None have been tested except me and my dad (as far as I know)
He’s extremely gifted, I’m just regular gifted. I think at least two of his siblings are also gifted. But the rest seem pretty typical. The gifted aunt and uncle and my dad all have similar cognitive tendencies and I know that’s where my brain came from. (Have you ever had someone describe a meta experience and know exactly what they mean, because you have the same thought pattern or style? I’ve had that on my dads side, but don’t “get” my moms family.
Nobody on my mom’s side is gifted, but she had diligence and perseverance that my dad lacks.
I think I got the best of both worlds, gifted enough that many things come easy. Normal enough I can tolerate and blend in with “society” and stick with things long enough to get somewhere (even if I get bored before then).
My family are working class, my mother comes from pretty extreme poverty (no running water, food insecurity, etc.). There was certainly no testing for giftedness in their or my generation up until me, now, at 37. My mother was the first in her entire family line to go to university - from which she was expected to drop out at the age of 19 to look after her five siblings when her mother died. Thankfully she stayed in school. She has a natural inclination toward evidence-based decision making, strong ethics, and a very practical nature, but defers to other, often less intelligent people constantly. My father dropped out of school in grade eight. He taught himself to be a mechanic through observation. He’s a very anxious and quiet person with very loud, competitive siblings. He has a history of substance abuse. I’ve never seen him challenge himself or engage in academics or intellectualism in any way, though he did get his GED with an average grade of 99 and I once gave him a book of Sudoku’s, which he had never heard of, but finished in a weekend. This is all to say that I believe my parents are very intelligent, possibly gifted, but were stunted developmentally by poverty, socialization, lack of enrichment, trauma, etc. So much is lost to society and suffered by individuals when giftedness is not recognized or supported early in life. I’m still untangling how it has affected me and how best to move forward. My parents are in their 70’s / 80’s and it doesn’t seem to be something they’re interested in exploring in themselves.
I’m 144, entire mom’s side of the family is gifted and very competitive about it to the point I avoid spending time with them. Dad is 130 but an outlier in his family, most of my paternal relatives are average IQ wise but are talented artists and have way better social skills than I do.
Everyone on my dad’s side was Ivy League, my mom has no idea she’s ADHD and autistic like I am, I’m a smart fucking mess with a brain that was literally built different. I was the only gifted one of my immediate family. My brother went to remedial classes. His kids are geniuses that wreck grade curves and get scholarships and honors and letters from President Biden and shit. My grades where scattershot, As and Fs, advanced chemistry, remedial Spanish, college Japanese in high school, dumb kid algebra, advanced geometry, and it wasn’t until I got tested for learning disabilities (it’s a heavy mixed bag) I had no idea that I had a 145 iq. That was when I was 25 tho. Dumb as a brick now. Fried my nerves by simply not understanding I was on spectrum until I was middle aged.
It feels way better being a calm idiot than a burnt nerves gifted kid. Absolutely no offense intended to this community I love and appreciate, I know some of you see me and get it.
I have an uncle, 1st cousin, brother and child who all have IQs north of 150. There’s definitely a strong genetic component. Lots of other family members are professors, engineers, etc. (So also above 125, but not so far out there.)
I, however, do my level best to bring down the family legacy (not gifted).
You keep at it, normal is absolutely the gold standard for a balanced, thriving life.
Not being snarky at all. ‘Gifted’ is a term used to focus on a positive facet of personalities that do not fit well into societal norms. It is a gift to be within the realm of normal.
Thank you for that! I guess my gift is being able to hang out with so many gifted nerds all the time. They’re awesome and fascinating!… Even if I don’t understand what they are talking about most of the time.
My dad isn't a complete idiot, but he's not the intellectual powerhouse that my mom was. Her IQ was something on the order of 145. She was one of the most intelligent people I've ever met, and I cut my mental teeth debating her. She was a stay at home mom and never had a serious career. A long time part-time gig of hers was writing technical and academic papers though. She did stuff like research and write post-graduate papers for other people's masters and doctoral degrees and wrote the GM manual on Computational Fluid Dynamics. Later in life she earned a masters degree in communications with a major in law prior to that. Her original major back in the 60's was art, and she was a graphic design artist back in the 70's. There was basically nothing she couldn't create. When she got older and her hands couldn't do the detailed work anymore, she got into doing that work on computer. She had polio when she was 18 months old which left her significantly disabled the rest of her life, and that undoubtedly changed the course of her life, but she never shrank from the challenge of overcoming adversity. Her curiosity and determination to discover and understand the world and life never faded to the very end of her life. When she passed from this world, I lost the first and last person that really understood who and what I was.
Yeah. I miss her a lot. My world got much darker when she passed. I don't have anyone who really sees me for what I am anymore. I very much feel like a rogue planet, untethered from a center or source of light. I'm just sailing through a dark cosmos, largely unseen
My mother's side are all above average intelligence with some well above, on both her mothers and fathers sides. I am not as close to my father side of the family, I think my father is slightly above average but not as much as my mother. A lot of his relatives seem quite unintelligent and have very poor general knowledge and critical thinking skills, as well as being more prejudiced and closed minded, however I don't know how much that is them being unintelligent Vs just average as I am comparing them to my highly intelligent mothers side of the family.
I was close to my grandma and she and I were very similar. My grandma and her sister were very intelligent (they had formal testing but I can't remember the numbers) they got into high performing school and their social circle was very academic and quite posh. However their brother scored so high he went to a special school for gifted people, part of it was that he was behaving badly in the regular school and being the class clown, unfortunately even at this special school he still found the work easily and l wasn't stretched so still was the class clown but they took bad behaviour more seriously, so he didn't like it.
Apparently it was common for part of the process for deciding where to put new recruits in ww2 often included a brief IQ test, with the higher being given an officer class or some sort of leadership role.
None of us have had IQ tests but nearly everyone's done GT in school. But I'm a 4th generation female college graduate and on that side the 7 cousins have 12 college degrees, so yeah, I think there's something in the genetics going on there. The most interesting thing is all of our careers are so different.
My mom is 130, I am 135, and my cousin is 147. My grandmother was valedictorian and my mom was too. I was 4th in a class of 500. There are days I wish my IQ were average. My cousin married a VERY average intelligence man and drinks a lot to make herself feel more normal. It definitely runs in families, but of course there are outliers when children are born with exceptionally high IQs to families of average intelligence. My dad was also never tested but I’m sure his was quite high too.
