What is Kim Namjoon’s IQ?
The 148 is his own on-air confirmation of a high-school score, with no test named; this site’s estimate is 130–145.
As of November 2026, no IQ test result has been published for Kim Namjoon, the BTS leader known as RM: the 148 quoted as Namjoon’s IQ is a score he confirmed himself on Korean television in 2015, measured in high school, with no test or scale named. His documented record — a Global Cyber University degree, English-language remarks at the United Nations in 2018 and a registered songwriting catalog — supports an estimated IQ level of roughly 130–145, not a verified score.
Kim Namjoon’s estimated IQ
- Completed a bachelor’s degree in Broadcasting and Entertainment at Global Cyber University, where he enrolled in March 2014, and enrolled in Hanyang Cyber University’s MBA program in Advertising and Media in March 2019.
- Gave English-language remarks on September 24, 2018, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, at the launch of Generation Unlimited, a high-level event of the 73rd session of the General Assembly; UNICEF published the text as prepared for delivery.
- Full member of the Korea Music Copyright Association since January 2020; Wikipedia’s list of his songs, citing that database, counts 238 credits as of August 2026, across BTS albums, two mixtapes (2015, 2018) and two solo albums (2022, 2024).
- Reported in Korean press as scoring in roughly the top 1%, 1.3% or 1.6% of national mock exams in school. The ranks differ by outlet, are self-reported or second-hand, and no score report is public.
- Confirmed on tvN’s Problematic Men in 2015, after the MC cited an IQ of 148, that the score was measured in his second year of high school; treated here only as a soft anchor, because no test, scale or report is public.
The 148 is a self-reported school-age score with no named test or scale, the mock-exam rank is reported without a score report. The rest of the record shows sustained verbal and creative output rather than a measured score. The range is deliberately wide: if the 148 was on a 24-point scale it equals about 130 on the standard one, and if it was on a 15-point scale a single score from age 16 or 17 would be expected to drift lower on retest.
- Born
- September 12, 1994, Sangdo-dong, Dongjak District, Seoul; raised in Ilsan, Goyang
- Also known as
- RM (formerly Rap Monster); romanized Kim Nam-joon, and Kim Nam Jun in UNICEF texts
- Education
- Global Cyber University (Broadcasting and Entertainment, enrolled March 2014); Hanyang Cyber University MBA in Advertising and Media (enrolled March 2019)
- Known for
- Leader and rapper of BTS (debut June 13, 2013); solo albums Indigo (2022) and Right Place, Wrong Person (2024)
- Songwriting
- KOMCA full member since January 2020; 238 credited songs as of August 2026 per Wikipedia’s list
- Honors and UN address
- Hwagwan (fifth-class) Order of Cultural Merit, 2018, awarded to all seven BTS members; remarks at the United Nations on September 24, 2018
- Circulating figure
- 148, from a 2015 tvN show; RM said it was measured in his second year of high school; no test named
- Estimated IQ (this site)
- 130–145, from the documented record; not a test result
- Documented IQ test
- None published
What an IQ of 130–145 actually means
Set the claim aside for a moment. If someone genuinely scored in this range, here is what that would represent.
Average is 100 by construction, and about two-thirds of people fall between 85 and 115. Take the test to place your own score on this scale.
| Score range | Classification | Share of people | What it indicates |
|---|---|---|---|
| 85 – 114 | Average | ~68% | The range most people fall into. |
| 115 – 129 | Above average | ~13.6% | Roughly one person in seven. |
| 130 – 144 | Gifted | ~2% | The threshold most high-IQ societies use. |
| Above 144 | Highly gifted | ~0.1% | Figures above this range are extrapolated from the curve rather than measured. |
Percentages are approximate and describe a normal distribution. The same number means different things on tests with different standard deviations.
Thirty questions gives you a measured position on this exact scale — your score, your percentile and the ability breakdown behind it.
Find out in 30 minutes →Who Kim Namjoon is
Kim Nam-joon, known as RM and formerly Rap Monster, was born on September 12, 1994, in Sangdo-dong, Dongjak District, Seoul, and raised from age five in Ilsan, Goyang. He began rapping in amateur hip-hop circles in his first year of middle school, later worked in the underground scene as Runch Randa, joined Big Hit Entertainment in 2010 and debuted with BTS on June 13, 2013 as its leader.
He changed his stage name from Rap Monster to RM in November 2017. English is his second language: Noisey reported in 2015 that he taught himself, and English Wikipedia records that he largely learned it by watching the American sitcom Friends.
Did Kim Namjoon graduate from university? Yes: he holds a bachelor’s degree in Broadcasting and Entertainment from Global Cyber University, a Korean online university. The university’s own account says RM and J-Hope enrolled in March 2014, a year after Suga. The higher-education news outlet UNN listed him in November 2018 among six BTS members enrolled in its Department of Broadcasting and Entertainment.
