Superior
Roughly the top decile — common in technical and research roles.
What this band represents
The superior band — 120 to 129 — sits at the boundary of the gifted range. People in this band typically learn new abstract material noticeably faster than the population median and report less effort on novel problem-solving tasks. The band is well-represented in research, advanced engineering, theoretical mathematics, competitive scientific programs, and the upper tiers of selective graduate study.
Important context
Superior cognitive ability is a starting point, not a destination. Decades of research on the Study of Mathematically Precocious Youth (SMPY) cohort show that within the top few percentile of cognitive ability, individual differences in interests, motivation, and opportunity drive most of the variance in eventual achievement. Two people both scoring 125 can have wildly different careers depending on what they choose to do with the ability.
A note of caution. A high screener score is encouraging but not a license to skip the work. Domain expertise still requires focused practice — typically thousands of hours.
How this band sits in the population
- Score range: 120–129
- Percentile range: 91st–97th percentile
- Population frequency: Roughly 7% of the population
- z-score range: z 1.33 to 1.93
Frequently asked questions about this band
- What is a "good" IQ score?
- How accurate are online IQ tests?
- Can IQ be improved with practice?
- Why did I get different scores on different IQ tests?