Is an IQ of 157 good?
Yes, very. An IQ of 157 is very superior: higher than about 99.99% of people, and only about 1 in 13,800 people score higher.
How rare is an IQ of 157?
In a room of 1,000 people, someone with an IQ of 157 would probably be the smartest one there.
- Outscored: 1,000
- Would score higher: 0
Only about 0.01% of people score higher than 157. Here is what that looks like in groups of different sizes:
| In a group of | People scoring above 157 |
|---|---|
| A classroom of 30 | probably nobody |
| A room of 100 | probably nobody |
| A school of 1,000 | probably nobody |
| A town of 10,000 | probably nobody |
| A packed football stadium (70,000) | about 5 |
| A city of 1 million | about 72 |
| The United States (about 340 million) | about 25,000 |
What an IQ of 157 means
An IQ of 157 is 57 points above the average of 100, or 3.80 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.
Lewis Terman’s original 1916 classification labelled scores above 140 “near genius or genius”. The word is informal today, but 140 is still the number most people mean.
Above about 150, test scores become imprecise: so few people score this high that tests have little data to separate them. Most professional IQ tests top out at 160.
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 157 does on our test
Our test tops out at 141, the score for all 30 answers correct. It can’t tell scores above that apart, so measuring an IQ of 157 takes a supervised high-range test. Here is what a perfect score looks like:
- 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 157
157 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.
-
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 157
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 157
Published test results and estimates within 5 points of 157. 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.
-
Estimated: about 154
Thomas Jefferson
3rd US president (1801–09)
Four estimates from 145 to 160, based on records of his childhood and youth.
Sources: Simonton (2006), Political Psychology .
IQ 157 on other scales
Not every test uses the same scale. The same performance that earns 157 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 | 157 |
| Older Stanford-Binet and some online tests | SD 16 | 161 |
| Cattell Culture Fair | SD 24 | 191 |
| z-score | mean 0, SD 1 | +3.80 |
| T-score | mean 50, SD 10 | 88 |
| Stanine | 1 to 9 | 9 |
| Percentile | 0 to 100 | 99.99th |
Scores near 157
| IQ | Percentile | Score higher | Band |
|---|---|---|---|
| 152 | 99.97 | 1 in 3,790 | Very superior |
| 153 | 99.98 | 1 in 4,870 | Very superior |
| 154 | 99.98 | 1 in 6,280 | Very superior |
| 155 | 99.99 | 1 in 8,140 | Very superior |
| 156 | 99.99 | 1 in 10,600 | Very superior |
| 157 | 99.99 | 1 in 13,800 | Very superior |
| 158 | 99.99 | 1 in 18,100 | Very superior |
| 159 | 99.99 | 1 in 23,900 | Very superior |
| 160 | 99.99 | 1 in 31,600 | Very superior |
Curious how high scores go? Read about the highest IQ scores ever recorded.
Think you’re above 141?
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Take the free IQ testIQ 157: common questions
Is 157 a genius IQ?
By the usual informal definition, yes. 140 has been the classic “genius” line since Lewis Terman’s 1916 classification, and only about 1 person in 260 scores above it.
Is an IQ of 157 gifted?
Many US school gifted programs use a cut-off of about 130, the top 2%, so an IQ of 157 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 157?
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 157 suggests it is worth taking one.
Can an online test tell me if my IQ is 157?
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