Reported

What is Kim Ung-yong's IQ?

Kim Ung-yong's IQ is reported as 210, a figure listed by the Guinness Book of World Records during his childhood. Like other prodigy scores of that era it is a ratio IQ, not comparable to the deviation scale modern tests use.

210reported figure

Written and reviewed by the myfreeiqtest editors.

Kim Ung-yong as a young child at a lecture-hall desk with a pencil and open notebook, older students seated behind him. Black and white.

Kim Ung-yongCivil engineer, former child prodigy

A quick, honest note. Kim Ung-yong has a figure attributed to a named source, but it does not come from a controlled, modern test. Treat it as a report, not a measurement.

Where does the 210 number come from?

Kim was a genuine prodigy: reading multiple languages as a toddler, appearing on Japanese television solving calculus problems before most children start school, invited to work with NASA in his teens.

ClaimWhere it traces toHow solid

IQ 210Guinness Book of World Records listing, childhood testingIndirect

Spoke several languages as a small childContemporary Korean press coverageIndirect

Table 1 · Every thread behind the figure, and how much weight it can carry.

The 210 comes from the same ratio-IQ arithmetic that produced Marilyn vos Savant's 228, and carries the same caveat — it describes how far ahead of his age he was, not a position on the modern scale.

What makes his story worth reading is what happened next. Kim left the United States, returned to Korea, completed a doctorate in civil engineering and took an ordinary job in regional development. He has spoken publicly about the pressure of being treated as a failure for choosing a normal life, and has pushed back on the idea that a childhood test score obliges anyone to become famous.

How rare would a 210 IQ be?

If the 210 figure were literally true, it would be extraordinarily rare — rarer than1 in 8,839,253,439,393 people. That alone is a good reason to treat any confident-sounding celebrity IQ number with a raised eyebrow.

Figure 1 · 210 on the standard curve.

1 in 8,839,253,439,393

Too rare to draw — a grid with one highlighted dot in 8,839,253,439,393 would be a solid wall of gray.

Figure 2 · A 210 would make Ung-yong 1-in-8,839,253,439,393 smart.

What a score like this would mean

A 210 would sit in the very superior · gifted range — about one person in 8,839,253,439,393. Fill a large concert hall and you would expect nobody in the room to clear it.

See what that band actually means:What the top band means The full IQ scale

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