I'm highly intelligent

[commonfactors]

OK, clickbait title.

How much do you think about how intelligent you are (or aren't)? What's the view like from where you are? Would you choose to be different?

I've never tested but guess I'm about 125-130. It's a weird level: like being the best sports person in high school. Enough to make it an important part of one's identity growing up (well, mine. Not cool, but we're all anonymous here), but not rare enough to be genuinely noteworthy or impressive to anyone else. I think I'd choose to be much smarter if I could, out of curiosity or vanity, but I also think it might be quite a lonely life up there.

This is absolutely the best line, if you are Stephen Hawking!

I always think about how much I don’t know and how much I don’t understand so I don’t think I will ever class myself as intelligent.

There is still so much I would want to know about

My IQ is about 165.

I did a test in Cosmopolitan magazine. I also found out that I am a "winter" colouring, so all in all it was a very productive day

I've heard a couple of people say, "I'm really intelligent," and my opinion of every single one was that they seem like a bit of idiot!

The benchmarks I have are that an IQ test done when I was 5 or 6 (due, I think, to a combination of advanced language skills and delayed social and communication skills) indicated that I had an IQ of around 140, and I did a degree that was acknowledged to require an IQ of at least 120. But I have gaps in my ability to retain an understanding of certain sorts of tasks, and if you assessed me by my ability to navigate using a map and compass, or my proficiency at chess, you'd conclude that I was actually quite stupid.

i have a great memory and good general knowledge so do well in quizzes etc but I'd be hopeless at an IQ test as my brain just can't do those sort of puzzley things so I wouldn't get a very high score,

I know a little about a lot. I can't do anything specifically clever like speaking another language fluently or doing complex maths in my head, and I don't think I'd score exceptionally in an IQ test as I'm not 'that kind' of intelligent.

But I do have a 1st class degree in an 'intellectual' subject from a top UK uni, all As at A-level and 7 As and 2 Bs at GCSE, so that puts me above average I guess. I do a job that needs very good English, attention to detail and being able to understand a complex field without much help in doing so. I'm interested in a wide variety of areas and can pull in a lot of cultural references; I can read and enjoy long, complex or not super-eventful books.

I definitely think there are different kinds of intelligence - I knew a hairdresser who was rather dizzy and daft, but was really technically skilled in coming up with new dyeing and styling techniques, or like @NigellaDelia mentioned you can have people who aren't booksmart but are incredibly perceptive about other people (I'm certainly not!) And like @deag says - some 'average' people are really good at a niche thing

I’ll be in it!

Nobody’s coming on here to tell you how thick they are. Most people want to boast about how intelligent they are, but throw something in to make them sound a bit more ordinary, just so that we don’t think they’re full of themselves.

I was clever at school in the big fish in a small pond way
Went to uni and had a shock!
I would say I'm above average and could have used my intelligence in a much better way as an adult if I had other skills - confidence, ambition, better social skills

I was tested (by Mensa, under exam conditions) and my IQ was 176. I still have the gold card they gave me to prove it

Not you again, OP. Wasn’t the AMA enough for you?

It means bollocks doesn’t it? Mine was tested - under exam conditions as per PP - and was in the 170s. Last night I put a tube of toothpaste on the charger for my electric toothbrush instead of my toothbrush. Only realised this morning when my toothbrush wasn’t charged up.

IQ tests only measure verbal, mathematical, and visio -spatial intelligence. They don’t measure empathy, emotional intelligence, musical, artistic, or sporting abilities, common sense, personality traits, persistence, interests, or a whole host of other characteristics. It’s one piece of the puzzle that is you, but it is by no means the whole, or anything close to the whole, story.

My DM had a high IQ and she wasn't bright at all - just good at IQ tests. It just didn't translate into real life, in that she wasn't logical and she was very dogmatic.

DF likely had a lower IQ (probably 125-130) and he was what you'd call an intellectual (which just means being very well read and knowing about classical music etc).

I'm the same as you OP (125-130) and to be honest, I do think I'm bright but I'm not exceptional. I'm terrible at maths. However, I do find most people very very dull.

DS has a very high IQ - not measured by he's far more clever than anyone else in the family. He's also more autistic than any of us. He struggles a lot socially.

I thought IQ was a normal distribution.
This means if 2/3rd are 85-115, 1/6 are over 115 as 1/6 are under, and so on.
Im pretty sure I’m right but all these intelligent people here didn’t spot this.
Or I’m a classic case of thinking myself more intelligent than I am.

That's something a mad genius would do though....😆

Yes. I don't think it would have quite the same impact coming from the likes of me! 😁

Can relate. Mine was measured once and was 140 but I failed my maths GCSE twice. I'm amazing at sudoku, crosswords and puzzles though 🤣

Autistic. In top 0.5%, not that it shows. Head full of useless trivia.

Logic is common sense and I like numbers and patterns. Useless with geography. Terrible at sports. Everyone is different. Even geniuses would have their knowledge gaps.

Around 15% of people have an IQ under 85. 2% under 70.

I come in the top 5% but I have inattentive ADHD so it doesn't mean anything. As I had this before ADHD was identified i managed to eff my life up with inappropriate behaviour.

Im luck i have a DH who loves me despite my scattinesss

No source, and those %s don't add up. Plus a whole category has been omitted (IQ under 85). Disregard.

I have no idea what my IQ is but I know I'm intelligent. I received a very high percentage academic scholarship at a top girls independent and it was between me and the other scholarship girl as to who was the brightest. I got top grades at GCSE without an ounce of effort or revision.

But then it all went to pot for A levels when I discovered boys, alcohol, clubbing and found out I couldn't just coast for A levels and actually had to work. Id never worked for anything before and couldn't do it. I went from being an Oxbridge medicine sure thing to barely scraping Bs. It took me until my final year of uni to actually learn how to revise and put effort into my work.

😂😂

I have done a couple of the practice tests but not the formal supervised test. I was told I would probably qualify for Mensa and the practice test confirmed it. The tests were very similar to the ones I did to get my place at grammar school and so I know I am fairly good at those.

I do have a PhD and had a career built on being a strong lateral thinker but I have an appalling memory. I'm good at maths and science but found exams in subjects that required remembering facts such as history very hard.

I love doing cryptic crosswords and other puzzles, but my poor memory is a hinderance when it comes to general knowledge quizzes (I'm one of those that knows the answer once somebody else has said it or I remember it ten minutes after the end of the quiz!)