IQ 106

About 68% of people score between 85 and 115, and 106 sits inside that range, 6 points above the exact midpoint of 100. Around 66% of people score at or below 106 and 34% score higher. It sits 6 points past the 100 mark and 9 short of 115.

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.

This is the shared result of most of the people you know, from colleagues to friends to family. Nothing about it is a barrier to the things people usually care about.

In daily life a 106 does not show up as a limit or an edge. It means that on fast, unfamiliar puzzles you tend to be a little quicker or more accurate than the median adult, by 6 points or 0.40 of a standard deviation.

Where a score like this shows is mainly in speed on unfamiliar, timed problems. Given time, familiar material and a clear goal, people across the average range reach the same answers.

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.

Two people who both score 106 can have very different strengths underneath. These habits help whichever pattern you have:

• Learn in the format that suits you. Some people learn fastest by doing, others by reading or by talking it through.
• Protect sleep and focus. Both beat cramming for anything you need to remember.
• Play to your pattern. If visual puzzles felt easier than number ones, that is useful information about how you learn.

If IQ follows the standard bell curve, 34% of people score 106 or higher. Here is what that share means across whole populations:

Compare the neighbours: 101 or higher is about 1 in 2, 106 or higher is 1 in 3, and 111 or higher is 1 in 4. Each point up here adds roughly 8% to the rarity.

What your 106 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 106 really means somewhere from 101 to 111. Online tests are less precise than that.

Which scale was it on? Most modern tests use a standard deviation of 15, which is what this page assumes. If your 106 came from a test using an SD of 16, it is about 106 on the SD 15 scale. From an SD 24 scale, used by some Cattell-style reports, it is about 104.

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

No historical figure on this site has an estimate close to 106. Retrospective estimates cluster between about 115 and 250 because they are only made for people with exceptional achievements. That is a selection effect, not a sign that famous or successful people cannot score 106.

Rough benchmarks from our profiles that sit within a few points of 106. Degree and university figures are estimates derived from admissions-test averages, not measured IQs.

The scores one and five points either side of 106, plus the round numbers from 100 to 150, side by side. Tap any score for its full page.

People with an IQ of 106 typically score about 1080 on the SAT and about 20 on the ACT composite. Scores vary a lot from person to person, so the range shows where about four in five land.