Is an IQ of 138 good?
Yes, very. An IQ of 138 is very superior: higher than about 99.4% of people, and only about 1 in 177 people score higher.
How rare is an IQ of 138?
In a room of 100 people, someone with an IQ of 138 would be smarter than 99 of them.
- Outscored: 99
- Would score higher: 1
Only about 0.56% of people score higher than 138. Here is what that looks like in groups of different sizes:
| In a group of | People scoring above 138 |
|---|---|
| A classroom of 30 | probably nobody |
| A room of 100 | probably nobody |
| A school of 1,000 | about 6 |
| A town of 10,000 | about 56 |
| A packed football stadium (70,000) | about 400 |
| A city of 1 million | about 5,600 |
| The United States (about 340 million) | about 1.9 million |
What an IQ of 138 means
An IQ of 138 is 38 points above the average of 100, or 2.53 standard deviations above the mean. It falls in the very superior band.
Scores of 130 and above put you in roughly the top 2% of the population. This is the range high-IQ societies such as Mensa recruit from, and the point where most tests start to lose precision because so few people score here.
Mensa admits people who score in the top 2% on an approved, supervised test, which is 130 or more on the standard scale. An online result is a good way to decide whether it is worth sitting one.
What an IQ score predicts, and what it doesn’t
IQ is one of the strongest single predictors of school grades: a meta-analysis of 240 samples put the correlation at about .54 (Roth et al., 2015). For job performance the estimate depends on the statistical corrections used: .51 in the classic review (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998) and .31 in a 2022 re-analysis (Sackett et al.). Either way, most of the differences between people come from other things: knowledge, effort, personality and opportunity.
How a 138 does on our test
On our free 30-question test, an IQ of 138 takes 29 or 30 correct answers out of 30. Here is how 30 correct answers usually split across the four areas:
- Pattern reasoning 10 of 10
- Numerical reasoning 7 of 7
- Verbal reasoning 6 of 6
- Logical reasoning 7 of 7
Worked out from our scoring model, assuming the easier questions are the ones you get right. Harder questions count for more, so two people with the same number correct can score a few points apart. We’ll replace this with real results once enough people have taken the test. How scoring works
No job group’s typical worker scored 138
138 is above the median of all 56 job groups in a study that followed Wisconsin men from high school into their 50s. The highest group, physicians, had a median of 120.5. Even among physicians, fewer than 1 in 10 scored above 133.
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Social scientists 111
Median 111. Middle half of workers 98 to 120. Middle 80% 93 to 127. -
Legal occupations 113
Median 113. Middle half of workers 109 to 124. Middle 80% 99 to 133. -
Electrical engineers 113
Median 113. Middle half of workers 103 to 121. Middle 80% 95 to 129. -
College professors 115
Median 115. Middle half of workers 104 to 124. Middle 80% 97 to 133. -
Physicians (MD or equivalent) 120.5
Median 120.5. Middle half of workers 112 to 127. Middle 80% 106 to 133.
- Middle 80% of workers
- Middle half
- Median (the number on the right)
- IQ 138
Source: Hauser (2002), Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, Figure 12. The study covers men who finished high school in Wisconsin in 1957 and their brothers, with IQ measured in high school (Henmon-Nelson test, group average 102) and jobs held in 1992–94. Groups with fewer than 30 people are left out, and people who left school early aren’t in the study, so low scores are under-represented. Every job spans a wide range: 27 to 42 points between its 10th and 90th percentile.
Famous people near IQ 138
Published test results and estimates within 5 points of 138. The presidents’ figures come from a 2006 study that worked them out from biographies, not tests, on an older IQ scale. Each is the average of four estimates. Eight presidents have estimates based on records of their childhood and youth, the method Catharine Cox used for historical geniuses in 1926; the rest were imputed statistically and are rougher still.
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Estimated: about 140
Franklin D. Roosevelt
32nd US president (1933–45)
Four estimates from 127.4 to 150.5, imputed from experts’ ratings, so more tentative.
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Estimated: about 136
John Tyler
10th US president (1841–45)
Four estimates from 122.9 to 148.1, imputed from experts’ ratings, so more tentative.
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Estimated: about 140
Abraham Lincoln
16th US president (1861–65)
Four estimates from 125 to 150, based on records of his childhood and youth.
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Estimated: about 136
Millard Fillmore
13th US president (1850–53)
Four estimates from 120.8 to 149, imputed from experts’ ratings, so more tentative.
Sources: Simonton (2006), Political Psychology .
IQ 138 on other scales
Not every test uses the same scale. The same performance that earns 138 on a modern test with a standard deviation of 15 produces a different number on tests with a wider spread:
| Scale | Spread | Equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Standard IQ (Wechsler, Stanford-Binet 5) | SD 15 | 138 |
| Older Stanford-Binet and some online tests | SD 16 | 141 |
| Cattell Culture Fair | SD 24 | 161 |
| z-score | mean 0, SD 1 | +2.53 |
| T-score | mean 50, SD 10 | 75 |
| Stanine | 1 to 9 | 9 |
| Percentile | 0 to 100 | 99.4th |
Scores near 138
| IQ | Percentile | Score higher | Band |
|---|---|---|---|
| 133 | 99 | 1 in 72 | Very superior |
| 134 | 99 | 1 in 85 | Very superior |
| 135 | 99.0 | 1 in 102 | Very superior |
| 136 | 99.2 | 1 in 122 | Very superior |
| 137 | 99.3 | 1 in 147 | Very superior |
| 138 | 99.4 | 1 in 177 | Very superior |
| 139 | 99.5 | 1 in 215 | Very superior |
| 140 | 99.6 | 1 in 261 | Very superior |
| 141 | 99.7 | 1 in 319 | Very superior |
| 142 | 99.7 | 1 in 391 | Very superior |
| 143 | 99.8 | 1 in 482 | Very superior |
Curious how high scores go? Read about the highest IQ scores ever recorded.
Do you really score 138?
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Take the free IQ testIQ 138: common questions
Is 138 a genius IQ?
Not by the usual definition, which starts at 140, but 138 is in the top 2% and within the range high-IQ societies like Mensa accept.
Is an IQ of 138 gifted?
Many US school gifted programs use a cut-off of about 130, the top 2%, so an IQ of 138 meets the most common threshold. Criteria vary by state and district and usually include more than one measure.
Can you join Mensa with an IQ of 138?
Possibly. Mensa requires a score in the top 2% on an approved, supervised test, which is 130 on the standard scale. An online score of 138 suggests it is worth taking one.
Can an online test tell me if my IQ is 138?
It can give you an estimate, not a clinical score. Ours uses question types from established reasoning tests and a statistical scoring model, but it has not been checked against a professional IQ test. Even professional tests report a range of several points around a score.
By the MyIQTest team · Reviewed November 2026 · Figures assume the standard scale (mean 100, SD 15). Methodology