We’ve all heard the name of Albert Einstein evoked whenever a discussion on intelligence comes up. If you’ve ever been accused of being too intelligent for certain people’s tastes, you may have even been called “Einstein” in a sarcastic or derogatory sort of way, as well. With the “average” score being a 100, it seems easy to be impressed by Einstein and Stephen Hawking’s attributed scores of 160 each – until you’ve seen some of the higher ones!
If you’ve ever taken a standard IQ (intelligence quotient) test, you’ll find that it basically has to do with such things as patterns, shapes, and number sequences. You might be asked what number comes next in a series that appear at first to not follow any particular order – until you begin to use your head a bit! That is, after all, the entire point of the test. There’s no point in cheating, because in fact you would only be proving a lack of intelligence by having to seek assistance. I’ve taken similar tests twice on the Internet, with my highest score being a 135, and the other one a 130. However, according to Dr. Al Siebert (author of The Resiliency Advantage and The Survivor Personality), it is worth noting that there are different IQ tests available and all they really tell you is how high you scored based upon which test you took. The best and most critical IQ tests usually can’t even be found on the Internet. These are typically given to you by a psychologist, who may very well give you a particular test that might make you look either more or less intelligent, depending upon its own standard deviation. Basically, a score of 110 or 115 on one test could be in the 120-range on another test, with the same level of intelligence.
With all this in mind, take a look at where some of the following people stand:
American film director, screenwriter, actor and producer Quentin Tarantino is responsible for bringing us such films as Reservoir Dogs (1992), the now infamous Pulp Fiction (1994), and the two Kill Bill movies (2003, 2004). Mr. Tarantino is a confirmed member of MENSA (a society exclusively for highly intelligent people in the upper two-percent), so we can be certain that his score is an accurate one, by this highly esteemed organization’s standards. His IQ score is 160.
Retired General H. Norman Schwarzkopf is best remembered as the Commander in Chief of U.S. Forces in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. “Stormin’ Norman”, as he was called, is another confirmed member of MENSA. General Schwarzkopf scored a 170 on his test.
Sir Isaac Newton, the famed mathematician and physicist responsible for much of what we now know about Gravity and the Three Laws of Motion, is one very brilliant mind from the past who’s intelligence far exceeded the typical man of his day. There is no way of knowing with any actual certainty what Mr. Newton would have scored on an intelligence test, since they did not exist in his time. However, the current estimation is around 190.
No discussion on intelligence would be complete without mention of Leonardo Da Vinci. Leonardo was a renowned painter, sculptor, inventor, mathematician, architect, musician, and scientist of many disciplines. There probably isn’t a person alive today who would argue that his notebooks with futuristic drawings of flying machines and the human anatomy, as well as his research into such topics as hydrodynamics, were not indications of a high degree of intelligence. As with Isaac Newton, modern IQ tests were not available during the late 15th Century and only estimations are available as to what Leonardo would have scored, were he alive to today. Currently, his IQ is estimated to have been between 180 and 220.
The highest IQ score of a living person today is that of Kim Ung Yonga, of South Korea. At the age of 3, Kim was speaking not only Korean, but also Japanese, German, and English – fluently. I don’t know about you, but I was struggling with my native English at that age! A year later, at age 4, he was already hard at work on Calculus! Although it must have helped a great deal to have had two parents who were both college professors, the same still cannot be said of so many others who were also raised in a similar environment. While not a confirmed member of MENSA, Mr. Yonga did take the Stanford-Binet test and scored a whopping 210.
There are many others out there who’s scores or estimated scores, such as Mr. Einstein and Mr. Hawking’s, don’t seem to do them very much justice, in light of their contributions to humanity. The thought of George Washington being estimated at only a 118 and Abraham Lincoln two points below my lowest, at 128, gives me plenty of pause for thought. These two men were greater leaders of this country than I could ever hope to be – yet by modern standards they are not thought of as being particularly intelligent. It is worth considering though, that what an intelligence test does NOT measure is cognitive ability – which is a much broader attribute that can most certainly be improved upon throughout the course of someone’s life. So while your score on an IQ test might not ever get any better, your ability to teach yourself how to learn and improve at whatever it is you do, is entirely up to you.
References:
Nicole Williams, “IQ Scores of Famous People Past and Present,” knol.google.com
Al Siebert, Ph.D., “‘IQ Idiocy’ – Darwinistic Elitism is Idiotic,” THRIVEnet.com
“Quentin Tarantino,” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“What is Mensa?,” Mensa International
“Norman Schwarzkopf Biography,” American Academy of Achievement
“Isaac Newton’s Life ,” – Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences
“Leonardo da Vinci,” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
ngureco, “World’s Most Intelligent Person – Intelligent People – Highest IQ Ever Recorded,” HubPages.com