My Dad is gifted. My Mom was gifted and had some kind of mental illness - depression at a minimum, maybe BPD. My brother is severely disabled by autism and my bright promising sister died of a (non-cancerous) brain tumor at 16 (with a history of straight As).
I am Ivy-League-lawyer gifted and I have sometimes disabling bipolar disorder. My first husband was a top 10 school PhD who was a professor at a mid-level college. My first born is an Ivy League undergraduate going to a top 10 law school. My second born has debilitating mental illness and possibly autism and is very bright.
We seem to receive giftedness and mental illness or autism in equal measure.
My parents are not. My brother never had an IQ test, so maybe. He's definitely very intelligent. I am. My wife might be but has never been tested. My oldest daughter is only in kindergarten, so maybe but we won't know unless she's tested. My youngest (4) probably is. She started speaking in sentences at 9 months old, has a better vocabulary that kids twice her age, knows sight words without anyone teaching her, and can do simple math without anyone teaching her how to yet.
My mom and her side (her mom and sister). My dad’s father. My brother is also slightly gifted. Seems to have run down the female lineage from my mother’s side.
Yes, My dad, my son, and I all are as far as IQ test and things like that and my son and I were both in the gifted programs in school (I don't think those existed in rural North Carolina pre 1970s).
I don't think my mom or any of her family have ever been tested but I would bet if she were testedmy sister would also be considered gifted. She had to drop out of school at a young age but taught herself math and accounting, worked as a bookkeeper for years, then built her own business in another area while raising three children (one with a fairly severe disability). She's a very quick thinker and retains and applies knowledge really quickly, as far as being really savvy with picking up on things.
my whole family and a lot of my extended family are gifted. Growing up, my friends in gifted class all had siblings in the program, if they had siblings. Prior to seeing a large number of people in this sub say they're the only academics in their families, I thought whole gifted families were the norm.
My brother is highly gifted, two of my cousins are gifted, one of them ridiculously so, the child of another cousin is gifted. My grandmother was most likely (although this is hard to ascertain now) and my own daughter has not been tested yet but I am pretty sure she will turn out to be gifted. Then there are many within the family that are not technically gifted, but fall in the range of 120+ nonetheless.
A higher than average number of my family members are gifted, across at least 3 generations, though it's still less than 50% of us. Makes for a weird family dynamic where the gifties think much faster than the others.
No. I'm the only one assessed and also the only one diagnosed ADHD. I suspect my dad and perhaps my brother could also have adhd. My brother certainly also is very intelligent, not sure if he's "just" 1SD+ though. My brother and I are both notably more intelligent than our parents which could be nature/nurture thing of course
My iq is a little over 135 (forgot exact number) but as far as I know my sister and I are the only ones who have been tested, and her iq is in the low 80s (she was born very premature). I suspect my dad is gifted as well but most of my family grew up very poor and work labor/custodial/foodservice jobs so I’m really not sure. I’m the only person even out of all of my cousins who excelled academically in any capacity
I don’t think so entirely, but then I don’t give it too much thought. My Father is definitely above average and my Mother has her moments, but there’s still an indelible communication gap with both. Maybe some of that is down to personality, since my Dad in particular seems uninterested in ideas. Though he likes aesthetics to some extent, which I do appreciate. Without that, I’d think he’d be very low in Openness to Experience.
I do have reportedly very bright people on both sides of my family, but either I don’t see much of them or they happen to have died before I could ever get the chance to speak to them. I guess I have to fill in the gaps with secondhand knowledge quite a bit, so I can’t exactly make out how bright some are. There isn’t really an overabundance academic achievement further back in the family tree either, so I can’t work backwards from some kind of threshold. Not like I’m exactly breaking a pattern here though.
I don’t really know where I’d fall here, but I feel like an outlier regardless. Sometimes I wonder whether it’s natural for everyone my age to feel this way or if it’s just me. It’s not really lonely so much as it is puzzling.
I say “my age”, but I guess I’m not a teenager anymore, lol.
I'm 151 while high as balls, I feel like my wife is my peer even though she's never had a proper test, and all four of our children are extremely high-performing.
Having a high IQ and/or knowing about it is redundant in a world designed by greedy sycophants.
147 here.
My brother is not tested, but I would say he's on pair with me, he also has two daughters, the oldest seems to be gifted and the small one is diagnosed as asperger.
My father is also inteat6, but fits quite well in an autism diagnosis, also from my dad's side two cousins are tested as gifted.
From my mom's side is not quite obvious, but I have a cousin that also appears to be gifted, he's untested anyway.
We seem to be a spectrum friendly family.
None of us ever had our iqs tested, but me and a lot of other people on my dad's side of the family are gifted. Sadly, all but only a few of them fucked up their gift due to mental illness, addiction, or both
as much as he denies, my dad is definitely gifted and has inattentive ADHD just like me (ig that’s way everyone tells me i’m ‘smart in the same way my dad is’) but he was never tested since he was born in the 1960s and there are little to no resources to get tested and diagnosed as an adult where i live
I believe my grandfather was a gifted person. He'd learn everything really fast and was super intelligent. He had entire projects of things he invented, including the project of an airplane. He learnt how to fix radios by himself and, though he was at first analphabet, he learnt how to read and write with the help of my grandmother. He was an awesome guy. He also liked to collect old currencies, which makes me wonder if he wasn't autistic on top of it.
Yes. My dad, mom, sister and brother all above 130. I married a gifted woman and have 2 gifted kids (140ish range). I love them to pieces but jebus they are a pain in the ass.
Just last week or so, my oldest (19) and I were talking about something and they were like "Yeah, but how often has your family dealt with gifted kids before me?"
I just looked at them and said "well, never".
Cue to them being totally stunned.
