hypsmc42

Also, what's the average IQ of lawyers? My IQ is 97 according the Wescheler IQ test administered, which was adminstered by a psychologist a year ago. I understand that I am by no means an intellectual giant, but I have a lot of drive and am tenacious. What would you say my chances of being a successful lawyer are?

hypsmc42

I'm also black, if that matters.

bonanza

My understanding is that the average IQ for students in college is 116. I've never seen figures for average IQ in law school but I would guess that it's in the range of 125-130.

xdarthveganx

I would also say that for the most part an IQ score is meaningless in regards to college or law school performance.

Same goes for standardized testing.

Motivation, determination and the willingness and patience to read countless hours of legal jargon is what you need for law school.

Greybeard

I'm pretty certain that there's serious trolling going on here. But here's what Arthur Jensen had to say in Bias in Mental Testing, 1980, p. 113:

"Although IQs are an interval scale, the practical, social, economic and career implications of different IQs most certainly do not represent equal intervals. Again, this is not a fault of the IQ scale, but is the result of personal and societal values and demands. The implications and consequences of, say, a 30-point IQ difference is more significant between IQs of 70 and 100 than between IQs of 130 and 160. The importance of a given difference depends not only on its magnitude, but on whether or not it crosses over any of the social, educational, and occupational thresholds of IQ. To be sure, these thresholds are statistical and represent only differing probabilities for individuals' falling on either side of the threshold. But the differential probabilities are not negligible. Such probabilistic thresholds of this type occur in different regions of the IQ scale, not by arbitrary convention or definition, but because of the structure of the educational and occupational systems of modern industrial societies and their correlated demands on the kind of cognitive ability measured by IQ tests.

“The four socially and personally most important threshold regions on the IQ scale are those that differentiate with high probability between persons who, because of their level of general mental ability, can or cannot attend a regular school (about IQ 50), can or cannot master the traditional subject matter of elementary school (about IQ 75), can or cannot succeed in the academic or college preparatory curriculum through high school (about IQ 105), can or cannot graduate from an accredited four-year college with grades that would qualify for admission to a professional or graduate school (about IQ 115). Beyond this, the IQ level becomes relatively unimportant in terms of ordinary occupational aspirations and criteria of success. That is not to say that there are not real differences between the intellectual capabilities represented by IQs of 115 and 150 or even between IQs of 150 and 180. But IQ differences in this upper part of the scale have far less personal implications than the thresholds just described and are generally of lesser importance for success in the popular sense than are certain traits of personality and character."

LSU8888

112 (10 char)

Fly The Helo

I test mid 120's up to 144, but I'm not that great of a student sometimes....

ilegaleagle

Alot would depend on the type of law you chose to practice e.g. family, criminal, corporate etc. Were you born with a "gift of gab" ? The ability to speak and debate publicly would be of the utmost importance. If you don't have that you should seriously consider visiting any courtroom for a reality check. Law school should come down to just how bad do you want it. You will find that out first hand I assure you. How bad do you want it ?

taxguy

Forget about standardized testing scores. They really aren't as correlative as most people assume. My son did HORRIBLY on his GMATS. In fact, according to those scores, he shouldn't succeed anywhere. He did get into a good grad business program because his interview really impressed the dean and graduated top of his class. He then took the LSAT and bombed it three times! He had to go during the summer to a program that allowed alternatative admission if you do well in summer classes, which he did by being in the top 10% of that program. He just finished his first year of law school with sterling grades and got a merit scholarship. So much for the predicability of standardized tests!