The other day I sat down to watch The Princess Bride for about the 10,000th time. Man that is a great movie! Anyway, when I was watching the part where Vizzini, the Sicilian, was answering the question as to how smart he is, he said:
“Let me put it this way. Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates? Morons.”
So, I decided to mosey on over to the Interwebs and find a list of people with the highest IQ ever measured, and lo and behold I couldn’t find one! So for the sake of future searchers, I compiled the following information. Enjoy.
Background Info
In order to establish a baseline knowledge, IQ (intelligence quotient) is a score derived from attempting to measure the actual mental horsepower of any given individual. Personally I place little value in IQ tests, but I do acknowledge that they are an indicator of some common potential success factors, so we’ll leave it at that.
The “average” IQ is by definition 100, so if you score below that you are dumber than average, and above it means smarter than average.
Commonly acknowledged IQ Score Ranking System:
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 The distribution of IQ scores is as follows:
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I’d like to stop for a second and inject a little philosophy before we go on. I have absolutely no respect whatsoever for intelligence. I only respect people for their actions. So no one should envy or emulate people on the list that follow because some of them are miserable human beings (like this narcissistic guy). Take Bobby Fischer as an example. He’s the biggest A-hole on the list, and I’d like to kick his teeth in for his comments about Jews and America.
The Highest IQs On Record
People Still Alive
- Physicist / Engineer Kim Ung-yong has a verified IQ of 210
- Bouncer Christopher Michael Langan has a verified IQ of 195
- Engineer Philip Emeagwali is alleged to have an IQ of 190
- World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov is alleged to have an IQ of 190
- Author Marilyn Vos Savant has a verified IQ of 186
- Actor James Woods is alleged to have an IQ of 180
- Politician John H. Sununu is alleged to have an IQ of 180
- Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is alleged to have an IQ of 180
- Mathematician Andrew Wiles is alleged to have an IQ of 170
- World Chess Champion Judith Polgar is alleged to have an IQ of 170
- Chess Grandmaster Robert Byrne is alleged to have an IQ of 170
- World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer is alleged to have an IQ of 167
- Mathematician / Physicist Stephen W. Hawking is alleged to have an IQ of over 160
- Microsoft Founder Paul Allen is alleged to have an IQ of over 160
- Actress Sharon Stone is alleged to have an IQ of 154
From the Past
In 1926, psychologist Dr. Catherine Morris Cox – who had been assisted by Dr. Lewis M. Terman, Dr. Florence L. Goodenaugh, and Dr. Kate Gordon – published a study “of the most eminent men and women” who had lived between 1450 and 1850 to estimate what their IQs might have been. Data from that study as well as other sources around the net were compiled to form the following list. Please drop me a comment if you have additions or corrections (make sure and cite sources).
Also, see Wikipedia’s list of Universal Genius (Polymaths).
Test YOUR IQ
Now that you’ve read all about these really smart people, surely you want to know how you compare? Well, set aside a full 40 minutes and go through this test to determine where you are on the evolutionary chain.
Select the image below and the clock starts when the test loads, so be prepared in order to get the full 40 minutes. Trust me, you’re gonna need it! Oh, and if you answer “A” on every question, you get a 72! (a=72, b=65, c=65, d=65, e=72, f=72, g= 65, and h=65 – Only The Man would help you cheat on an IQ test!)
EDIT: I received the following e-mail from Mike, a former school psychologist of 30 years, regarding the validity of this IQ Test:
…one of the better and possibly fairly accurate IQ tests (11/8/07) seen on the net. Two caveats:
1. This test evaluates visual spatial reasoning skills, and not verbal which some may say would be a bias toward guys.
2. This test does not assess processing speed and ability to make quick/accurate and perhaps more c creative choices.For different view of intelligence away from IQ try: Theory of Multiple Intelligences
If it turns out you are a Genius, join a club! Here’s how to hook up with your intellectual peers:
- The Genius Society
- Mensa International
- International High IQ Society
- Poetic Genius Society
- The Mega Society
- The Triple Nine Society
By the way, why is it that most of the high IQ society Web sites suck so bad? And if I may inquire additionally, why is it that none of them have sections on their sites where they are actually teaching people by translating highly complex issues into understandable language?
Now, for the rest of us (I score just above a moderately intelligent canine, but just below a porpoise), you can just join the One Man’s Blog Society for the Incredibly Average. Believe me, we have a lot more fun around here.
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The person above, named Henry Kirke White, is a True Genius – he is capable of thinking for himself!
Joe
It is uncool to leave a comment and then come back and leave another comment congratulating yourself under an assumed name.
John P.
ok MR.186, try spell check next time, and if its a rhetorical device, it sucked
Don’t take yourself too seriously! It is uncool to use the term “uncool”.
there is a whole lot more to life then quantifying ones slickness of neural paths.
i was totally unawhere that i had a high iq until i reached the age of 28 when i was told by work colleagues that i was arriving to conclusions rapidly according to them.a few months later i sat this rather strange looking set of questions with funny looking diagrams,dots and triangles and supposedly scored in the 99.75 percentile,ha well 15 years later at 42 years of age i could’nt be any happier then driving coaches/buses.so end the petty squabbling and just push on with your lives.
Dear Mark S
What has your happiness got to do with the “discussion” above? Further, who are you to speak of “petty squabbling” and pronounce upon others to do your bidding? Mind you own fucking business!!
