As mentioned in another link, Marilyn vos Savant has a much higher IQ, and as near as I can tell that mostly means she is exceptionally good at taking IQ tests. I used to read her "Ask Marilyn" column in Parade and while she was dead-on correct about IQ test question controversies (especially the infamous "Monty Hall problem"
, her IQ didn't stop her from spouting off on topics she knew little about.
In general, people are too easily impressed by numbers derived from test scores. I did well on these sorts of tests and had some weird encounters as a result. I was at a Model UN in high school and some other students wanted me to write a resolution for them on a topic I hadn't researched, because my SAT score was higher than theirs. When I was at my college orientation there was a dance, and I overheard a conversation where a bunch of other incoming freshmen were comparing SAT scores. This struck me as silly - here we were, all starting at the same school, so clearly we were all "good enough" to get in, and the I said something like, "I can't believe they're comparing SAT scores at the next table." Well, I misread my audience - they immediately started comparing college entrance test scores. When I declined to share my own, one of them expressed sympathy for my burden of clearly (to him) having done poorly - when in fact, I'd scored substantially higher than either of them!
Having an IQ score in the top tenth of a percent doesn't mean a thing in life. It's a measure of something, but I'm not sure precisely what, and whatever that might be, the good it may do comes from other factors.
Regardless, I wish this girl well... I hope she does something good with her intellectual gifts!
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