English Wikipedia records that he had graduated by March 2019, when he began Hanyang Cyber University’s MBA program in Advertising and Media, which Big Hit confirmed in July 2020 while he, Suga and J-Hope were still attending. Korean Wikipedia lists the master’s among his qualifications, but completion of the MBA is not documented in the sources cited here. No source reports a grade, class rank or entrance score from either university.
RM wrote or co-wrote much of BTS’s catalog and released the mixtapes RM (March 17, 2015) and Mono (October 23, 2018) and the albums Indigo (December 2, 2022) and Right Place, Wrong Person (May 24, 2024). In January 2020 he and J-Hope were promoted to full membership of the Korea Music Copyright Association, and Wikipedia’s list of his songs, citing the association’s database, counts 238 credited songs as of August 2026.
On September 24, 2018 he gave English remarks at the United Nations Headquarters in New York at the launch of UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited partnership, a high-level event of the 73rd session of the General Assembly. On October 8, 2018 the South Korean Cabinet decided to award all seven BTS members the fifth-class Hwagwan Order of Cultural Merit, and in July 2021 President Moon Jae-in named the group special presidential envoy for future generations and culture.
He completed mandatory military service from December 11, 2023 to June 10, 2025. BTS’s Arirang World Tour reached SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, for shows on September 1, 2, 5 and 6, 2026. Outside music, SFMOMA announced in October 2025 an exhibition with RM, RM x SFMOMA, drawing on works from his personal collection and scheduled to run from October 2026 to February 2027.
By Elora Mercer, Celebrity Research WriterFigures checked by Leon Falkner, Data & Research AnalystReviewed by Aarav Vardhan, Editor-in-Chief · Last reviewed November 2026
Kim Namjoon: the documented record
The estimate above rests on this record. Every entry here is a matter of public fact, which is more than can be said for the number itself.
- 1994Born September 12 in Sangdo-dong, Dongjak District, Seoul; raised in Ilsan, Goyang, from about age five.
- c. 2011By his own later account, an IQ of 148 is measured in his second year of high school; the test is never named.
- 2013BTS debuts on June 13 with RM as leader.
- 2014Enrolls at Global Cyber University in March; in April tells Mnet’s Beatles Code 3D his national mock-exam scores were about the top 1.3%.
- 2015tvN’s Problematic Men premieres on February 26 with RM as its youngest cast member; the MC cites his IQ as 148 and RM confirms it.
- 2018Gives English remarks at the United Nations on September 24, at the launch of Generation Unlimited; the Cabinet awards BTS the Hwagwan Order of Cultural Merit on October 8.
- 2019Enrolls in Hanyang Cyber University’s MBA program in Advertising and Media in March.
- 2020Promoted to full membership of the Korea Music Copyright Association in January.
- 2023–2025Serves in the military from December 11, 2023 to June 10, 2025.
- 2026BTS’s Arirang World Tour plays four shows at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, on September 1, 2, 5 and 6.
Where the 148 figure came from
Following a claim back to its first appearance is the part almost nobody does — and it is what most people are actually asking.
Search “namjoon iq”, “RM BTS IQ” or “what is the IQ of Kim Namjoon” and nearly every page that offers a number gives the same one: 148. Koreaboo (October 15, 2022) states that RM’s IQ is 148 and calls him a “certified genius,” without naming a test.
Soompi’s June 24, 2019 list article puts the figure in its headline and gives it no source. armybangtanworld.com’s 2026 ranking of the IQ of BTS members lists 148 for RM, credits AllKpop, and warns that most members’ figures come from fan discussions and variety-show moments rather than verified records. English and Korean Wikipedia both state the 148 as a fact of his school years. For the general pattern, see where celebrity IQ numbers come from: a figure survives because it is easy to repeat.
Did Namjoon take an IQ test in high school? RM said so on Korean television in 2015, but no test has been named. tvN’s quiz-and-talk show Problematic Men (뇌섹시대-문제적 남자) premiered on February 26, 2015 with RM, then 20, as its youngest cast member.
Veritas Alpha (March 5, 2015) and Sports Kyunghyang (April 20, 2015) report that MC Jun Hyun-moo introduced him with an IQ of 148 and a top-1% mock-exam score, and that RM answered that 148 was correct and had been measured four years earlier, in his second year of high school, so around 2011, when he was 16 or 17.
Cheonji Ilbo (November 13, 2017) and Xportsnews give the same high-school detail, and TenAsia and eToday had already carried the number on February 27, 2015. That makes the figure better attributed than most on this site: it is his own statement of a school-age score, not an anonymous listicle.
It still names no test, examiner, date or scale. Noisey (May 26, 2015) then made it the reason he was cast, and English Wikipedia’s RM article states it as a fact of his student years, citing that Noisey piece.
