IQ 146

146 sits 1 point past the three standard deviation mark and 14 below 160, where most tests top out. You would outscore 99.89% of people.

The Triple Nine Society's top 0.1% line is about 146 on this scale, and 146 sits right at its edge. As with any society, membership needs a supervised test, not an online result.

People this rare can find it takes effort to meet intellectual peers. University departments, clubs and communities built around hard problems help.

People who score around 146, and the teachers who work with them, often describe some of the following. Treat it as a set of possibilities, not a profile:

• Interests can be intense and deep, sometimes at the cost of everything else.
• In children, reasoning can run years ahead of age while emotional and physical development stay on schedule. Educators call this asynchrony.
• None of this is guaranteed. Many people at this level feel ordinary most of the time.

Major adult tests are normed on samples of a couple of thousand people. In a 2,200-person norm sample, the bell curve expects only about 2 at 146 or higher, so the top of the scale rests partly on extrapolation.

Margins of error widen at the extremes, so a reported score here is less precise than the roughly 5 points either side that is typical near the middle.

Scale matters too. If your 146 was reported on an SD 24 scale, it is about 129 on the usual SD 15 scale, and on an SD 16 scale about 143.

If IQ follows the standard bell curve, 0.11% of people score 146 or higher. Here is what that share means across whole populations:

Compare the neighbours: 141 or higher is about 1 in 319, 146 or higher is 1 in 924, and 151 or higher is 1 in 2,968. Each point up here adds roughly 25% to the rarity.

What your 146 could really be. If you retook a well-made test, landing at 141 or at 151 would be unremarkable. That is the difference between beating 99.69% and 99.97% of people, and short online tests are noisier still.

Which scale was it on? A 146 reported on an SD 16 scale converts to about 143 on the usual SD 15 scale, and one from an SD 24 scale (seen in some Cattell-style results) to about 129. Check which scale your score report used.

Scientists, composers and philosophers often receive estimates in this range. These sit near 146. None of these are test scores. They are estimates from biographical evidence, and each profile explains its basis.

A few degree, university and job profiles on this site carry IQ benchmarks close to 146. Treat the education figures as rough estimates from admissions-test data rather than measured IQs.

How 146 stacks up against the scores just around it and the round numbers people usually ask about. Each score links to its own page.

People with an IQ of 146 typically score about 1580 on the SAT and about 35 on the ACT composite. Scores vary a lot from person to person, so the range shows where about four in five land.