Is a 106 IQ good for school?
Yes. An IQ of 106 is in the average range, at or just above the exact middle of the population. You score at least as high as about half of people your age, a solid result for school, work and everyday life.
Where 106 sits on the bell curve
An IQ of 106 is 6 points above the average of 100, or 0.4 standard deviations. It is higher than about 66% of people of the same age, shown by the shaded area below. This is the peak of the bell curve, where more people score than anywhere else.
On other IQ scales, the same result would be about 106 on a test with a standard deviation of 16, such as older editions of the Stanford-Binet, and 110 on the Cattell scale, which uses 24. Why scales differ.
IQ 106 meaning: a closer look
An IQ of 106 is higher than about 65% of people. In a class of 30, it would usually rank around 11th. Six points above average may not sound like much, yet it already places you ahead of roughly two thirds of the population, because so many people are packed near the centre of the bell curve. On a timed test, a few extra correct answers in the second half are often the difference between scores in the low and mid 100s.
IQ and school grades: what 240 samples say about a score of 106
A 2015 meta-analysis pooled 240 independent samples with 105,185 students. After correcting for measurement error and range restriction, the correlation between intelligence test scores and school grades was 0.54, or 0.44 before those corrections. The link was strongest in mathematics and science (0.49) and languages (0.44), weaker in art and music (0.31) and almost absent in sport (0.09). It also grew with age, from 0.45 for pupils in grades 1 to 4 to 0.58 in high school. Gender made no difference to its size.
A correlation of 0.54 is large by psychology standards, yet in statistical terms it still leaves around 70% of the differences in grades to other things, such as effort, interest, teaching, sleep and health. A pupil with a 106 IQ is a little above the class average in reasoning, so on average you might expect grades a little above the middle. But an IQ of 106 sets neither a ceiling nor a floor: plenty of students outperform or underperform what their score alone would suggest.
Source: Roth, B., Becker, N., Romeyke, S., Schäfer, S., Domnick, F. and Spinath, F. M. (2015), "Intelligence and school grades: A meta-analysis", Intelligence, 53, 118 to 137.
What 106 looks like among real people
If you lined up 100 people of your age, about 66 would score lower than 106 and about 34 would score the same or higher. The orange dot marks your place in the line.
A score here puts you in the middle of almost any group: about as many people score above you as below.
How precise is a score of 106?
No IQ test measures to the exact point. On a professional test, a result of 106 usually comes with a likely range of about five points either way: 101 to 111. That range runs from the 53rd to the 77th percentile, and it crosses from average into high average.
Because this is the most crowded part of the scale, a retest could easily move you a few places either side of the middle without anything having changed.
On the Assessivo test, each correct answer is worth about 2.5 points, so 106 falls between two possible results: 105 for 20 correct answers and 108 for 21. How our score is worked out.
So if you scored 106 once, a retest on another day could reasonably land anywhere from 101 to 111. Online tests are less precise still, so treat any online result as a rough estimate.
IQ 106 and mental age in children
Early IQ tests for children worked with a "mental age", the age whose typical performance a child matched. The IQ was that mental age divided by the child's real age, times 100. Turned around, the formula shows what a score of 106 would have meant for children of different ages: working ahead of their years.
| Real age | Mental age at IQ 106 |
|---|---|
| 5 | 5 years 4 months |
| 7 | 7 years 5 months |
| 9 | 9 years 6 months |
| 11 | 11 years 8 months |
| 13 | 13 years 9 months |
The same 106 stands for a gap of about 4 months at age 5 but 9 months at 13, because the formula scales with age. That is one reason it broke down for teenagers and adults, whose test performance stops rising every year. Today's tests compare you with people of the same age instead, so a mental age is only a way to picture a child's score, never a description of an adult.
What an IQ of 106 means for you
It sits near the top of the average band, which runs from 90 to 109.
- You reason at least as well as the typical person your age on new problems.
- Almost any course or career is open at this level; what you learn and practise matters much more.
- The upper part of this range is close to high average, and practice or a different test could tip it over 110.
How far 106 is from other levels
How 106 compares with nearby scores
Want a score that isn't listed, or the share of people between two scores? Try the IQ calculator.
| IQ | Percentile | Classification | Score this high or higher |
|---|---|---|---|
| 96 | 39th | Average | 61% |
| 101 | 53rd | Average | 1 in 2 |
| 106 | 66th | Average | 1 in 3 |
| 111 | 77th | High average | 1 in 4 |
| 116 | 86th | High average | 1 in 7 |
Questions about an IQ of 106
What percentile is an IQ of 106?
An IQ of 106 is at about the 66th percentile, which means it is higher than about 66% of people of the same age.
Is 106 a high IQ?
No. 106 is in the average range. High IQ usually refers to scores of 120 or 130 and above.
Can an IQ of 106 get into Mensa?
Not on its own. Mensa accepts the top 2% on an approved, supervised test, which is usually 130 or above. 106 is 24 points below that.
How common is an IQ of 106 or higher?
About 34% of people score 106 or higher, roughly 1 in 3. In a stadium of 50,000 people, about 17,200 would score at this level or above.
Can a student with a 106 IQ get top grades?
Yes. IQ and grades are clearly linked, with a corrected correlation of about 0.54 across 105,185 students, but that still leaves plenty of room for effort, study habits, interest and good teaching. A score of 106 is slightly above average, so nothing in the score itself rules out top marks.
What mental age is an IQ of 106?
Under the old ratio formula, a 9-year-old with an IQ of 106 would perform like a typical child of about 9 years 6 months, roughly 6 months ahead. The idea only works for children: an adult who scores 106 simply did better than most adults of the same age on the test.
Is 106 above average?
Slightly above the exact middle of 100, but still inside the average range of 90 to 109, so it is described as average, not above average.
What is the difference between an IQ of 100 and 106?
A small one. Both are in the average range, and with a professional test's margin of about five points either way, their likely ranges overlap.
Is an IQ of 106 good for a student?
Yes. It is right in the middle of the population, and school results depend at least as much on effort, teaching and interest as on IQ.
See how the middle of the scale is set in our guide to average IQ, or what a good score looks like in what is a good IQ score?. To see how averages differ between countries, read IQ by country. Every score range is in the IQ range chart.
Behind a single score of 106 sit several separate abilities. Read about abstract reasoning, spatial reasoning, verbal reasoning, processing speed and fluid vs crystallized intelligence, or try the free pattern recognition test.
What would you score?
Take the free Assessivo IQ test: 36 questions, 25 minutes, and your estimated IQ score and percentile as soon as you finish.
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