An EQ score below 70
On a mean-100 scale this is the bottom two in a hundred by construction. Before it means anything about you, three duller explanations need ruling out.
What the region claims
A mean-100, standard-deviation-15 scale puts scores below 70 about two standard deviations under the norm sample’s average, which is roughly the bottom two in a hundred, if the sample was sound and the scores follow the intended shape. That is an extreme claim, and extreme scores are precisely where self-report instruments are least dependable.
The duller explanations first
Very low scores are the classic signature of a sitting problem rather than a person problem: rushed answers, a misread response scale, answering in a second language, or picking the same option down the page. Serious instruments carry attention checks for exactly this reason, and a sitting that trips them should be repeated, not interpreted. Ours routes a tripped check to a free retake and refuses to sell that report at all.
If a careful, unhurried sitting still lands here, it records something narrower than the number implies: that you describe yourself at the far low end of the statements this one test asked, against this one sample. It is a self-portrait taken at an unflattering angle, not a verdict, and no consumer questionnaire can deliver one about anyone.
What it cannot support
One extreme number cannot carry decisions. It cannot say how you come across to others, which is a different measurement, and a single sitting cannot even establish that the score would repeat. The margin on any self-report figure is wide, and at the scale’s edges the effective imprecision is at its worst. Treat the number as a prompt to look, never as the conclusion of looking.
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.
The next region up, 70 to 84, is where the norm sample rather than the sitting becomes the thing to check.
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