Is 130 a good IQ?

A 130 beats 97.7% of people. It is exactly on the two standard deviation line, and 15 short of three standard deviations at 145.

At this level the advantage can show as speed and depth with abstract material. Standard explanations may feel slow, and working things out from first principles may feel natural.

A high score does not come with high grades attached. Motivation, study habits and fit with the teaching style decide a lot of what happens at school and work.

Mensa, the best-known high-IQ society, accepts people who score at or above the 98th percentile on an approved, supervised test. On a scale with a standard deviation of 15 that line is usually quoted as 130, so 130 is right around it. LifeScore is not affiliated with Mensa, and online results, including ours, are not accepted as evidence.

The same 98th percentile looks like different numbers on different scales. On an SD 16 scale it is about 132, and on an SD 24 scale about 148, which is where many confusing '148 IQ' claims come from.

If you are curious about Mensa, the practical step is a supervised test. A result of 130 from an online test is a reasonable signal that it may be worth doing, not proof either way.

A 130 is a statistical fact, not a personality. Still, people who score in the gifted range often recognise some of these:

• You often see where an argument or a puzzle is going before it is finished.
• Being quick is not the same as being right. Checking your working protects you from confident mistakes.
• Routine work can get boring fast, so variety and challenge tend to matter.

If IQ follows the standard bell curve, 2.3% of people score 130 or higher. Here is what that share means across whole populations:

Compare the neighbours: 125 or higher is about 1 in 21, 130 or higher is 1 in 44, and 135 or higher is 1 in 102. Each point up here adds roughly 17% to the rarity.

What your 130 could really be. Even a good supervised test has a margin of error of roughly 5 points either side. A true score anywhere from 125 to 135 would be consistent with a 130, which spans the 95.2nd to the 99th percentile. Short online tests have wider margins.

Which scale was it on? Score reports do not always say. On the common SD 15 scale your 130 stands as it is. If the report used SD 16 it equals about 128, and if it used SD 24 about 119. The percentile follows the converted number.

The gifted range is where many retrospective estimates for historical leaders, writers and activists land. These sit near 130, with the figures people look up most listed first. Treat these as informed guesses from biographies rather than results. Each profile sets out what its estimate rests on.

A few degree, university and job profiles on this site carry IQ benchmarks close to 130. Treat the education figures as rough estimates from admissions-test data rather than measured IQs.

130 is two standard deviations above the mean, about 1 in 44 people. It is the line most often quoted for gifted programmes and for Mensa's 98th percentile entry, although programmes use their own measures.

Terman's study of about 1,500 high-scoring children, who mostly scored around 135 or higher, found that by mid-life the group had produced around 2,000 scientific and technical papers, about 230 patents and 33 novels. Most members, though, lived ordinary successful lives rather than famous ones.

Nearby scores and the round-number landmarks, so you can see how quickly the percentile changes around 130. Every row links to that score's page.

People with an IQ of 130 typically score about 1410 on the SAT and about 30 on the ACT composite. Scores vary a lot from person to person, so the range shows where about four in five land.