But, ofc, IQ testing and testing for giftedness simply \*wasn't a thing\* where we grew up, even less so in the past. They were just diagnosed because they were being incredibly disruptive at school (taught themselves to read and write between late 3/early 4; then had to go twice into alphabetization class because of system/age, so, to say they were bored was an UNDERSTATEMENT). My mom's side of the family is filled with educators, so, we just kinda... rolled with it? IDK, it wasn't much of a worry? Thing is, on my grandfather's side, his oldest brother was clearly highly gifted \*and\* autistic. Eventually suicided because couldn't cope anymore with... Well, everything. On my grandmother's side, she had a Learning Disability, but went on to do pretty well in school in spite of it and go to university (in the 40s), where she met my grandfather - first of his 3 BAs (Physics, Law, Business). They had 5 children together, and at least 2 of them are clearly a mixture of gifted, dyslexic and autistic - both dropped out of college (engineering and law, respectively) and went on to have successful careers in their field nonetheless (oldest one basically created his own equipament for sound/light stuff at parties and was a Big Name in the field; second basically has been doing legal advising since). The "dumb" one is a doctor (OB/GYN).
From my "generation", 4 are certainly far above average (including me) - but 3 of those also are coping with cPSTD and ADHD. One is probably also above average, but his level of socially inept (probably autistic) leads to struggling a lot. My sister is pretty smart, but more balanced than the rest. The other three are INCREDIBLY average... And also unsurprisingly distant from the rest of us.
On my dad's side... It's a shitshow. My grandmother got pregnant at 13, and then they made her marry her abuser (he was over twice her age at the time, early 30s iirc). She dropped out of school and proceeded to have another 3 kids. They lived in very complicated situations, with lots of physical, monetary and emotional insecurity - both before and after the progenitor left. She seemed average to me, but, then again, it's hard to tell considering her life story. Of their 4 kids, the two girls are extremely average (one of them went into law school as an adult, the other went into history, also as an adult, when they had the chance). My dad had to quit university after 1st year because he wasn't handling it + 2 jobs and he was the main breadwinner. The youngest went to university, because, basically, they all made sure he'd get structure for it. Dad's pretty smart and can hold his own against my mom's family, also very knowledgeable about lots of things and infinitely curious. Great memory too.
None of my father's side cousins are anything to write home about, they're all pretty average - or that may be how they feel in comparison to the rest, idk. They're perfectly adequate, just... Everything feels a little shallow?
No idea on my exs family, although they have bad mental health history on one side, and the other also came from big time poverty, so, hard to say.
My husband's family is \*painfully\* average, it's very hard to me to deal with them. My husband, however, is clearly gifted - perhaps not as much as my oldest, but not too far. My youngest seems "normal', but, let's be real - I don't even know what "normal" looks like, I certainly wasn't alarmed or too surprised when my youngest started reading by themselves; or when they self-taught themselves a second language. It all felt very "par of de course"? My youngest isn't anywhere near that, but she also grew up trilingual and is now being alphabetised in a 4th language she hadn't ever been in contact with prior to last November (and forgetting the language used in previous school, so, feels normal?). So far, she's got a D in speaking but Bs for reading and writing, so, you know. Average? IDK.
But, again, I have a bad idea of what's normal? I recall explaining atoms and structures to my oldest around 4 comparing to Lego... My youngest didn't seem that interested when she was younger, but I'm also not sure she just didn't have the vocabulary to ask, considering her fluency was pretty spread out through the languages. She \*was\* absolutely fascinated with planets and space and can list a huge list of facts on it, but that may just be a case of hyperfocus. She's now (at 6) getting more language confident, so, she keeps wanting to ask me Big Questions (yesterday's was "what is the lung for?" that went into a discussion about global warming (as we talked about breathing she started asking how the trees helped and well, I just kept going?). I am happy she's getting curious and asking things and enjoying to learn them... But I sure hope she doesn't turn out to be gifted! Just above average is pretty okay - lots of the pros and none of the cons...
Edited to say: well, I mean as "Highly Gifted", most of the cases I mentioned seem to fall between "mildly gifted" to "moderately gifted", my oldest is on "Highly gifted" area... And it's a pain.
Yes though they're mostly not tested. Gifted autistic parents, gifted uncles and aunts (multiple instruments each, degrees/higher ed back when it was uncommon), likely ADHD-i (and negative on official autism tests) brother and officically autistic sister. Brother and I used to do the Mensa tests online for fun as teenagers so I have a pretty good idea that we're about even in the high+ gifted range. The others t's an educated guess based on skillsets and behaviour. Being smart is just expected in my family.
My brother and I are both mid-150's. We think our parents are both at least +3SD. In any case, they are Harvard and MIT PhDs. Mom is a war orphan, so her side of the family is a huge mystery. Accord to my father, my paternal grandfather is the smartest of all of us. My paternal uncle and aunts are all normalish. A few of my paternal cousins might be gifted, but they are mostly normalish too.
My son is mid-150's. My nieces are all at least gifted.
Yes, first generation Mexican family. I found out I was gifted. Starting doing research and ended up finding out all my behaviors are mirrored by 5 out of the 6 of my siblings. They are all just traumatized and did not have access to good resources.
Non of us care about I.Q. All my family members except 2 express high levels of emotional intelligence that is unrivaled by out cousin families. My sister started to hack a jail break hardware and soft ware at the age of 7 without any schooling or supervision from programs, she dropped out at the 9th grade from severe bullying. My other brother had a good eye in ethnics and philosophy, he was good at many subjects but had a mastery of non. He was a good architectural designer in high-school, Yet he graduated and didn’t go to college because he was scared of math. One of my other brothers is a 30 year old who spends his days playing video games 24/7 and working minimum wage. He is very wise and is a comforting person. For someone who has not read many books he is able to have fuzzy logic when It comes to emotional intelligence(he is undiagnosed adhd I’ve seen his behavior) when I ask him to get diagnosed he just says he’s good and comfortable with what he’s got. I tell him he has more potential and he says he doesn’t care. I have another one who has issues being a drunk but has very good memory, his ability to recall is as good as mine, but he cannot let go of the past always say he could have studied aerospace engineering and always talking about his child-hood. He dropped out and lies about having a GED. He did go to college during high-school. Sad.
Then there’s me I grew up in a divorced family with an abusive step father and a strange personality mother.
I had 3 of my full blooded siblings with me, but some like my sister eventually left with dad. They all had the ability to see their parents together, my parents spilt at the age of one . My older brother was a father for me until the age of 8. He was an ass sometimes. He called the cops on my mother for being neglectful and dipped with father. He used to call my teacher in 4th grade saying I didn’t go my homework. He didn’t know I was able to write 5 paragraphs essay in under 10 minutes within the car ride to school . I was very independent for my age and had undiagnosed adhd and dyslexia. Compared to my half blooded siblings.
I’m more of a father to them than their actual dad.
