IQ 113

About 68% of people score between 85 and 115, and 113 sits inside that range, 13 points above the exact midpoint of 100. Around 81% of people score at or below 113 and 19% score higher. It sits 13 points past the 100 mark and 2 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.

In daily life a 113 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 13 points or 0.87 of a standard deviation.

Most jobs, including skilled and professional ones, are done well by people right across this range. Employers select on experience, reliability and communication far more than on any test score.

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.

Two people who both score 113 can have very different strengths underneath. These habits help whichever pattern you have:

• Lean on structure. Checklists, notes and routines free up working memory for the hard part of a problem.
• 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.

Scoring 113 or higher is a 19% share of everyone. Scaled up to whole populations, that works out as:

Compare the neighbours: 108 or higher is about 1 in 3, 113 or higher is 1 in 5, and 118 or higher is 1 in 9. Each point up here adds roughly 10% to the rarity.

What your 113 could really be. If you retook a well-made test, landing at 108 or at 118 would be unremarkable. That is the difference between beating 70.3% and 88.5% of people, and short online tests are noisier still.

Which scale was it on? A 113 reported on an SD 16 scale converts to about 112 on the usual SD 15 scale, and one from an SD 24 scale (seen in some Cattell-style results) to about 108. Check which scale your score report used.

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 113. 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 113.

Rough benchmarks from our profiles that sit within a few points of 113. Degree and university figures are estimates derived from admissions-test averages, not measured IQs.

The scores one and five points either side of 113, plus the round numbers from 100 to 150, side by side. Tap any score for its full page.

People with an IQ of 113 typically score about 1180 on the SAT and about 22 on the ACT composite. Scores vary a lot from person to person, so the range shows where about four in five land.