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What Is a Good IQ Score? Bands, Percentiles and What They Miss

IQ scores are standardised so the population average lands on 100, with about two thirds of people scoring between 85 and 115. Anything you read as a 'good' score is really a statement about where you sit on that curve — not a fixed property of your brain.

How the bands actually work

Most modern scales use a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15. That puts roughly 68% of people between 85 and 115, about 95% between 70 and 130, and the remaining tails at the edges.

A score of 120 is not '20% smarter' than 100. It means you scored higher than about 91% of the reference population on that specific set of tasks, under those specific conditions.

Why timing and test conditions move your number

Speeded tests reward pattern recognition under pressure. Sleep, caffeine, screen size and whether you were interrupted can shift a result by several points in either direction.

That is why a single run is a snapshot. Taking the same style of test on three different days gives you a far more honest range than any one score.

What an online test can and cannot tell you

A free online test can show you which reasoning categories you handle fastest — number, logic, verbal, pattern or spatial — and how that profile changes when you are tired or rushed.

It cannot substitute for a supervised clinical assessment, and no legitimate test will diagnose anything from twenty multiple-choice items.

Try it on yourself

Frequently asked

Is 120 a good IQ score?

Yes — 120 sits roughly at the 91st percentile, meaning you scored above about nine in ten people on that test. It is comfortably above average but not rare.

Do online IQ tests count?

They are useful for comparing your own runs and seeing which reasoning styles you are fastest at. They are not clinically validated and should never be used for diagnosis or selection.

Can you improve your IQ score?

Practice reliably improves your score on a familiar test format, and sleep and focus change your performance day to day. Underlying general reasoning ability moves far more slowly.

Last updated 2026-09-04