IQ 133

A 133 beats 98.6% of people. It is 3 points past the two standard deviation line, and 12 short of three standard deviations at 145.

The Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth followed children identified in roughly the top 1% of reasoning ability. As adults they earned doctorates, patents and senior roles at rates far above the general population.

Lewis Terman's study began in 1921 and followed about 1,500 children who scored roughly 135 or higher. Most grew up healthy and successful, but few became famous, which says a lot about what a score can and cannot predict.

The 98th percentile is the line Mensa uses, and on the standard SD 15 scale it is usually quoted as 130. 133 clears it by 3 points. Entry needs an approved, supervised test. LifeScore has no connection with Mensa, and online scores are not accepted.

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.

Other societies set higher bars. Intertel asks for the top 1%, which starts at about 135, and the Triple Nine Society asks for the top 0.1%, about 146. 133 falls short of both.

There is no single experience of scoring 133. These are patterns people in the gifted range commonly describe, not rules, and plenty of people here feel entirely ordinary day to day.

• Topics can absorb you for long stretches, and depth may matter more to you than breadth.
• Group work can be frustrating when others need more steps than you do, which makes explaining your reasoning a skill worth building.
• Routine work can get boring fast, so variety and challenge tend to matter.

Scoring 133 or higher is a 1.4% share of everyone. Scaled up to whole populations, that works out as:

Compare the neighbours: 128 or higher is about 1 in 32, 133 or higher is 1 in 72, and 138 or higher is 1 in 177. Each point up here adds roughly 19% to the rarity.

What your 133 could really be. Even a good supervised test has a margin of error of roughly 5 points either side. A true score anywhere from 128 to 138 would be consistent with a 133, which spans the 96.9th to the 99.4th percentile. Short online tests have wider margins.

Which scale was it on? Most modern tests use a standard deviation of 15, which is what this page assumes. If your 133 came from a test using an SD of 16, it is about 131 on the SD 15 scale. From an SD 24 scale, used by some Cattell-style reports, it is about 121.

The gifted range is where many retrospective estimates for historical leaders, writers and activists land. These sit near 133, with the figures people look up most listed first. Every figure below is a retrospective estimate, not a measured score. Open a profile to see the evidence and how confident anyone can be.

Our degree, university and job profiles carry rough IQ benchmarks. These are the ones within a few points of 133. The education figures are derived from admissions-test averages, not from IQ testing.

Nearby scores and the round-number landmarks, so you can see how quickly the percentile changes around 133. Every row links to that score's page.

People with an IQ of 133 typically score about 1450 on the SAT and about 31 on the ACT composite. Scores vary a lot from person to person, so the range shows where about four in five land.