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Is a 158 IQ Good? What the Score Means

A 158 IQ is far above the average of 100. Only about 1 in 18,000 people score this high or higher. Clinical reports would call 158 Extremely High in WISC-V wording and Very Superior in the traditional WAIS-IV wording.

Percentile
above 99.99
How rare
1 in 18,000 score 158 or higher
WISC-V wording
Extremely High
Traditional wording (WAIS-IV)
Very Superior
Distance from 100
3.87 SD above
On an SD 16 test
about 162
On an SD 24 test
about 193
Our test's usual range here
our test cannot show this score
Where 158 sits on the IQ curveA bell curve with a marker at 158. The shaded area to the left is the share of people who score lower; 158 is above the 99.99th percentile.70100130158

What does a 158 IQ mean?

A score of 158 is 3.87 standard deviations above the average of 100. On most IQ tests one standard deviation, the typical distance from the average, is 15 points, so 158 is 58 points away.

158 is 28 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 158.

What percentile is an IQ of 158?

A score of 158 is above the 99.99th percentile. That percentile is the share of people who score lower than 158, not the share of questions right. Five points lower, 153 is at the 99.98th percentile.

How rare is an IQ of 158?

About 1 in 18,000 people score 158 or higher. In a town of 100,000 people, about 6 would score 158 or higher.

For each person who scores exactly 158, about 1,800 people score exactly 100. These figures for 158 come from the normal curve that IQ scales are built on, and the IQ calculator works out any other score.

What would 158 be on other tests?

Not every test would print 158 for this position. Older Stanford-Binet forms and many school tests use a standard deviation of 16; there, the same position as 158 is about 162. On a scale with a standard deviation of 24, used by the Cattell test, it is about 193. 158, 162 and 193 all mean the same percentile.

Is 158 a good IQ score?

The scale does not grade the person behind a 158; it places one result among other people’s results. As a position, 158 is far above the average of 100. What a 158 is useful for depends on the purpose, and a single online result is too rough for decisions about school, work or support. A 158 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 158 enough for Mensa?

Only if the 158 comes from a supervised test that Mensa accepts. American Mensa accepts scores at or above the 98th percentile, and 158 is above the 99.99th percentile. On the Wechsler scales the line is a full-scale IQ of 130, so 158 is 28 points above it. A 158 from an unsupervised internet test, ours included, is not accepted. Our Mensa IQ test guide explains the supervised routes to showing a 158.

Is 158 a genius IQ?

No test or psychology dictionary calls 158 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, 158 is 18 points over it. What a person with a 158 achieves depends on far more than a test number, as what IQ is considered genius explains.

Can any test measure a score of 158?

Every test has a ceiling, a highest score it can give, and few tests are built to measure as high as 158. The WISC-V full-scale score, for example, runs from 40 to 160, so 158 sits near its top. On our own test the range gets wider on the way toward 158: about 24 points wide at 100 and about 28 points wide at 140. Our page on the highest IQ score explains why scores like 158 are hard to pin down.

What does an online result of 158 mean?

Our test cannot show a 158. A perfect score currently shows about 140, and a test of 30 questions runs out of hard questions long before 158. Results above 145 show as “145 or higher”. Our methodology shows how the range is made.

An unsupervised online 158 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 158 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 158, take the free IQ test. It has 30 questions and shows an estimated range with every result.

Scores near 158

  • 156 IQ: 2 points lower, above the 99.99th percentile.
  • 157 IQ: 1 point lower, above the 99.99th percentile.
  • 159 IQ: 1 point higher, above the 99.99th percentile.
  • 160 IQ: 2 points higher, above the 99.99th percentile.

Look up any score from 70 to 160, not only those near 158, in the score explorer.

FAQ

What percentile is 158 IQ?

A score of 158 is above the 99.99th percentile. That means more than 99.99 percent of people score lower.

Is 158 IQ genius?

No test defines genius, so no test calls 158 genius. 158 is in the top band of the scale. Only about 1 in 18,000 people score this high or higher.

How many people have an IQ of 158?

On a whole-number scale, about 0.002 percent of people score exactly 158. About 1 in 18,000 people score 158 or higher.

Can an online test show 158?

Not reliably for 158. Our test shows anything above 145 as “145 or higher”, and a perfect score currently shows about 140.