 2003, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664 "2003-03-11T22:00:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/61 "2003-03-12T15:30:32Z")
Of course, Mensa has its share of nuts too. At least one of Mensa member committed murder and thought he was too smart to get caught. ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/62 "2003-03-12T17:38:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Bibliovore \* > \*\*Incidentally, is there some sort of official scale that I can refer to? Just how smart is a 147 IQ? How reliable are Mensa’s testing techniques, and how valid is my score? \*\* If you believe in a Gaussian distribution for static IQ scores (some people dispute one or the other or both), about six in a thousand people has an IQ of 140 or above; only one in a thousand has an IQ of 148 or above. So, pretty dern smart. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/63 "2003-03-12T17:47:58Z")
Tested 3 times in late teens to mid 20’s. 162, 168, 165. Pretty consistent. Tested just over a year ago as part of Vocational Aptitude testing. 169/175 adjusted, whatever that meant. It’s only a matter of course that a discussion board like this is going to be more heavily weighted towards the higher end of the scale. There isn’t likely to be a large “IQ 50” population hanging out here to balance out the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![Banger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Banger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banger)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/64 "2003-03-12T18:00:06Z")
[Emode IQ Test thread where it was discovered that most of the posters on the IMDB were geniuses](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=146385). I’m surprised at how many people took IQ tests as children. Was there a time when institutions actually valued IQ tests? Or is this a regional phenomenon? ---
**Author:** ![Nichol\_storm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Nichol\_storm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nichol_storm)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/65 "2003-03-13T00:12:22Z")
Wow. I guess I owe **Lamar** an apology – this discussion _isn’t_ mundane or pointless any longer. It’s opinionated now. 😉 **LifeonWry** – I meant to add at the end of my last post that I was diagnosed as ADD, too, but I got distracted. Gah. .:Nichol:. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/66 "2003-03-13T04:50:17Z")
ADD was an unknown term back in the day when I dropped out of high school. I remember my mother throwing a paper(IQ test results) at me and yelling : "How can somebody with an IQ of 147 flunk _History?"_ (Right after my 17th birthday I went in the military service for four years, passed the GED in there and graduated from college after my time in the service was over ). Recently I’ve seen reports on ADD and read a good bit about it. There’s no doubt in my mind I was an ADD kid, but back in them good ol’ days, you were just “Bad”. **Nichol\_storm** : “I was diagnosed as ADD, too, but I got distracted.” Sig Line! ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/67 "2003-03-13T05:23:13Z")
**Banger** : I took that test right now and got 138. But that test is bullsh\*t. Look at the cultural-specific questions. ---
**Author:** ![Banger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Banger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banger)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/68 "2003-03-13T06:09:18Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Gyan9 \* > \*\ ***Banger** : > > I took that test right now and got 138. But that test is bullsh\*t. > Look at the cultural-specific questions. \*\* I think my comment in that thread was “Was this an IQ test or an ego stroker?” Something that made me especially skeptical about the test was that I took the test and intentionally got every question wrong, yet I still registered with an IQ of 73. I wouldn’t be surprised that if based on their test someone picking randomly, figuring out the average number of choices per question (from what I remember the number of choices varied) and picking a 1 out of X formula (e.g., if the test averages 4 choices, one would get 1 out of 4 questions correct, which I think would be an indicator of one’s guessing throughout the test), that someone going by such a formula would end up around 100 IQ. Debunkers that wish to engage in this pointless exercise are welcome to do so. I would be interested in hearing the results, but not interested enough to find them myself 😉 ---
**Author:** ![hyperjes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/df705f/32.png) [@hyperjes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hyperjes)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/69 "2003-03-13T06:20:43Z")
148, in Elementary School. 152, when they tested me in High School. Not sure now. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Harmonix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonix)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/70 "2003-03-13T06:57:09Z")
School lost my score, but I was placed into “highly gifted”(whatever that means) immediately after the test in 4rth grade(that was fucked up, I was uprooted from all my friend without ever getting to say bye). I can only assume she graded it in her head or didn’t need to. and what the hell does “who wrote faust” have to do with an IQ test? Sounds like a biased one to me. ---
