Is an IQ of 98 normal?
Yes. An IQ of 98 is in the average range, where about half of all people score. It is a little below the exact middle of 100, but well within normal, and a perfectly good result for school, work and everyday life.
Where 98 sits on the bell curve
An IQ of 98 is 2 points below the average of 100, or 0.13 standard deviations. It is higher than about 45% of people of the same age, shown by the shaded area below. Scores in the 90s sit on the steep, crowded slope just left of the peak, so a few points here change your percentile a lot.
On other IQ scales, the same result would be about 98 on a test with a standard deviation of 16, such as older editions of the Stanford-Binet, and 97 on the Cattell scale, which uses 24. Why scales differ.
IQ 98 meaning: a closer look
With a score of 98, about 45 people in 100 would score lower. It is two points below the median, which is less than the gap between two questions answered differently on most tests. A score of 98 shows typical reasoning ability for your age, the result you would expect from the majority of people. If you took an online test and scored 98, the honest summary is simple: average, with all the room in the world for strengths in particular kinds of thinking.
Does speaking two languages sharpen the mind? What 152 studies found
Bilingual people switch between languages all day, and many researchers expected this to train executive functions: the control skills used to resist distractions, shift between tasks and hold information in mind. Lehtonen and colleagues (2018) tested the idea in a meta-analysis of 891 effect sizes from 152 studies of adults, including unpublished data. Before correction, bilinguals showed a very small advantage in inhibition, task shifting and working memory. After correcting for publication bias, no advantage remained, and on verbal fluency there was a small bilingual disadvantage.
Executive function is not the same as IQ, but the skills overlap, which is why the question comes up for bilingual people with a 98 IQ. The fair reading is that speaking two languages has not been shown to raise or lower mental control in adults in any way current studies can reliably detect. The small fluency gap may simply reflect less exposure to each separate language, the authors suggest. A 98 is an average score either way, and the practical benefits of a second language are real.
Source: Lehtonen, Soveri, Laine, Järvenpää, de Bruin and Antfolk (2018), "Is bilingualism associated with enhanced executive functioning in adults? A meta-analytic review", Psychological Bulletin, 144(4).
What 98 looks like among real people
If you lined up 100 people of your age, about 45 would score lower than 98 and about 55 would score the same or higher. The orange dot marks your place in the line.
Most of the people you meet every day score within a few points of this.
How precise is a score of 98?
No IQ test measures to the exact point. On a professional test, a result of 98 usually comes with a likely range of about five points either way: 93 to 103. That range runs from the 32nd to the 58th percentile, all within the average range.
In the 90s a few points make a big difference to the percentile, because so many people score here. That is why a gap of a few points between two tests, or two people, usually means very little.
On the Assessivo test, 98 is the score for 17 correct answers out of 36. How our score is worked out.
So if you scored 98 once, a retest on another day could reasonably land anywhere from 93 to 103. Online tests are less precise still, so treat any online result as a rough estimate.
IQ 98 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 98 would have meant for children of different ages: working a little behind their years.
| Real age | Mental age at IQ 98 |
|---|---|
| 5 | 4 years 11 months |
| 7 | 6 years 10 months |
| 9 | 8 years 10 months |
| 11 | 10 years 9 months |
| 13 | 12 years 9 months |
The same 98 stands for a gap of about 1 month at age 5 but 3 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 98 means for you
It sits in the middle of the average band, which runs from 90 to 109.
- You reason about as well as most people of your age, with a typical balance of speed and accuracy on new problems.
- Most courses, jobs and everyday decisions sit comfortably within this range of ability.
- Two people at 94 and 104 are closer than the numbers suggest: their likely ranges overlap.
How far 98 is from other levels
How 98 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 88 | 21st | Low average | 79% |
| 93 | 32nd | Average | 68% |
| 98 | 45th | Average | 55% |
| 103 | 58th | Average | 1 in 2 |
| 108 | 70th | Average | 1 in 3 |
Questions about an IQ of 98
What percentile is an IQ of 98?
An IQ of 98 is at about the 45th percentile, which means it is higher than about 45% of people of the same age.
Is 98 a high IQ?
No. 98 is in the average range. High IQ usually refers to scores of 120 or 130 and above.
Can an IQ of 98 get into Mensa?
Not on its own. Mensa accepts the top 2% on an approved, supervised test, which is usually 130 or above. 98 is 32 points below that.
How common is an IQ of 98 or higher?
About 55% of people score 98 or higher, roughly 1 in 2. In a stadium of 50,000 people, about 27,700 would score at this level or above.
Does being bilingual raise a 98 IQ?
There is no good evidence that it does. A 2018 meta-analysis of 152 studies on adults found that a very small bilingual edge on mental control tasks disappeared after correcting for publication bias. Speaking two languages has many practical benefits, but a higher IQ score is not a proven one.
What mental age is an IQ of 98?
Under the old ratio formula, a 9-year-old with an IQ of 98 would perform like a typical child of about 8 years 10 months, roughly 2 months behind. The idea only works for children: an adult who scores 98 simply did less well than most adults of the same age on the test.
Is an IQ of 98 normal?
Yes. 98 is in the average range of 90 to 109, which covers about half of all people. Nothing about it is unusual.
Why is 98 below 100 if it is average?
100 is the exact middle, but "average" is a band, not a single number. Psychologists call the whole range from 90 to 109 average because the differences within it are small and within a test's margin of error.
Is an IQ of 98 good enough for university?
Yes. Universities select on qualifications, not IQ, and people with average scores succeed on degree courses every year. Effort, interest and study habits make a bigger difference.
Our guide to average IQ explains why the middle is always 100, and what counts as a good IQ score puts the 90s in context. National averages, and why they are disputed, are covered in average IQ by country. Every score range is in the IQ range chart.
An IQ test arrives at a score like 98 by combining several kinds of task. Learn more about verbal reasoning, processing speed, fluid vs crystallized intelligence, abstract reasoning and spatial reasoning, 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.
Take the free IQ test