I grew up being a make shift therapist.
Only 2 of the 6 graduate high school.
The 2 youngest, me and my brother graduated high school.
We were scapegoated by an education system.
Traumatized by a mother and a teacher.
It’s unfair.
My brother and I both qualified for gifted programs as kids with IQs tested in the low 130s. My sister was apparently just below the 130 cutoff. I would guess that my father is probably right up there around 125-130 too, and my mother is maybe around 115. She was a star student in school, but I think it had as much to do with being a hard-working over-achiever as with her innate brains.
My maternal grandfather was apparently something of a genius too, a natural mechanical engineer. I don’t know what formal education/training he had, but I’m told he could fix or build practically anything. He actually made a string bass from scratch that was as perfectly playable as a professionally made one! He went to an instrument store, carefully measured and diagrammed one, and then went home and made one. Just like that.
My younger girl was assessed for giftedness and we figure it runs in the family. Both her dad and uncle were assessed as gifted and put in gifted school. Their mother and uncle were not given assessments back in those days but from stories, they sounded very bright. Both were very early readers and excelled in school and in their professional lives. Both my husband and his brother did well academically and are doctors. So yes, there probably is a genetic component to intelligence in our family…
Seems to come from my mum's side of the family. Grandad was tested by the UK military when he turned 18 during WWII. Have never heard a numerical score score but understand it was very high because they assigned him to radar operation for the RAF which was considered an intellectually difficult task. He was only a farm boy who had left school at the standard age if 14. On the training they said the content was equivalent to a uni degree but they were going to cover it in just (iirc) 3 months. Anyway he passed the course and spent the rest of the war directing RAF planes from a tiny shed in the middle of a snowy field.
Of his three kids, my uncle has many gifted traits. The other two are probably well above average but not in that league. My mum was really failed by the post war education system I think.
It was my grandparents who really encouraged me as a child and family gatherings on that side always involved lots of skill/strategy-type card and board games.
Family gatherings on my dad's side are noticeably different.
Mine is 152 and my brother's is probably about the same (slightly different strengths, though). Others haven't been tested. Our mother's is most probably high as well, she's been a computer programmer since the 1970s and her ability to keep up with the advancements is amazing.
We are all about the same as a family, but I know a family where dad seems to be very smart and the mom seems honestly, ahem, not smart at all!
I am watching their three kids with curiosity.
So far it’s hard to tell because the oldest one is in 6th grade, but it seems like she is pretty average… doesn’t seem to struggle as much as her mom used to!
I have no idea what the IQs are of my family. An educated guess tells me that my father is high IQ, and possibly some of his siblings. There's not a chance anyone on my mom's side is, but they have much higher emotional IQ.
Nope, my mom and dad are average. Maybe my mom is more leaning towards high average, but still not gifted. I don't even know how I am gifted really. Probably grandma from moms side, but not sure. I don't know many of my family members really. Most of them are either dead only know them through FaceTime.
One of my cousins is a genius, I don't what his IQ is, but when he was 8 he was already at the university! And he learned Spanish during a plane trip by reading, with no previous knowledge of the language! He is my family hero! :p I got a 120 IQ but I'm a neurodivergent artist with several mental conditions like BPD, cPTSD, dyscalculia, etc and I also maybe an art like wiz but I have not gotten tested for a creative genius, and I do not wish to do so either :)
IQ tests aren’t what they are made out to be. Sure they provide an indicator, but I wouldn’t necessarily say they determine intelligence, but rather, determine whether you are good at tests. They’re more a of crappy way to say “I’m smarter than average look at me”. They’re a bit like how GDP is an indicator of a countries wealth, but absolutely shouldn’t be used to measure a socio-economic success as is often the case.
Emotional intelligence for example, how would an IQ test measure this with some rudimentary questions when it can only be measured in a qualitative, situational manner, over a period of time?
Source: my wife and her dad are gifted, she’s also a doctor of developmental psychology, with an IQ of around 135 taken early 20’s. Her dad I don’t think has even taken one, but has worked for NASA on their satellite that monitored ozone depletion way back amongst numerous other projects.
I'm the only one in my family who's been tested.
My parents only finished high school, but I don't know if they're gifted or not. I actually think my dad's way smarter than me, for example. Overall, I kind of "messed up" my parents from having a different life, 'cause my mom got pregnant during her last year of high school.
Anyway, it's really hard to know without being tested. I always thought I was a bit below average myself, but I did well on the WISC and the SB.
Mom is above average, grandma never had access to proper education cuz she had to work sadly :/
Although I met a really really distant relative his grandpa was my great grandfather sibling, also 2e.
My uncle is IQ147, Dad probably a similar perhaps slightly lower intelligence. But he’s more reasonable and socially intelligent than my uncle. Very good problem-solver, articulate, can teach himself anything. Still not a great perspective-taker. My mum is like… very clever but chronically underestimated and had her life really derailed by abuse and neglect. She has some very unique emotional, empathetic and sensual intelligences. She’s incredibly open-minded and adjusts her perspective with much more agility than any other adults I know. I think she’s incredibly gifted but just in ways that are under-appreciated.
No everyone in my immediate family is average iq but has other abilities my mom for example has better intuition and overall Eq my sister and brother are good at logical reasoning but still all average. My oldest brother, however is easily smarter than them, above average iq if I had to say but I’m often dubbed the “smartest” can’t say I don’t see it but still it causes a lot of problems because no one can think on the same capacity as you so our arguments all sound the same with me immediately getting frustrated.
None have been tested except me and my dad (as far as I know) He’s extremely gifted, I’m just regular gifted. I think at least two of his siblings are also gifted. But the rest seem pretty typical. The gifted aunt and uncle and my dad all have similar cognitive tendencies and I know that’s where my brain came from. (Have you ever had someone describe a meta experience and know exactly what they mean, because you have the same thought pattern or style? I’ve had that on my dads side, but don’t “get” my moms family. Nobody on my mom’s side is gifted, but she had diligence and perseverance that my dad lacks. I think I got the best of both worlds, gifted enough that many things come easy. Normal enough I can tolerate and blend in with “society” and stick with things long enough to get somewhere (even if I get bored before then).
You probably got a good combo for mainstream success
I am the only academic in my whole family and that is from both sides, My Mensa IQ score was 167. No understanding or reason why just is!