**Author:** ![InternetLegend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/internetlegend/32/13154_2.png) [@InternetLegend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InternetLegend)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/71 "2003-03-13T08:00:41Z")
I know I was tested when I was in elementary school, but I don’t know the number. All I know (because my mother slipped and told me once I was an adult) is that my score was higher than my older brother’s. And really, that’s all I need to know. My kids were both certified as smart, though, one as “highly gifted” and the other as merely “gifted.” So not only do I beat out my (older, remember) brother, I also have produced officially intelligent children. I think I’ll have a bumper sticker printed. ( **Banger** , in quite a few school systems, an IQ test is part of a battery of tests done for placement of “gifted” children. Children who don’t seem to fit into their peer group are often tested to see if there’s a better educational placement for them, and that’s likely to be the situation where most people would have been tested. In our school system, the IQ test is only a part of the evaluation procedure and the IQ is considered along with the results of other tests.) ---
**Author:** ![Alereon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alereon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alereon)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/72 "2003-03-13T08:33:05Z")
I’m 168, unofficial. ---
**Author:** ![IEatFood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c5a1d2/32.png) [@IEatFood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IEatFood)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/73 "2003-03-13T08:40:53Z")
> [@](#): > > One reason I love this place is that there are actually a whole bunch of people here who are smarter than me, whereas in RL I rarely meet anyone that I can have a real conversation with. Hehehe, so you know what it’s like being the “smart” cop then, lol. My IQ is a realitively middle of the road 147 (for here anyways.) The funny thing is that it has always been that. So, does this mean, like the money you have stuffed in the mattress gaining No Interest over time, that given a long enough scale, my IQ is actually _losing_ value? Anyways, I’d always heard that you either lose or gain points over time, something like that. But mine has been a rock steady 147 at ages 4, 11, 16, and 23 at the Public Safety Academy here. Also, is this better or worse than having a supped 160+ IQ? Anyone know? Ok then, you all have a good night, drive safe & I’ll check in tommorrow. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 9:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/74 "2003-03-13T09:11:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Banger \* > \*\*[Emode IQ Test thread where it was discovered that most of the posters on the IMDB were geniuses](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=146385). > \*\* Yeah, those movie buffs really are clever, aren’t they. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![blue\_poop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c68b51/32.png) [@blue\_poop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blue_poop)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2003, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/75 "2003-03-13T14:05:37Z")
Everytime I do the test it gets lower for some reason! This time I scored 131. Its not fair my IQ is lower because of my age, so someone who gets the same amount of answers correct as me will get a higher IQ score just because they are older! ☹ 😃 ---
**Author:** ![IEatFood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c5a1d2/32.png) [@IEatFood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IEatFood)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/76 "2003-03-14T03:41:51Z")
I don’t know there Blue. I mean, you did think, at point at least, that “Blue\_Poop” was a good name choice, lol. J/K ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/77 "2003-03-14T05:38:33Z")
I went straight to the Reply window without reading a single message. I predict that at least five people will claim amazingly high IQs while professing “but of course, it doesn’t matter/isn’t reliable” or some such thing. I predict the number of truly astoundingly high IQs claimed will defy any reasonable probability. At least one or two people will claim IQs approaching the one-in-a-million level. It is likely that, according to the claims that will be made in this thread, two to five of the 10,000 smartest humans alive will just happen to have posted here. **Now I’m reading the thread…** I was 100% right. I guess my IQTQ (IQ Thread Quotient) is high. It’s as predictable as the sun rising in the East. ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/78 "2003-03-14T08:31:21Z")
Bwahahaha! RickJay, you are my new hero. I need to know the names of these tests which are giving these high scores at advanced ages. Other than tests on the internet. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/79 "2003-03-14T09:08:55Z")
129 This [IQ-test](http://www.queendom.com) on the net takes 2 hours to fill in and the result (for me at least) was very nearly my official result (OK, thats a test with n = 1) Not satisfied I took another test and got an IQ of 150. Then they asked me if I would pay 15 dollars for an official guilded paper flaunting that scaringly high test result. Needless to say, I immediately took that opportunity. I have impressed with it not only my future employers, but also possible dates, not to mention my in-laws. It also works fine when I want to get in front of the waitingline at my local supermarket. Best 15 dollars I ever spent. ---
**Author:** ![Maastricht](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@Maastricht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maastricht)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2003, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664/80 "2003-03-14T12:06:17Z")
but seriously… **Rickjay** is painfully right, of course. But being right is not everything. I’d say be smart, be wise and get all the happiness you can get out of life…even playful happiness from comparing IQ’s. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-iq/160664.md?page=5)