Dear mark s
What has your happiness got to do with the “discussion” above. Secondly, who are you to pronounce upon others to do your bidding?
Tom
Unfortunately, I never graduated high school but I notice I my grammar and spelling is better than my cowokers (some of whom are college educated). Some of my co-workers have also mentioned that they feel I have an above average memory and intelligence. A manager went as far as to say that he believes I may have a “photographic” memory. I don’t think so. I think I’m of average intelligence. (I read a lot). I took some online I tests. I scored 114 on one and 140 on another. I think both were wrong. Maybe 100-105.
I’m terrible at math since I never got past algerbra in school. Numbers confuse me. I can write essays froms here ’til Sunday but no equations please!
Is it possible that the people I work with graduated high school with such bad writing skills? In our line of work we have to send brief notes out to the public and it’s quite embarrassing when they send out misspelled, grammatically incorrect notes.
Do they think I’m a little genius because they weren’t taught properly in school?
Wow, I’ve just turned 13, and I took an IQ test last night. I got 125…I mean, I am in GATE classes, but seriously, if I’m smarter than the average adult, that’s just plain sad. =3
The test was kinda lame though…there were about 40 questions asking things like “what # compleats the pattern?” and “which word doesn’t belong?”
plz excuse my spelling-my computers kinda broken =D
hehe ^^ well, JA NE Y’ALL!!
Great answer, I support you wholeheartedly.
IQ test are meant to be used as diagnostic aids. That is, to help predict when a child will not perform well in school and may need help or some special service. For this reason, professional school psychologists, the ones who administer and design such tests, are primarily interested in scores below 100. While those who perform well on these tests obviously do so to varying degrees, IQ test simply aren’t designed to make comparisons on that end of the spectrum. The most remarkable thing about IQ tests is that even though they weren’t designed to be used as pissing contests, they fill that role so well. The second most remarkable thing about IQ tests is that people think it is reasonable to assume that the tests measure something that is not even really defined (intelligence).
Also, I’m convinced that Mensa is a scam that feeds of people’s ego, but would love to be proved wrong. If smart people want to hang out with other smart people, then why pay for the privilege? Doesn’t sound smart to me. Guess it looks good on a resume maybe…
Mensa holds testing days at local venues. Check
Oops. Heres the link again:
I hope it worked that time. If not check Mensa’s america nwebsite for details.
I turned thirteen a month ago and got about a 113, I had absoulutely no idea on some of them, I took another test, but after doing the whole thing, my dad’s stupid block stopped me from seeing the results. But I do have a pretty good memory and am about average at math, but great at spelling, I think I am above average but nothing special.
I think I used to be pretty bright but who really knows. If you score lower, try again til you get it right. So this means what? As an avocation, maybe an actual proclivity, I’m a pretty fair oil painter. I’ll help out at our state fair periodically for MnArtists.org. The Mnartists.org booth is normally quite close to the Minnesota Mensa booth. The artist’s show art work of various types that the members have done and talk to interested people about the arts. The Mensa group appears to offer the interested passersby the opportunity to play what appears to be a version of mummblypegs. The process of producing decent visual art requires some pretty fancy advanced thinking capability. Maybe mummblypegs does too. Which would you feel better about doing?
you mean Mensa.org smart guy! How many times did you say you visited that website?
Comment to 1.13.5.12 – 9.19.12.1.13
I think you meant 1.13.5.14 ? and I’d disagree that the real truth is 9.19.12.1.13, but that’s my opinion.
Online IQ tests are not standardized and are therefore not a valid indicator of someone’s actual intelligence. In order to obtain a valid IQ score you need to be given an IQ test from a trained professional, such as a school psychologist.
That whole post was bizarre. An illiterate genius? Out of curiosity I pasted the link contained in the body and it was dead so I tried the first one in the comment header and my “internets” disconnected… ooooo strange… anyway , excellent blog, I’ll be back.
online tests are garbage. i get 110 everytime and i know for a fact i got damn near every question right. i took other tests and got 147 125 118 and one time even 97. take an actual real standardized proffessional test. i’ve always been extremely smart. beat everybody in chess got 100 on every spelling test. young arthur’s awards. top scores on tests. and i never studied took notes in class or anything like that. i don’t have to. i read at a senior in college level with an 8th grade education. i’ll be damned if i let a shitty ass online test tell me i’m average.
I tried the IQ test and i got 110… although its low… i actually didn’t give much time to some of the tests because i wanted to finish it right away given the time limit of 40 min… i finished the test in approx. 20 min(wasn’t able to catch my time). hopefully i could get a higher score if i took the whole 40 mins and took it more seriously. would that mean my IQ rate is could go higher than 110? i also tried it the 2nd time around and tried random clicking for answers seeing what score would appear even without checking the tests and i got 92…
I got a 127 but I swear I got maybe two questions wrong… kinda fun though
I scored a 124 and I am fifteen.
interesting concept and nice test.
t- you’re a dunce, iq tests are relative but they test the speed at which you answer a question in conjunction with the amount of answers you get right. iq tests test your ability to learn, not the amount of stuff you know.
Yes, you right (Snipe) in saying that an IQ test is based on how well you can comprehend and learn. Me, I scored a 132, I’m good at science and math, but suck at chess. Strange yet true.
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