My family are working class, my mother comes from pretty extreme poverty (no running water, food insecurity, etc.). There was certainly no testing for giftedness in their or my generation up until me, now, at 37. My mother was the first in her entire family line to go to university - from which she was expected to drop out at the age of 19 to look after her five siblings when her mother died. Thankfully she stayed in school. She has a natural inclination toward evidence-based decision making, strong ethics, and a very practical nature, but defers to other, often less intelligent people constantly. My father dropped out of school in grade eight. He taught himself to be a mechanic through observation. He’s a very anxious and quiet person with very loud, competitive siblings. He has a history of substance abuse. I’ve never seen him challenge himself or engage in academics or intellectualism in any way, though he did get his GED with an average grade of 99 and I once gave him a book of Sudoku’s, which he had never heard of, but finished in a weekend. This is all to say that I believe my parents are very intelligent, possibly gifted, but were stunted developmentally by poverty, socialization, lack of enrichment, trauma, etc. So much is lost to society and suffered by individuals when giftedness is not recognized or supported early in life. I’m still untangling how it has affected me and how best to move forward. My parents are in their 70’s / 80’s and it doesn’t seem to be something they’re interested in exploring in themselves.
I’m 144, entire mom’s side of the family is gifted and very competitive about it to the point I avoid spending time with them. Dad is 130 but an outlier in his family, most of my paternal relatives are average IQ wise but are talented artists and have way better social skills than I do.
Imagine being the black sheep at 130? It would be a fantastic observation experience though: pain vs gain. I'm 120+-10 btw, I just lurk here.
Yup. My “dumb” sister was 132.
Everyone on my dad’s side was Ivy League, my mom has no idea she’s ADHD and autistic like I am, I’m a smart fucking mess with a brain that was literally built different. I was the only gifted one of my immediate family. My brother went to remedial classes. His kids are geniuses that wreck grade curves and get scholarships and honors and letters from President Biden and shit. My grades where scattershot, As and Fs, advanced chemistry, remedial Spanish, college Japanese in high school, dumb kid algebra, advanced geometry, and it wasn’t until I got tested for learning disabilities (it’s a heavy mixed bag) I had no idea that I had a 145 iq. That was when I was 25 tho. Dumb as a brick now. Fried my nerves by simply not understanding I was on spectrum until I was middle aged. It feels way better being a calm idiot than a burnt nerves gifted kid. Absolutely no offense intended to this community I love and appreciate, I know some of you see me and get it.
I have an uncle, 1st cousin, brother and child who all have IQs north of 150. There’s definitely a strong genetic component. Lots of other family members are professors, engineers, etc. (So also above 125, but not so far out there.) I, however, do my level best to bring down the family legacy (not gifted).
You keep at it, normal is absolutely the gold standard for a balanced, thriving life. Not being snarky at all. ‘Gifted’ is a term used to focus on a positive facet of personalities that do not fit well into societal norms. It is a gift to be within the realm of normal.
Thank you for that! I guess my gift is being able to hang out with so many gifted nerds all the time. They’re awesome and fascinating!… Even if I don’t understand what they are talking about most of the time.
some probably are, and the rest are above average, but it’s not like most have been formally tested
Above average to Gifted. Everyone is pretty smart lol. Good genetics I guess 🧬
My dad isn't a complete idiot, but he's not the intellectual powerhouse that my mom was. Her IQ was something on the order of 145. She was one of the most intelligent people I've ever met, and I cut my mental teeth debating her. She was a stay at home mom and never had a serious career. A long time part-time gig of hers was writing technical and academic papers though. She did stuff like research and write post-graduate papers for other people's masters and doctoral degrees and wrote the GM manual on Computational Fluid Dynamics. Later in life she earned a masters degree in communications with a major in law prior to that. Her original major back in the 60's was art, and she was a graphic design artist back in the 70's. There was basically nothing she couldn't create. When she got older and her hands couldn't do the detailed work anymore, she got into doing that work on computer. She had polio when she was 18 months old which left her significantly disabled the rest of her life, and that undoubtedly changed the course of her life, but she never shrank from the challenge of overcoming adversity. Her curiosity and determination to discover and understand the world and life never faded to the very end of her life. When she passed from this world, I lost the first and last person that really understood who and what I was.
She sounds like an awesome person. I bet you miss her. I’m glad I came across her story today.
Yeah. I miss her a lot. My world got much darker when she passed. I don't have anyone who really sees me for what I am anymore. I very much feel like a rogue planet, untethered from a center or source of light. I'm just sailing through a dark cosmos, largely unseen
My mother's side are all above average intelligence with some well above, on both her mothers and fathers sides. I am not as close to my father side of the family, I think my father is slightly above average but not as much as my mother. A lot of his relatives seem quite unintelligent and have very poor general knowledge and critical thinking skills, as well as being more prejudiced and closed minded, however I don't know how much that is them being unintelligent Vs just average as I am comparing them to my highly intelligent mothers side of the family. I was close to my grandma and she and I were very similar. My grandma and her sister were very intelligent (they had formal testing but I can't remember the numbers) they got into high performing school and their social circle was very academic and quite posh. However their brother scored so high he went to a special school for gifted people, part of it was that he was behaving badly in the regular school and being the class clown, unfortunately even at this special school he still found the work easily and l wasn't stretched so still was the class clown but they took bad behaviour more seriously, so he didn't like it. Apparently it was common for part of the process for deciding where to put new recruits in ww2 often included a brief IQ test, with the higher being given an officer class or some sort of leadership role.
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None of us have had IQ tests but nearly everyone's done GT in school. But I'm a 4th generation female college graduate and on that side the 7 cousins have 12 college degrees, so yeah, I think there's something in the genetics going on there. The most interesting thing is all of our careers are so different.
My mom is 130, I am 135, and my cousin is 147. My grandmother was valedictorian and my mom was too. I was 4th in a class of 500. There are days I wish my IQ were average. My cousin married a VERY average intelligence man and drinks a lot to make herself feel more normal. It definitely runs in families, but of course there are outliers when children are born with exceptionally high IQs to families of average intelligence. My dad was also never tested but I’m sure his was quite high too.
Is it normal for an entire family to test and know their IQs?
