Is a 149 IQ Good? What the Score Means
A 149 IQ is far above the average of 100. Only about 1 in 1,800 people score this high or higher. Clinical reports would call 149 Extremely High in WISC-V wording and Very Superior in the traditional WAIS-IV wording.
- Percentile
- 99.95
- How rare
- 1 in 1,800 score 149 or higher
- WISC-V wording
- Extremely High
- Traditional wording (WAIS-IV)
- Very Superior
- Distance from 100
- 3.27 SD above
- On an SD 16 test
- about 152
- On an SD 24 test
- about 178
- Our test's usual range here
- our test cannot show this score
What does a 149 IQ mean?
A score of 149 is 3.27 standard deviations above the average of 100. On most IQ tests one standard deviation, the typical distance from the average, is 15 points, so 149 is 49 points away.
149 is 19 points above the start of the top band, which begins at 130 and has no upper end. About 2.5 in 100 people score anywhere in the top band that holds 149.
What percentile is an IQ of 149?
A score of 149 is at the 99.95th percentile. That percentile is the share of people who score lower than 149, not the share of questions right. Five points higher, 154 is at the 99.98th percentile. Five points lower, 144 is at the 99.83rd percentile. Across those ten points around 149, the percentile moves by 0.15.
How rare is an IQ of 149?
About 1 in 1,800 people score 149 or higher. In a town of 100,000 people, about 54 would score 149 or higher.
For each person who scores exactly 149, about 208 people score exactly 100. These figures for 149 come from the normal curve that IQ scales are built on, and the IQ calculator works out any other score.
What would 149 be on other tests?
Not every test would print 149 for this position. Older Stanford-Binet forms and many school tests use a standard deviation of 16; there, the same position as 149 is about 152. On a scale with a standard deviation of 24, used by the Cattell test, it is about 178. 149, 152 and 178 all mean the same percentile.
Is 149 a good IQ score?
The scale does not grade the person behind a 149; it places one result among other people’s results. As a position, 149 is far above the average of 100. What a 149 is useful for depends on the purpose, and a single online result is too rough for decisions about school, work or support. A 149 describes some kinds of reasoning on one test, on one day, and leaves out a great deal that matters, such as effort, knowledge and character.
Is 149 enough for Mensa?
Only if the 149 comes from a supervised test that Mensa accepts. American Mensa accepts scores at or above the 98th percentile, and 149 is at the 99.95th percentile. On the Wechsler scales the line is a full-scale IQ of 130, so 149 is 19 points above it. A 149 from an unsupervised internet test, ours included, is not accepted. Our Mensa IQ test guide explains the supervised routes to showing a 149.
Is 149 a genius IQ?
No test or psychology dictionary calls 149 a genius score, or defines one at all. The often quoted 140 goes back to a long-term study that selected children scoring above 140; by that line, 149 is 9 points over it. What a person with a 149 achieves depends on far more than a test number, as what IQ is considered genius explains.
Can any test measure a score of 149?
Every test has a ceiling, a highest score it can give, and few tests are built to measure as high as 149. The WISC-V full-scale score, for example, runs from 40 to 160, so 149 sits near its top. On our own test the range gets wider on the way toward 149: about 24 points wide at 100 and about 28 points wide at 140. Our page on the highest IQ score explains why scores like 149 are hard to pin down.
What does an online result of 149 mean?
Our test cannot show a 149. A perfect score currently shows about 140, and a test of 30 questions runs out of hard questions long before 149. Results above 145 show as “145 or higher”. Our methodology shows how the range is made.
An unsupervised online 149 may also run a little high: a large review found a gap of about 3 IQ points. Taking the same kind of test again usually raises a score like 149 a little, mostly on the first retakes. Our guide are IQ tests accurate covers this in depth.
To see where your own result falls next to 149, take the free IQ test. It has 30 questions and shows an estimated range with every result.
Scores near 149
- 147 IQ: 2 points lower, at the 99.91st percentile.
- 148 IQ: 1 point lower, at the 99.93rd percentile.
- 150 IQ: 1 point higher, at the 99.96th percentile.
- 151 IQ: 2 points higher, at the 99.97th percentile.
Look up any score from 70 to 160, not only those near 149, in the score explorer.
FAQ
What percentile is 149 IQ?
A score of 149 is at the 99.95th percentile. That means about 99.95 percent of people score lower.
Is 149 IQ genius?
No test defines genius, so no test calls 149 genius. 149 is in the top band of the scale. Only about 1 in 1,800 people score this high or higher.
How many people have an IQ of 149?
On a whole-number scale, about 0.013 percent of people score exactly 149. About 1 in 1,800 people score 149 or higher.
Can an online test show 149?
Not reliably for 149. Our test shows anything above 145 as “145 or higher”, and a perfect score currently shows about 140.