What an IQ of 157 means
An IQ of 157 is higher than about 99.992% of people: roughly 1 in 14,000 score 157 or more. It is in the very high range, 3.8 standard deviations above the average of 100.
The amber band is the likely range on a retake of our test, 9 points either side. The curve is the normal distribution with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.
Our test measures up to 145, so it would report a score this high as "above 145". The figures on this page are for the IQ scale itself.
Is an IQ of 157 good?
Yes. It is higher than about 99.992% of people, inside the top 2% that Mensa uses as its entry line.
What percentile is an IQ of 157?
An IQ of 157 is at the 99th percentile: it is higher than 99.992% of people on a scale with a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of 15.
Tests that use a different standard deviation give the same rarity a different number: about 161 on a 16-point scale such as older Stanford-Binet editions, and about 191 on the 24-point Cattell scale.
How rare is an IQ of 157?
About 1 in 14,000 people score 157 or higher. In a group of 1,000 people, about 0 would be expected to score that high or higher.
How much could a retake change it?
No test gives the same score twice. The likely range is where about 90 in 100 retakes would land, and its width depends on how reliable the test is.1
| Test | Margin of error | Likely range |
|---|---|---|
| Our test (reliability 0.87) | ±9 | 148 to 166 |
| A test with reliability 0.90 | ±8 | 149 to 165 |
| A test with reliability 0.95 | ±6 | 151 to 163 |
The margin is 1.645 standard errors of measurement, which covers about 90% of retakes.
What an IQ of 157 does not tell you
A score describes how someone did on one set of reasoning tasks on one day. It does not measure what a person knows, how hard they work or what they will achieve.
An online test is for interest. For a score that counts for school, work or health, a psychologist can give a full assessment in person.
Nearby scores
Sources
- American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association and National Council on Measurement in Education (2014). Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing, chapter 2: Reliability/Precision and Errors of Measurement. www.testingstandards.net/open-access-files.html
First published 13 November 2026.