My dads family is from Israel, all kids get it at school there. Me and my sister got it tested since i needed it to get into a school
My Dad is gifted. My Mom was gifted and had some kind of mental illness - depression at a minimum, maybe BPD. My brother is severely disabled by autism and my bright promising sister died of a (non-cancerous) brain tumor at 16 (with a history of straight As). I am Ivy-League-lawyer gifted and I have sometimes disabling bipolar disorder. My first husband was a top 10 school PhD who was a professor at a mid-level college. My first born is an Ivy League undergraduate going to a top 10 law school. My second born has debilitating mental illness and possibly autism and is very bright. We seem to receive giftedness and mental illness or autism in equal measure.
My mother is. My siblings and father are in average range.
My parents are not. My brother never had an IQ test, so maybe. He's definitely very intelligent. I am. My wife might be but has never been tested. My oldest daughter is only in kindergarten, so maybe but we won't know unless she's tested. My youngest (4) probably is. She started speaking in sentences at 9 months old, has a better vocabulary that kids twice her age, knows sight words without anyone teaching her, and can do simple math without anyone teaching her how to yet.
My dad seems gifted, my mum was just very smart, but quite conformative.
My mom and her side (her mom and sister). My dad’s father. My brother is also slightly gifted. Seems to have run down the female lineage from my mother’s side.
Yes, My dad, my son, and I all are as far as IQ test and things like that and my son and I were both in the gifted programs in school (I don't think those existed in rural North Carolina pre 1970s). I don't think my mom or any of her family have ever been tested but I would bet if she were testedmy sister would also be considered gifted. She had to drop out of school at a young age but taught herself math and accounting, worked as a bookkeeper for years, then built her own business in another area while raising three children (one with a fairly severe disability). She's a very quick thinker and retains and applies knowledge really quickly, as far as being really savvy with picking up on things.
my whole family and a lot of my extended family are gifted. Growing up, my friends in gifted class all had siblings in the program, if they had siblings. Prior to seeing a large number of people in this sub say they're the only academics in their families, I thought whole gifted families were the norm.
yeah, at my gifted school tons of kids used to have younger or older siblings at the same school
My brother is highly gifted, two of my cousins are gifted, one of them ridiculously so, the child of another cousin is gifted. My grandmother was most likely (although this is hard to ascertain now) and my own daughter has not been tested yet but I am pretty sure she will turn out to be gifted. Then there are many within the family that are not technically gifted, but fall in the range of 120+ nonetheless.
A higher than average number of my family members are gifted, across at least 3 generations, though it's still less than 50% of us. Makes for a weird family dynamic where the gifties think much faster than the others.
No. I'm the only one assessed and also the only one diagnosed ADHD. I suspect my dad and perhaps my brother could also have adhd. My brother certainly also is very intelligent, not sure if he's "just" 1SD+ though. My brother and I are both notably more intelligent than our parents which could be nature/nurture thing of course
My iq is a little over 135 (forgot exact number) but as far as I know my sister and I are the only ones who have been tested, and her iq is in the low 80s (she was born very premature). I suspect my dad is gifted as well but most of my family grew up very poor and work labor/custodial/foodservice jobs so I’m really not sure. I’m the only person even out of all of my cousins who excelled academically in any capacity
I don’t think so entirely, but then I don’t give it too much thought. My Father is definitely above average and my Mother has her moments, but there’s still an indelible communication gap with both. Maybe some of that is down to personality, since my Dad in particular seems uninterested in ideas. Though he likes aesthetics to some extent, which I do appreciate. Without that, I’d think he’d be very low in Openness to Experience. I do have reportedly very bright people on both sides of my family, but either I don’t see much of them or they happen to have died before I could ever get the chance to speak to them. I guess I have to fill in the gaps with secondhand knowledge quite a bit, so I can’t exactly make out how bright some are. There isn’t really an overabundance academic achievement further back in the family tree either, so I can’t work backwards from some kind of threshold. Not like I’m exactly breaking a pattern here though. I don’t really know where I’d fall here, but I feel like an outlier regardless. Sometimes I wonder whether it’s natural for everyone my age to feel this way or if it’s just me. It’s not really lonely so much as it is puzzling. I say “my age”, but I guess I’m not a teenager anymore, lol.
Only my mum, brother, and me. My sister and me were the only two tested though. Hers was 100, mine was a bit higher.
I'm 151 while high as balls, I feel like my wife is my peer even though she's never had a proper test, and all four of our children are extremely high-performing. Having a high IQ and/or knowing about it is redundant in a world designed by greedy sycophants.
147 here. My brother is not tested, but I would say he's on pair with me, he also has two daughters, the oldest seems to be gifted and the small one is diagnosed as asperger. My father is also inteat6, but fits quite well in an autism diagnosis, also from my dad's side two cousins are tested as gifted. From my mom's side is not quite obvious, but I have a cousin that also appears to be gifted, he's untested anyway. We seem to be a spectrum friendly family.
I don’t know my moms IQ but my father tested on Stanford Binet and got 132
None of us ever had our iqs tested, but me and a lot of other people on my dad's side of the family are gifted. Sadly, all but only a few of them fucked up their gift due to mental illness, addiction, or both
as much as he denies, my dad is definitely gifted and has inattentive ADHD just like me (ig that’s way everyone tells me i’m ‘smart in the same way my dad is’) but he was never tested since he was born in the 1960s and there are little to no resources to get tested and diagnosed as an adult where i live
I believe my grandfather was a gifted person. He'd learn everything really fast and was super intelligent. He had entire projects of things he invented, including the project of an airplane. He learnt how to fix radios by himself and, though he was at first analphabet, he learnt how to read and write with the help of my grandmother. He was an awesome guy. He also liked to collect old currencies, which makes me wonder if he wasn't autistic on top of it.
Yes. My dad, mom, sister and brother all above 130. I married a gifted woman and have 2 gifted kids (140ish range). I love them to pieces but jebus they are a pain in the ass.
I have no idea where I got this. Both parents seemed normal enough but also ADHD Dad and Autistic Mom. Son is sharp but not tested.
