IQ 102

About 68% of people score between 85 and 115, and 102 sits inside that range, 2 points above the exact midpoint of 100. Around 55% of people score at or below 102 and 45% score higher. It sits 2 points past the 100 mark and 13 short of 115.

Average is not a polite word for mediocre. It is where the test is designed to place the typical adult, and it is the level that most schooling, jobs and everyday tasks are built around.

Most of the difference between people with average scores comes from other things: knowledge, experience, habits and how often they practise the kind of thinking a task needs.

Put 102 next to 100 and the difference is 0.13 of a standard deviation. On timed abstract puzzles that shows as being a touch quicker or more accurate; outside the test, other things matter far more.

School results in this range depend heavily on teaching, effort and interest. The same score turns up in students with top grades and in students who struggle.

Being in the average range says nothing about ambition. Careers, qualifications and creative work are open across it, and many people in it are highly skilled in their field.

An overall 102 can hide a very uneven profile. Two people with the same total can be strong at quite different things, so the useful question is which kinds of question went well for you.

• Learn in the format that suits you. Some people learn fastest by doing, others by reading or by talking it through.
• Go deep in one area. Expertise lets people reason quickly in their own field whatever their overall score.
• Protect sleep and focus. Both beat cramming for anything you need to remember.

If IQ follows the standard bell curve, 45% of people score 102 or higher. Here is what that share means across whole populations:

Near the middle of the curve, rarity barely changes from point to point. About 45% of people score 102 or higher, compared with 58% at 97 and 32% at 107.

What your 102 could really be. Treat any single score as the centre of a range. For a good supervised test, about 5 points either side is typical, so 102 really means somewhere from 97 to 107. Online tests are less precise than that.

Which scale was it on? Close to 100, it barely matters. Even on an SD 24 scale, a 102 converts to about 101 on the usual SD 15 scale, so you can compare it with this page almost directly.

Nobody famous has a verified IQ in most cases, and retrospective estimates are only made for a narrow group.

Our historical estimates start at 115, so nobody sits close to 102. That is not because famous people score higher. Estimates are only attempted for people with extraordinary records, which leaves ordinary scores unrepresented.

Rough benchmarks from our profiles that sit within a few points of 102. Degree and university figures are estimates derived from admissions-test averages, not measured IQs.

How 102 stacks up against the scores just around it and the round numbers people usually ask about. Each score links to its own page.

People with an IQ of 102 typically score about 1020 on the SAT and about 18 on the ACT composite. Scores vary a lot from person to person, so the range shows where about four in five land.