What Is a Good IQ Score?

"Good" is not a category that IQ tests use. A score only describes where you landed compared with a large reference group of people your age. Still, the question is a fair one, and it has a clear answer once you know how the scale is built. This guide explains what different scores mean, how rare they are, and what a single number can and cannot tell you.

How the IQ scale is built

Modern IQ scores are not raw counts of correct answers. Your raw performance is compared with a norm group, and the result is converted to a scale where the average is set at 100 and the standard deviation at 15 points. That means:

• About 68% of people score between 85 and 115.
• About 95% score between 70 and 130.
• Only about 2.3% score above 130, and about 2.3% score below 70.

Because the scale is defined this way, an IQ score is really a statement about position. A score of 115 means you performed one standard deviation above the average of your comparison group, which puts you ahead of roughly 84% of them.

So what is a good score?

If "good" means above average, then any score above 100 qualifies, since half of all people score below that. Most people, though, use "good" to mean noticeably above average. Here is a practical way to read the numbers:

| Score | Percentile (approx.) | What it means | |---|---|---| | 100 | 50th | Exactly average: half of people score higher, half lower | | 110 | 75th | Higher than about 3 in 4 people | | 115 | 84th | One standard deviation above average | | 120 | 91st | Higher than about 9 in 10 people | | 125 | 95th | Roughly the top 5% | | 130 | 98th | Roughly the top 2.3%, two standard deviations above average | | 140 | 99.6th | Roughly 1 person in 260 |

Many people would call a score between 110 and 119 "high average", a score from 120 to 129 "high", and a score of 130 or more "very high". These labels vary between test publishers, so treat them as rough descriptions rather than official categories. For a full breakdown of ranges and labels, see the IQ score chart.

Average is not a weak result

A score between 90 and 109 is the most common outcome by far: about half of all people land there. It is easy to read "average" as "unremarkable", but in this context it simply means your reasoning performance matched the middle of a very large group. People in the average range work in every profession and succeed in every field.

It also helps to remember that the difference between 98 and 104 is usually smaller than the measurement error of the test itself. Small gaps around the middle of the scale are rarely meaningful.

Every score comes with a margin of error

No test measures ability perfectly. Fatigue, distractions, unfamiliar question formats and plain luck all move a result up or down a little. Professionally administered tests deal with this by reporting a confidence range, for example "118, likely between 112 and 124", instead of a single number pretending to be exact.

This matters when you ask whether your score is good. Two people with scores of 117 and 121 may not differ in any real way: their ranges overlap almost completely. If your range sits mostly above 110, you can say with reasonable confidence that you scored above average. Our guide to IQ percentiles explains how these ranges are calculated.

What a high or low score does and does not tell you

IQ tests measure a specific set of abilities: spotting patterns, reasoning with new information, holding details in mind, and visualizing shapes and quantities. Scores on these tasks tend to relate to how quickly people pick up new material in school and in complex jobs, on average and across large groups.

A score does not measure:

• Knowledge, skills or expertise you have built over years.
• Creativity, judgment, social skill or emotional insight.
• Motivation, persistence or character.
• Your worth as a person.

For any one individual, a score is a snapshot of performance on one occasion. It is useful as a point of comparison and for personal insight, but it is a narrow measurement of a broad thing.

Why scores differ between tests

You may get different numbers on different tests, and that is normal. Tests differ in which abilities they include, how difficult their questions are, how large and recent their norm groups are, and how carefully they were calibrated. Online tests also differ widely in quality: some report inflated scores to make people feel good, while others never explain how a number was produced.

A trustworthy result usually comes with three things: a clear explanation of the scoring method, a range rather than a single number, and an honest statement of what kind of test it is. Online tests, including ours, are self-assessments for personal insight. A clinical evaluation requires a qualified psychologist administering a standardized test in person.

Find out where you stand

If you want to see how your reasoning compares, the IQTestScale test takes about 20 minutes and covers four abilities: fluid reasoning, spatial thinking, working memory and quantitative reasoning. Your result comes with a likely range around your score and a percentile, so you can read it the way this guide describes.

Take the IQ test