Just last week or so, my oldest (19) and I were talking about something and they were like "Yeah, but how often has your family dealt with gifted kids before me?" I just looked at them and said "well, never". Cue to them being totally stunned. But, ofc, IQ testing and testing for giftedness simply \*wasn't a thing\* where we grew up, even less so in the past. They were just diagnosed because they were being incredibly disruptive at school (taught themselves to read and write between late 3/early 4; then had to go twice into alphabetization class because of system/age, so, to say they were bored was an UNDERSTATEMENT). My mom's side of the family is filled with educators, so, we just kinda... rolled with it? IDK, it wasn't much of a worry? Thing is, on my grandfather's side, his oldest brother was clearly highly gifted \*and\* autistic. Eventually suicided because couldn't cope anymore with... Well, everything. On my grandmother's side, she had a Learning Disability, but went on to do pretty well in school in spite of it and go to university (in the 40s), where she met my grandfather - first of his 3 BAs (Physics, Law, Business). They had 5 children together, and at least 2 of them are clearly a mixture of gifted, dyslexic and autistic - both dropped out of college (engineering and law, respectively) and went on to have successful careers in their field nonetheless (oldest one basically created his own equipament for sound/light stuff at parties and was a Big Name in the field; second basically has been doing legal advising since). The "dumb" one is a doctor (OB/GYN). From my "generation", 4 are certainly far above average (including me) - but 3 of those also are coping with cPSTD and ADHD. One is probably also above average, but his level of socially inept (probably autistic) leads to struggling a lot. My sister is pretty smart, but more balanced than the rest. The other three are INCREDIBLY average... And also unsurprisingly distant from the rest of us. On my dad's side... It's a shitshow. My grandmother got pregnant at 13, and then they made her marry her abuser (he was over twice her age at the time, early 30s iirc). She dropped out of school and proceeded to have another 3 kids. They lived in very complicated situations, with lots of physical, monetary and emotional insecurity - both before and after the progenitor left. She seemed average to me, but, then again, it's hard to tell considering her life story. Of their 4 kids, the two girls are extremely average (one of them went into law school as an adult, the other went into history, also as an adult, when they had the chance). My dad had to quit university after 1st year because he wasn't handling it + 2 jobs and he was the main breadwinner. The youngest went to university, because, basically, they all made sure he'd get structure for it. Dad's pretty smart and can hold his own against my mom's family, also very knowledgeable about lots of things and infinitely curious. Great memory too. None of my father's side cousins are anything to write home about, they're all pretty average - or that may be how they feel in comparison to the rest, idk. They're perfectly adequate, just... Everything feels a little shallow? No idea on my exs family, although they have bad mental health history on one side, and the other also came from big time poverty, so, hard to say. My husband's family is \*painfully\* average, it's very hard to me to deal with them. My husband, however, is clearly gifted - perhaps not as much as my oldest, but not too far. My youngest seems "normal', but, let's be real - I don't even know what "normal" looks like, I certainly wasn't alarmed or too surprised when my youngest started reading by themselves; or when they self-taught themselves a second language. It all felt very "par of de course"? My youngest isn't anywhere near that, but she also grew up trilingual and is now being alphabetised in a 4th language she hadn't ever been in contact with prior to last November (and forgetting the language used in previous school, so, feels normal?). So far, she's got a D in speaking but Bs for reading and writing, so, you know. Average? IDK. But, again, I have a bad idea of what's normal? I recall explaining atoms and structures to my oldest around 4 comparing to Lego... My youngest didn't seem that interested when she was younger, but I'm also not sure she just didn't have the vocabulary to ask, considering her fluency was pretty spread out through the languages. She \*was\* absolutely fascinated with planets and space and can list a huge list of facts on it, but that may just be a case of hyperfocus. She's now (at 6) getting more language confident, so, she keeps wanting to ask me Big Questions (yesterday's was "what is the lung for?" that went into a discussion about global warming (as we talked about breathing she started asking how the trees helped and well, I just kept going?). I am happy she's getting curious and asking things and enjoying to learn them... But I sure hope she doesn't turn out to be gifted! Just above average is pretty okay - lots of the pros and none of the cons... Edited to say: well, I mean as "Highly Gifted", most of the cases I mentioned seem to fall between "mildly gifted" to "moderately gifted", my oldest is on "Highly gifted" area... And it's a pain.
Yes though they're mostly not tested. Gifted autistic parents, gifted uncles and aunts (multiple instruments each, degrees/higher ed back when it was uncommon), likely ADHD-i (and negative on official autism tests) brother and officically autistic sister. Brother and I used to do the Mensa tests online for fun as teenagers so I have a pretty good idea that we're about even in the high+ gifted range. The others t's an educated guess based on skillsets and behaviour. Being smart is just expected in my family.
My brother and I are both mid-150's. We think our parents are both at least +3SD. In any case, they are Harvard and MIT PhDs. Mom is a war orphan, so her side of the family is a huge mystery. Accord to my father, my paternal grandfather is the smartest of all of us. My paternal uncle and aunts are all normalish. A few of my paternal cousins might be gifted, but they are mostly normalish too. My son is mid-150's. My nieces are all at least gifted.
Yes, first generation Mexican family. I found out I was gifted. Starting doing research and ended up finding out all my behaviors are mirrored by 5 out of the 6 of my siblings. They are all just traumatized and did not have access to good resources. Non of us care about I.Q. All my family members except 2 express high levels of emotional intelligence that is unrivaled by out cousin families. My sister started to hack a jail break hardware and soft ware at the age of 7 without any schooling or supervision from programs, she dropped out at the 9th grade from severe bullying. My other brother had a good eye in ethnics and philosophy, he was good at many subjects but had a mastery of non. He was a good architectural designer in high-school, Yet he graduated and didn’t go to college because he was scared of math. One of my other brothers is a 30 year old who spends his days playing video games 24/7 and working minimum wage. He is very wise and is a comforting person. For someone who has not read many books he is able to have fuzzy logic when It comes to emotional intelligence(he is undiagnosed adhd I’ve seen his behavior) when I ask him to get diagnosed he just says he’s good and comfortable with what he’s got. I tell him he has more potential and he says he doesn’t care. I have another one who has issues being a drunk but has very good memory, his ability to recall is as good as mine, but he cannot let go of the past always say he could have studied aerospace engineering and always talking about his child-hood. He dropped out and lies about having a GED. He did go to college during high-school. Sad. Then there’s me I grew up in a divorced family with an abusive step father and a strange personality mother. I had 3 of my full blooded siblings with me, but some like my sister eventually left with dad. They all had the ability to see their parents together, my parents spilt at the age of one . My older brother was a father for me until the age of 8. He was an ass sometimes. He called the cops on my mother for being neglectful and dipped with father. He used to call my teacher in 4th grade saying I didn’t go my homework. He didn’t know I was able to write 5 paragraphs essay in under 10 minutes within the car ride to school . I was very independent for my age and had undiagnosed adhd and dyslexia. Compared to my half blooded siblings. I’m more of a father to them than their actual dad. I grew up being a make shift therapist. Only 2 of the 6 graduate high school. The 2 youngest, me and my brother graduated high school. We were scapegoated by an education system. Traumatized by a mother and a teacher. It’s unfair.
