What Is a Good IQ Score?

There is no single good IQ score. A score of 100 is at the 50th percentile. IQ scores describe performance on certain tasks on one day, not a person’s full abilities or worth.

Bands and their percentile ranges

The percentile at each band’s limits on the SD 15 normal curve.

Band	Percentile range
Extremely High130 and above	97.7 and above
Very High120 to 129	90.9 to 97.7
High Average110 to 119	74.8 to 90.9
Average90 to 109	25.2 to 74.8
Low Average80 to 89	9.1 to 25.2
Very Low70 to 79	2.3 to 9.1
Extremely Low69 and below	below 2.3

Band labels are the commonly used WISC-V ones, as listed by Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities: Understanding IQ Test Scores. Labels are conventions in common use; each test publisher words its own.

What counts as the middle IQ score?

A score of 100 is the middle, at the 50th percentile. Half of scores fall below it and half above it on the scale described here.

Whether a score near the middle is “good” depends on what someone wants to know. See the IQ scale for a plain explanation of how score ranges are arranged.

What are the IQ score bands?

IQ score bands group scores into broad ranges, with labels such as Average and High Average. These labels and the shares of people in each band describe score ranges, not a person’s worth.

Extremely High covers 130 and above and 2.5 percent of people; Very High covers 120 to 129 and 7.2 percent; High Average covers 110 to 119 and 16.6 percent. Average covers 90 to 109 and 49.5 percent.

Low Average covers 80 to 89 and 15.6 percent; Very Low covers 70 to 79 and 6.5 percent; Extremely Low covers 69 and below and 2.1 percent. Smart Kids with Learning Disabilities, a nonprofit, lists these commonly used band labels.

How do 115 and 130 compare with other scores?

A score of 115 is at or above 84.1 percent of scores. A score of 130 is at or above 97.7 percent of scores, placing it higher than a larger share of scores.

A percentile ranks a score against a comparison group. It does not show how someone will do in a particular class, job, or situation. The IQ percentile calculator can help explain that ranking.

What can an IQ score tell you?

An IQ score summarizes performance on certain reasoning and related tasks under test conditions. It is a limited snapshot of performance on one day, not a complete account of a person.

A score cannot capture every skill, interest, experience, or circumstance that shapes someone’s life. It does not measure a person’s worth or predict every future result. The specific test and the person’s state that day can affect performance.

How should you use a score?

Use an IQ score as one piece of information, considering which test produced it and what question the test was designed to answer. A label alone does not explain what a person needs or can do.

If you are curious about reasoning tasks, you can try the free test. It does not print an IQ score or percentile, so its result should not be treated as an IQ score.

Questions

Is 115 a good IQ score?

A score of 115 is at or above 84.1 percent of scores and falls in the High Average band shown here. Whether it is “good” depends on the question being asked, since the score reflects performance on certain tasks rather than a person’s whole ability.

Is 130 a good IQ score?

A score of 130 is at or above 97.7 percent of scores and falls in the Extremely High band. That describes its relative position on the scale, but it does not predict what someone will achieve or how they will perform in every setting.

Does a higher IQ score mean someone is better?

No. A higher score indicates stronger performance on the tasks used by that test, relative to its comparison group. It does not measure a person’s worth, character, practical judgment, or every kind of skill.

Can an online reasoning test tell me my IQ?

Not every online test reports an IQ score. IQ scores come from tests designed and normed to measure them. IQClock’s free timed reasoning test does not print an IQ score or percentile.