IQ 87

About 68% of people score between 85 and 115, and 87 sits inside that range, 13 points below the exact midpoint of 100. Around 19% of people score at or below 87 and 81% score higher. It sits 2 points past the 85 mark and 13 short of 100.

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.

Within this range, scores a few points apart are closer together than the test's own margin of error. A 84 and a 90 could easily be the same person on different days.

The 13-point gap between 87 and 100 is noticeable on a timed test but rarely in ordinary life. You would not spot it in a conversation or at work.

You can follow complex instructions, learn new software, manage money and pick up a trade or profession. The ceiling on those is set far more by practice and interest than by a few IQ points.

Where a score like this shows is mainly in speed on unfamiliar, timed problems. Given time, familiar material and a clear goal, people across the average range reach the same answers.

The most useful thing to do with a 87 is not to chase a higher number but to work with how you think best. A few habits help at any score:

• Learn in the format that suits you. Some people learn fastest by doing, others by reading or by talking it through.
• Give unfamiliar problems time. Speed is where average scores differ most, and most real decisions are not timed.
• Go deep in one area. Expertise lets people reason quickly in their own field whatever their overall score.

On a bell curve with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15, about 19% of people score 87 or lower. Applied to whole populations:

About 19% of people score 87 or lower, compared with 12% at 82 or lower and 30% at 92 or lower. Five points here changes the share by about 10 percentage points.

What your 87 could really be. Treat any single score as the centre of a range. For a good supervised test, about 5 points either side is typical, so 87 really means somewhere from 82 to 92. Online tests are less precise than that.

Which scale was it on? Score reports do not always say. On the common SD 15 scale your 87 stands as it is. If the report used SD 16 it equals about 88, and if it used SD 24 about 92. The percentile follows the converted number.

Nobody famous has a verified IQ in most cases, and retrospective estimates are only made for a narrow group.

Our historical estimates start at 115, so nobody sits close to 87. That is not because famous people score higher. Estimates are only attempted for people with extraordinary records, which leaves ordinary scores unrepresented.

The scores one and five points either side of 87, plus the round numbers from 100 to 150, side by side. Tap any score for its full page.

People with an IQ of 87 typically score about 830 on the SAT and about 14 on the ACT composite. Scores vary a lot from person to person, so the range shows where about four in five land.