What's your IQ and what makes you think it's too high or too low ?!?

Question

I've recently completed an IQ test and scored 148 but have no qualifications but my girlfriend scored 126 and had a PhD !!

Answer 1

Congratulations! An IQ of 148 is very exceptional and means that you are blessed with many opportunities.
However, the IQ as such does not automatically give you any qualification (except the right to join Mensa and other similar high IQ organisations). You will have to work and study for your qualifications as anyone else, even though you should find it a lot easier than most people. Having said that, there are also people with very high IQs who lack practical abilities and do therefore not make much use of their gifts or contribute anything to society.
It is up to you to make the best of your talents, skills and natural gifts. If you have problems to decide on a path, a counsellor or even your girlfriend should be able to advice you. Her IQ of 126 is very good as well and I am not surprised that she got a PhD. But as I said earlier, it is not the number that makes all the difference, but the application of your potential.

P.S. Since you asked, my own IQ is 134 and I am quite happy with that.

Answer 2

IQ basically tests your ability to work things out, to see patterns within shapes, numbers etc. It is not a general knowledge test and therefor not at all influenced by where in the world you live. There are only a few creditable IQ test worth bothering with, the full MENSA one being first choice. You'll all probably find that you're not quite as bright as the other tests lead you to believe.
It's quite common for a person with a very high IQ rating (MENSA 140 +) to also have learning difficulties, such as ADD, ADHD, Dyslexia & Autism, as well as sociopathic problems. There is also the vast pressure of expectation that is often put upon the shoulders of those young, so called ' gifted' individuals Hence people who have the potential to offer a great deal to the human race often get dumped by the wayside, some suffering depression, others falling into substance abuse, suicide is not uncommon. High intelligence is often considered a blessing but can also be a curse. Be glad to be 'normal' !!!

Answer 3

I took a supervised test for a Mensa application about 10 years ago and also scored a 148 IQ. On that test, 148 was as high as they graded, because the measurement became wildly unreliable at very high scores (there are specialized IQ tests to test HOW gifted you are).
Anyway, an IQ of 126 is well above average for the general population and perfectly average for PhD students - it ranges from 115 for English to 130 for physics according to this site: http://infoproc.blogspot.com/2005/12/physics-still-pulls-them-in.html).
An IQ of 148 is above average for just about any group, with the exception of authors (avg. 160 for fiction and non-fiction alike) and philosophers (avg. 180). Gifted people also make great a-holes... seemingly arrogant, easily bored, underachieving, and devastatingly witty sons of bitches.
I personally don't put much faith in IQ as an indicator of anything important. Still, given a choice, I'd rather have more than less ;-)

Answer 4

My IQ as measured by the standard format IQ test, is 125 - 127. This is using standard, timed IQ tests which give a 'true' intelligence quotient figure and is not a test biased to asking questions in an area people may already suspect they have ability. The mean figure for 'classic' or 'standard' IQ tested is usually 95 to 100 points, representing the score of 50% of the population. It's essential that these tests are conducted in exactly the same way for every individual ever tested or the figures are meaningless. Going a few seconds overtime can skew the test results by several points and tip one fom being above average to very intelligent. It's important to bear in mind that a true intelligence quotient is mainly a measure of brain speed - how quickly you can mashall your mental resources in order to solve a problem. cultural and ability differences have been filtered out of the serious IQ tests to give everyone a level playing field, regardless of their talents and strengths in certain areas. It's been said that, given enough time, everyone can finish an IQ test correctly. But it's the time taken to correctly answer the questions in the test that determine IQ. It's worth noting that no one in the world is supposed to be able to answer all of the questions, in a standard IQ test, correctly and within the alloted time.
Back to your burning question and your perceived anamoly between your educational status and that of your girlfriend's. If you both took the same type of test under the correct conditions, then there's no reason to doubt the results. The classic test doesn't measure your degree of motivation or the choices you made in life or your ability to pay for higher education etc. An IQ is something you have, but it's largely up to you what you do with it.
If you're saying you never missed school or classes and tried your hardest to gain qualifications then there is obviously something amiss, such as you taking different tests and or under the wong conditions. In which case you might want to have tests taken by a qualified body. With the best will in the world, it's hard for some people not to take a peek at the questions beforehand, or squeeze a few more seconds in to answer that question you started.
I often doubt my IQ, unremarkable as it is, though putting me in amongst circa 20% of the population, because it seems to me that about 95% of people I meet are smarter than me (this often changes when I speak with them for a while) and I'm no "borderline genius".

Answer 5

An IQ test doesn't really test intelligence, as among other reasons, we still haven't figured out what intelligence really is! Many IQ tests are now moving towards 'culture-free' questions which don't mark down people with less education. I work in education and we give a three-fold test to students, which gives them individual scores for verbal, quantitative and non-verbal reasoning. The average for any IQ test should be 90-110 as they are a normalised score.

Apart from anything else, having intelligence and having the motivation to use it are completely different things!

I had an IQ test, but it came out negative :)

Answer 6

Last time I did one of those online IQ tests I scored about 127 I think, but I don't have a PhD either. I think academic or career success has very little to do with IQ, more with personality, but above all who you know and being in the right place at the right time.

Answer 7

You're obviously very good at doing IQ tests - I would guess you have spent a lot of time doing puzzles, crosswords and that you read quite a lot. My IQ is anywhere from 130-160 depending on which test I take. It's all very subjective and not a true test of intelligence. But I suppose it is the best we've got as a comparative tool.

Answer 8

Basically, you have a greater ability to work out problems and your girlfriend is better at retaining information.

Working out answers to problems without being told how to do it is smart. Learning and retaining information is knowledgable. Two different things.

Intelligence Quotient is a measure of a person's intelligence as indicated by an intelligence test; the ratio of a person's mental age to their chronological age (multiplied by 100). There are different kinds of tests, but your score should be approximately the same in all of them. It is possible to improve your score by a few points with practice. (Although your score is already excellent!)

My I.Q. was 138 last time I tested it. I'm not very good at exams, but I'm very practical.

Answer 9

Recently I completed several Intelligence Quotient tests and scored 128 which is lower than I used to score when I was younger (135 in days gone by). I guess age really does make us dumber, or is it that I've just killed off enough brain cells with my bad habits to make me more stupid? Your girlfriends score, which is obviously above average, proves that intelligence isn't the only factor in higher academic achievement. With the right aptitude and lots of study and hard work we can achieve many things that seem to be in the esoteric realms supposedly only held by the superintelligent, such as coveted PhD's.

Answer 10

Feel I should just point out that internet IQ tests are fairly inaccurate - if you really want to find out your IQ you need to do a proper, scientifically endorsed IQ test.

And IQ isn't anything to do with education as such, it's to do with your mental ability.