IQ 144

A 144 beats 99.83% of people. It is 14 points past the two standard deviation line, and 1 short of three standard deviations at 145.

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.

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.

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 144 is 14 points above it. LifeScore is not affiliated with Mensa, and online results, including ours, are not accepted as evidence.

Near the line, the margin of error matters. A single result of 144 is consistent with anything from about 139 to 149, so a supervised retest would very likely still clear 130.

Joining a society is optional. The more useful thing a score like this offers is a nudge to seek out harder problems and people who enjoy them.

A 144 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.
• Group work can be frustrating when others need more steps than you do, which makes explaining your reasoning a skill worth building.
• Being quick is not the same as being right. Checking your working protects you from confident mistakes.

On a bell curve with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, about 0.17% of people score 144 or higher. Applied to whole populations:

Compare the neighbours: 139 or higher is about 1 in 215, 144 or higher is 1 in 596, and 149 or higher is 1 in 1,838. Each point up here adds roughly 24% to the rarity.

What your 144 could really be. If you retook a well-made test, landing at 139 or at 149 would be unremarkable. That is the difference between beating 99.53% and 99.95% of people, and short online tests are noisier still.

Which scale was it on? Most modern tests use a standard deviation of 15, which is what this page assumes. If your 144 came from a test using an SD of 16, it is about 141 on the SD 15 scale. From an SD 24 scale, used by some Cattell-style reports, it is about 128.

The gifted range is where many retrospective estimates for historical leaders, writers and activists land. These sit near 144, 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 144. Treat the education figures as rough estimates from admissions-test data rather than measured IQs.

The scores one and five points either side of 144, plus the round numbers from 100 to 150, side by side. Tap any score for its full page.

People with an IQ of 144 typically score about 1570 on the SAT and about 34 on the ACT composite. Scores vary a lot from person to person, so the range shows where about four in five land.