HomeStart the test
Menu
IQ scale

Is a 150 IQ Good? What the Score Means

A 150 IQ is far above the average of 100. Only about 1 in 2,300 people score this high or higher. Clinical reports would call 150 Extremely High in WISC-V wording and Very Superior in the traditional WAIS-IV wording.

Percentile
99.96
How rare
1 in 2,300 score 150 or higher
WISC-V wording
Extremely High
Traditional wording (WAIS-IV)
Very Superior
Distance from 100
3.33 SD above
On an SD 16 test
about 153
On an SD 24 test
about 180
Our test's usual range here
our test cannot show this score
Where 150 sits on the IQ curveA bell curve with a marker at 150. The shaded area to the left is the share of people who score lower; 150 is at the 99.96th percentile.70100130150

What does a 150 IQ mean?

A score of 150 is 3.33 standard deviations above the average of 100. On most IQ tests one standard deviation, the typical distance from the average, is 15 points, so 150 is 50 points away.

150 is 20 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 150.

What percentile is an IQ of 150?

A score of 150 is at the 99.96th percentile. That percentile is the share of people who score lower than 150, not the share of questions right. Five points higher, 155 is at the 99.99th percentile. Five points lower, 145 is at the 99.87th percentile. Across those ten points around 150, the percentile moves by 0.12.

How rare is an IQ of 150?

About 1 in 2,300 people score 150 or higher. In a town of 100,000 people, about 43 would score 150 or higher.

For each person who scores exactly 150, about 259 people score exactly 100. These figures for 150 come from the normal curve that IQ scales are built on, and the IQ calculator works out any other score.

What would 150 be on other tests?

Not every test would print 150 for this position. Older Stanford-Binet forms and many school tests use a standard deviation of 16; there, the same position as 150 is about 153. On a scale with a standard deviation of 24, used by the Cattell test, it is about 180. 150, 153 and 180 all mean the same percentile.

Is 150 a good IQ score?

The scale does not grade the person behind a 150; it places one result among other people’s results. As a position, 150 is far above the average of 100. What a 150 is useful for depends on the purpose, and a single online result is too rough for decisions about school, work or support. A 150 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 150 enough for Mensa?

Only if the 150 comes from a supervised test that Mensa accepts. American Mensa accepts scores at or above the 98th percentile, and 150 is at the 99.96th percentile. On the Wechsler scales the line is a full-scale IQ of 130, so 150 is 20 points above it. A 150 from an unsupervised internet test, ours included, is not accepted. Our Mensa IQ test guide explains the supervised routes to showing a 150.

Is 150 a genius IQ?

No test or psychology dictionary calls 150 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, 150 is 10 points over it. What a person with a 150 achieves depends on far more than a test number, as what IQ is considered genius explains.

Can any test measure a score of 150?

Every test has a ceiling, a highest score it can give, and few tests are built to measure as high as 150. The WISC-V full-scale score, for example, runs from 40 to 160, so 150 sits near its top. On our own test the range gets wider on the way toward 150: about 24 points wide at 100 and about 28 points wide at 140. Our page on the highest IQ score explains why scores like 150 are hard to pin down.

What does an online result of 150 mean?

Our test cannot show a 150. A perfect score currently shows about 140, and a test of 30 questions runs out of hard questions long before 150. Results above 145 show as “145 or higher”. Our methodology shows how the range is made.

An unsupervised online 150 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 150 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 150, take the free IQ test. It has 30 questions and shows an estimated range with every result.

Scores near 150

  • 148 IQ: 2 points lower, at the 99.93rd percentile.
  • 149 IQ: 1 point lower, at the 99.95th percentile.
  • 151 IQ: 1 point higher, at the 99.97th percentile.
  • 152 IQ: 2 points higher, at the 99.97th percentile.

Look up any score from 70 to 160, not only those near 150, in the score explorer.

FAQ

What percentile is 150 IQ?

A score of 150 is at the 99.96th percentile. That means about 99.96 percent of people score lower.

Is 150 IQ genius?

No test defines genius, so no test calls 150 genius. 150 is in the top band of the scale. Only about 1 in 2,300 people score this high or higher.

How many people have an IQ of 150?

On a whole-number scale, about 0.010 percent of people score exactly 150. About 1 in 2,300 people score 150 or higher.

Can an online test show 150?

Not reliably for 150. Our test shows anything above 145 as “145 or higher”, and a perfect score currently shows about 140.