An EQ score of 70 to 84
Below the middle band, above the extreme. In this region the comparison group does more work than your answers do.
What the region claims
On a mean-100 scale with a standard deviation of 15, scores from 70 to 84 sit between one and two standard deviations under the sample average, roughly the band from the 2nd to the 16th queue position in a hundred. The phrasing matters: under the sample average. This is the region of the scale most sensitive to who was in the room when the test was normed.
Why the norm sample owns this band
Move the comparison group and the boundary moves with it. Answers that score 78 against a sample of practised professionals can score near 90 against a general sample, because the whole band is defined by distance from an average that belongs to the sample, not to you. Two tests placing you differently within this region have mostly measured their own norm groups.
A score here that repeats across careful sittings usually reflects genuine self-description: you rate yourself below most of the statements’ midpoints more often than not. That is information with a use. The facets doing the most to pull the total down are the natural place to spend effort, which is why useful recommendations start from the lowest facets rather than treating the total as one undifferentiated thing.
What it cannot support
Fine distinctions inside the band. A 74 and an 81 differ by less than the margin most self-report instruments carry, so ranking yourself against a friend seven points away is ranking noise. And like every region on this page’s scale, it describes self-perception against one sample; it does not describe your conduct, which others experience and a questionnaire does not.
How we handle it
We publish every score as a percentage of its own maximum with its margin printed beside it, and the method is public. The test is free to take; the free result shows your classification and the shape of your profile, and the full scored report, every figure with its margin, is available as a one-off purchase or inside membership.
Continue to 85 to 99, where "average" turns out to be an engineering decision.
The rest of this family
Every page here does the same job for a different number: the full set is indexed on the hub.
Find out how you read a room, and how you handle one.
54 questions, about 12 minutes. Free to take, and your band is free to see.
Take the EQ test