Superior Intellect? Not so fast, Mr. Reporter

Recently, out of sheer boredom, I took an online Intelligence Quotient (otherwise known as IQ) test. While I consider myself smarter than your average bear, no one has ever used the word “intellect” and my name in the same sentence. Ever. When I left college, I didn’t feel like I knew more, but that I didn’t know less, if that makes any sense at all. See what I mean?

Anyway, getting back to the IQ test. The questions comprised the same type queries you see in those brain-scrambling exams we endured periodically in school. Questions like, which number is out of place in the sequence, or which of these doesn’t belong. They got harder: Unscramble the 12 letters to identify either a football player, Supreme Court justice, president, or singer.

Much to my surprise, the score came back a 125. The Wechsler Intelligence Scale classifies an IQ Score of 125 as superior intelligence. A score of 125 or higher, according to this Wechsler fellow, is higher than 95.2 percent of the general population.

Before you call me to emphatically dispute my score, let me put you at ease. An intelligence quotient, or IQ, is a score derived from one of several standardized tests designed to assess intelligence. The abbreviation “IQ” comes from the German term Intelligenz-Quotient, originally conveived by psychologist William Stern. The mean (average) score within an age group is set to 100 and the standard deviation almost always to 15. Two-thirds of the population have IQ scores within that range, or  85-115. It is estimated that  2.5 percent of people are very superior in intelligence (over 130), depending on which study you believe.

My dubious IQ puts me in good stead. Bill Clinton’s IQ score is three points lower than his wife’s at 137. Arnold Schwarzenegger  comes in with a score of 135. Both Jodie Foster and Nicole Kidman have IQ scores of 132. At the same time, the late pop artist Andy Warhol came in at an 86, while former Presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Gerald Ford scored 122 and 121 respectively.

So what does this all mean? Sources say although IQ attempts to measure some notion of intelligence, it may fail to act as an accurate measure of intelligence in its broadest sense. In other words, I am of average intellect, despite the accomplishments of my esteemed colleagues mentioned above.

I never felt better about myself. I think..