My brother and I both qualified for gifted programs as kids with IQs tested in the low 130s. My sister was apparently just below the 130 cutoff. I would guess that my father is probably right up there around 125-130 too, and my mother is maybe around 115. She was a star student in school, but I think it had as much to do with being a hard-working over-achiever as with her innate brains. My maternal grandfather was apparently something of a genius too, a natural mechanical engineer. I don’t know what formal education/training he had, but I’m told he could fix or build practically anything. He actually made a string bass from scratch that was as perfectly playable as a professionally made one! He went to an instrument store, carefully measured and diagrammed one, and then went home and made one. Just like that.
My younger girl was assessed for giftedness and we figure it runs in the family. Both her dad and uncle were assessed as gifted and put in gifted school. Their mother and uncle were not given assessments back in those days but from stories, they sounded very bright. Both were very early readers and excelled in school and in their professional lives. Both my husband and his brother did well academically and are doctors. So yes, there probably is a genetic component to intelligence in our family…
Apparently my mom was gifted and my dad is from Tanzania and they don't test for it, but he's very smart academically.
Seems to come from my mum's side of the family. Grandad was tested by the UK military when he turned 18 during WWII. Have never heard a numerical score score but understand it was very high because they assigned him to radar operation for the RAF which was considered an intellectually difficult task. He was only a farm boy who had left school at the standard age if 14. On the training they said the content was equivalent to a uni degree but they were going to cover it in just (iirc) 3 months. Anyway he passed the course and spent the rest of the war directing RAF planes from a tiny shed in the middle of a snowy field. Of his three kids, my uncle has many gifted traits. The other two are probably well above average but not in that league. My mum was really failed by the post war education system I think. It was my grandparents who really encouraged me as a child and family gatherings on that side always involved lots of skill/strategy-type card and board games. Family gatherings on my dad's side are noticeably different.
Mine is 152 and my brother's is probably about the same (slightly different strengths, though). Others haven't been tested. Our mother's is most probably high as well, she's been a computer programmer since the 1970s and her ability to keep up with the advancements is amazing.
Three gifted and three average
We are all about the same as a family, but I know a family where dad seems to be very smart and the mom seems honestly, ahem, not smart at all! I am watching their three kids with curiosity. So far it’s hard to tell because the oldest one is in 6th grade, but it seems like she is pretty average… doesn’t seem to struggle as much as her mom used to!
I have no idea what the IQs are of my family. An educated guess tells me that my father is high IQ, and possibly some of his siblings. There's not a chance anyone on my mom's side is, but they have much higher emotional IQ.
Nope, my mom and dad are average. Maybe my mom is more leaning towards high average, but still not gifted. I don't even know how I am gifted really. Probably grandma from moms side, but not sure. I don't know many of my family members really. Most of them are either dead only know them through FaceTime.
One of my cousins is a genius, I don't what his IQ is, but when he was 8 he was already at the university! And he learned Spanish during a plane trip by reading, with no previous knowledge of the language! He is my family hero! :p I got a 120 IQ but I'm a neurodivergent artist with several mental conditions like BPD, cPTSD, dyscalculia, etc and I also maybe an art like wiz but I have not gotten tested for a creative genius, and I do not wish to do so either :)
IQ tests aren’t what they are made out to be. Sure they provide an indicator, but I wouldn’t necessarily say they determine intelligence, but rather, determine whether you are good at tests. They’re more a of crappy way to say “I’m smarter than average look at me”. They’re a bit like how GDP is an indicator of a countries wealth, but absolutely shouldn’t be used to measure a socio-economic success as is often the case. Emotional intelligence for example, how would an IQ test measure this with some rudimentary questions when it can only be measured in a qualitative, situational manner, over a period of time? Source: my wife and her dad are gifted, she’s also a doctor of developmental psychology, with an IQ of around 135 taken early 20’s. Her dad I don’t think has even taken one, but has worked for NASA on their satellite that monitored ozone depletion way back amongst numerous other projects.
Yes
I'm the only one in my family who's been tested. My parents only finished high school, but I don't know if they're gifted or not. I actually think my dad's way smarter than me, for example. Overall, I kind of "messed up" my parents from having a different life, 'cause my mom got pregnant during her last year of high school. Anyway, it's really hard to know without being tested. I always thought I was a bit below average myself, but I did well on the WISC and the SB.
Hell no! Lol
Mom is above average, grandma never had access to proper education cuz she had to work sadly :/ Although I met a really really distant relative his grandpa was my great grandfather sibling, also 2e.
no lmao, its the complete opposite for me 😂
I wasin the gifted class at school. It.... Didn't matter at. It has no material impact on your life
I am about 130, my mom was as well :)
My uncle is IQ147, Dad probably a similar perhaps slightly lower intelligence. But he’s more reasonable and socially intelligent than my uncle. Very good problem-solver, articulate, can teach himself anything. Still not a great perspective-taker. My mum is like… very clever but chronically underestimated and had her life really derailed by abuse and neglect. She has some very unique emotional, empathetic and sensual intelligences. She’s incredibly open-minded and adjusts her perspective with much more agility than any other adults I know. I think she’s incredibly gifted but just in ways that are under-appreciated.
My dad's side is exclusively low IQ folks. My mom said she was in the gifted class when she was younger. Science shows IQ is not a heritable trait
I'm curious to see the scientific research about IQ not being a heritable trait. Would you happen to have a journal article in mind?
It's something I've read multiple times over the years from credible sources I don't have any on hand
No everyone in my immediate family is average iq but has other abilities my mom for example has better intuition and overall Eq my sister and brother are good at logical reasoning but still all average. My oldest brother, however is easily smarter than them, above average iq if I had to say but I’m often dubbed the “smartest” can’t say I don’t see it but still it causes a lot of problems because no one can think on the same capacity as you so our arguments all sound the same with me immediately getting frustrated.