.. To think that most things in life are on a bell curve and therefore.......

[seeker]

....... generally most things are perfectly fine.

Yes, I agree. I also believe in the 80/20 rule. 80% of the time, all is fine.

what does on a bell curve mean?

In as such as everything plods on nicely for ages, you think everything is great, then one dramatic thing occurs so you plummet to rockbottom, to start building back up to happy again?

If so, yes, my experience!

Imagine a graph shaped like a bell. The top of the bell is average- most things belong there and slightly on either side. The are a few exceptions that fall at the extreme either side- but most stuff is in the middle.

Like IQ- most people are round about 100 or so- deviating a few points on either side. There are exceptions at both ends of the scale, but not many.

The trouble is, we hear about the extreme ends, so we think that's what life is like. But it isn't. Like Poppy said, 80% is in that top bit of the curve.

I like the thought of that seeker. Sometimes on MN the extremes seem like the norm IYKWIM though.

is the average iq really 100?

Yep the system is designed lilt that. Average person 100. The middle of the bell curve.

You know, seeker, I wonder if you are me because I use the phrase "everything's on a bell curve" quite often in arguments. Mostly imaginary arguments - I tend to avoid them irl:-)

I have to remind myself of it, though, every time I read a story in the DM about the family with 12 kids on benefits and they have an eight bedroom house paid for by the council, or a parent who's gone out clubbing and left their kids starve to death, or - well, you get the idea. They're extremes, and they're rare.

Most people are OK, most of the time, even on MN :)

I find the iq thing odd. Where are all the people with below 100%? I know the obvious ones but compared to the amount of people I know who are above 100%...

And yes op I agree. As people tend to post more about the extremes in their lives it can feel very much more needle shaped but in reality the top of the bell is very wide

IQ is a number, not a percentage. The people who score less than 100 may have learning difficulties.

But it's not 100%- it's an IQ score of 100.

Learning difficulties usually starts at c.

There is a graph here

And having an IQ below 100 is not the definition of learning difficulties.

Learning difficulties is a non-specific term.
Learning disability is generally defined as an IQ of below 70.

It's not 100%-it's a score of 100. And you can be a bit below 100 and not have learning difficulties and a bit below and not be super clever.

Sorry yea I didn't mean to write 100% I mean obviously I did be wise that's what I wrote but by the time I for my phone to actually write what I bloody wanted it to write I has confused even mysf as to what I wa trying to say

Even worse my score is above 100

That's what I meant though. The obvious ones being the ones who have learning difficulties but so many of the people I know would score above 100 where are all the ones scoring under?

bronze I reckon that the ones with IQs below a hundred don't go around mentioning it!

Also, the only people I know who've had their IQs formally measured it's because they were doing really really well at school.

There roughly are as many people with an IQ of 90 as have an IQ of 110.

I think there are lots of people who lead completely normal lives and their IQ falls around the 95-105 mark. I can think of loads. These are not people with learning difficulties! They are just normal people.

On MN everyone's kids are Oxbridge material :) . But as we know from the other thread, only 1-2% of people can make it to Oxbridge.

I went to a comp where there were 7 forms per year. So, about 200 kids in the year. I would say the top two streams were above average, 4 classes after that were probably grouped around the 100 mark. And there was one class for children with LD.

That seems normal to me.

YANBU - hadn't thought of it like that but totally see what you mean

Maybe they're on nm