HomeStart the test
Menu
IQ scale

Is a 157 IQ Good? What the Score Means

A 157 IQ is far above the average of 100. Only about 1 in 14,000 people score this high or higher. Clinical reports would call 157 Extremely High in WISC-V wording and Very Superior in the traditional WAIS-IV wording.

Percentile
above 99.99
How rare
1 in 14,000 score 157 or higher
WISC-V wording
Extremely High
Traditional wording (WAIS-IV)
Very Superior
Distance from 100
3.80 SD above
On an SD 16 test
about 161
On an SD 24 test
about 191
Our test's usual range here
our test cannot show this score
Where 157 sits on the IQ curveA bell curve with a marker at 157. The shaded area to the left is the share of people who score lower; 157 is above the 99.99th percentile.70100130157

What does a 157 IQ mean?

A score of 157 is 3.80 standard deviations above the average of 100. On most IQ tests one standard deviation, the typical distance from the average, is 15 points, so 157 is 57 points away.

157 is 27 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 157.

What percentile is an IQ of 157?

A score of 157 is above the 99.99th percentile. That percentile is the share of people who score lower than 157, not the share of questions right. Five points lower, 152 is at the 99.97th percentile.

How rare is an IQ of 157?

About 1 in 14,000 people score 157 or higher. In a town of 100,000 people, about 7 would score 157 or higher.

For each person who scores exactly 157, about 1,400 people score exactly 100. These figures for 157 come from the normal curve that IQ scales are built on, and the IQ calculator works out any other score.

What would 157 be on other tests?

Not every test would print 157 for this position. Older Stanford-Binet forms and many school tests use a standard deviation of 16; there, the same position as 157 is about 161. On a scale with a standard deviation of 24, used by the Cattell test, it is about 191. 157, 161 and 191 all mean the same percentile.

Is 157 a good IQ score?

The scale does not grade the person behind a 157; it places one result among other people’s results. As a position, 157 is far above the average of 100. What a 157 is useful for depends on the purpose, and a single online result is too rough for decisions about school, work or support. A 157 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 157 enough for Mensa?

Only if the 157 comes from a supervised test that Mensa accepts. American Mensa accepts scores at or above the 98th percentile, and 157 is above the 99.99th percentile. On the Wechsler scales the line is a full-scale IQ of 130, so 157 is 27 points above it. A 157 from an unsupervised internet test, ours included, is not accepted. Our Mensa IQ test guide explains the supervised routes to showing a 157.

Is 157 a genius IQ?

No test or psychology dictionary calls 157 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, 157 is 17 points over it. What a person with a 157 achieves depends on far more than a test number, as what IQ is considered genius explains.

Can any test measure a score of 157?

Every test has a ceiling, a highest score it can give, and few tests are built to measure as high as 157. The WISC-V full-scale score, for example, runs from 40 to 160, so 157 sits near its top. On our own test the range gets wider on the way toward 157: about 24 points wide at 100 and about 28 points wide at 140. Our page on the highest IQ score explains why scores like 157 are hard to pin down.

What does an online result of 157 mean?

Our test cannot show a 157. A perfect score currently shows about 140, and a test of 30 questions runs out of hard questions long before 157. Results above 145 show as “145 or higher”. Our methodology shows how the range is made.

An unsupervised online 157 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 157 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 157, take the free IQ test. It has 30 questions and shows an estimated range with every result.

Scores near 157

  • 155 IQ: 2 points lower, at the 99.99th percentile.
  • 156 IQ: 1 point lower, above the 99.99th percentile.
  • 158 IQ: 1 point higher, above the 99.99th percentile.
  • 159 IQ: 2 points higher, above the 99.99th percentile.

Look up any score from 70 to 160, not only those near 157, in the score explorer.

FAQ

What percentile is 157 IQ?

A score of 157 is above the 99.99th percentile. That means more than 99.99 percent of people score lower.

Is 157 IQ genius?

No test defines genius, so no test calls 157 genius. 157 is in the top band of the scale. Only about 1 in 14,000 people score this high or higher.

How many people have an IQ of 157?

On a whole-number scale, about 0.002 percent of people score exactly 157. About 1 in 14,000 people score 157 or higher.

Can an online test show 157?

Not reliably for 157. Our test shows anything above 145 as “145 or higher”, and a perfect score currently shows about 140.