How rare is an IQ of 148? It depends on the scale, and no report on RM says which one his test used. On the standard 15-point scale (mean 100, standard deviation 15) it is 3.2 standard deviations above the mean, roughly 1 person in 1,450.
On the 16-point scale it is 3.0, about 1 in 740 (see why the standard deviation matters); on a 24-point scale it is 2.0, roughly the top 2%. The IQ percentile calculator converts any of these. That last scale is not exotic.
American Mensa’s own table lists 148 as the qualifying score on the Cattell test, 132 on the original Stanford–Binet and 130 on Wechsler tests, one cutoff expressed three ways, and Korean Wikipedia’s IQ article notes that the Korean press often presents a 24-point spread as the local norm.
Mensa also wants the test’s full name, the score and the percentile on letterhead, and requires school-transcript evidence to be a sealed school document. Nothing published about RM’s 148 supplies any of that. Whether a score in this region earns the word genius is a question of labels, not measurement; what IQ level counts as genius sets out the common cutoffs.
The companion numbers drift as they travel, the clearest sign of copying. RM said on Mnet’s Beatles Code 3D in April 2014 that his national mock-exam scores were about the top 1.3%. In 2015 the tvN MC called it the top 1%.
A CNB News headline of November 25, 2017 says 1.3%; Xportsnews and Korean Wikipedia say 1.6%; English Wikipedia recasts it as the “university entrance examinations,” and armybangtanworld.com files it under 2015 entrance exams. His school-years TOEIC score is given as 880 by Xportsnews and Korean Wikipedia, and as 900 by TenAsia, 850 by eToday and 800 by CNB.
A mock-exam rank is an achievement measure, not an IQ result, and one score from age 16 or 17 tends to sit above a retest.
The sourced record therefore supports a lower range than 148: 130–145, the same range as Dexter Holland, whose 160 also circulates without a test and whose range rests on a completed doctorate; close to John Legend’s 132–145, which rests on a University of Pennsylvania degree he entered at sixteen and finished with honors in 1999; and below Brian May’s 140–155, which rests on a doctorate in astrophysics. For the rest of the field, see other musicians we have checked.
How we read a number →Checked the Korean coverage of RM’s 2015 statement (TenAsia, eToday, Veritas Alpha, Sports Kyunghyang, Cheonji Ilbo, Xportsnews, CNB), Noisey, English and Korean Wikipedia, Koreaboo, Soompi, armybangtanworld.com and a Vietnamese Google Sites page. None names the test, examiner, date or scale, or publishes a score report, and none reports a later, better-documented test.
The show premiered February 26, 2015 with RM as its youngest cast member. Veritas Alpha and Sports Kyunghyang report the MC’s introduction (IQ 148, top-1% mock-exam score); Sports Kyunghyang adds RM’s reply that 148 is correct and was measured four years earlier, in his second year of high school. eToday adds TOEIC 850 and TEPS 800, TenAsia TOEIC 900. No test is named.
Cheonji Ilbo describes the tvN broadcast: MC Jun Hyun-moo said RM’s IQ was 148 and his mock-exam score top 1%, and RM answered that it was measured in his second year of high school and that 148 was correct. Xportsnews repeats a high-school-year-2 IQ of 148 and gives a top-1.6% mock-exam rank and a TOEIC of 880. Neither names a test.
RM’s April 2014 statement on Mnet’s Beatles Code 3D that his national mock-exam scores were about the top 1.3% (Kyungsang Ilbo and CNB add: in Korean, math, foreign language and social studies). CNB repeats the 2015 confirmation of a 148 measured in high school year 2 and gives TOEIC 800.
Says he was cast as the show’s youngest panelist for his IQ (148), his high school mock-exam score (top 1 percent) and his self-taught English. Cites no source or test. English Wikipedia cites this piece for the same claim.
The first five give 148 with no test, date or examiner (Soompi only in its headline; armybangtanworld.com credits AllKpop and says member figures come from fan discussion and variety-show moments).
Qualifying scores: Cattell 148, Stanford–Binet 132 (original) and 130 (fifth edition), Wechsler 130. Also lists what a test result must include: the test’s full name, the score and the percentile rank on letterhead, and says school-transcript evidence must be a sealed school document.
Remarks by Kim Nam Jun (RM) at the launch of Generation Unlimited, New York, September 24, 2018, at the United Nations Headquarters, at Youth2030, a high-level event of the 73rd session of the General Assembly. The English text is marked as prepared for delivery.
The university’s own account: Suga enrolled in March 2013, RM and J-Hope in March 2014, Jimin and V in 2015, Jungkook in 2017. It gives no grades or completion date for RM. UNN lists RM among six members enrolled in the Department of Broadcasting and Entertainment in 2018, and reports in July 2022 that all six had by then graduated.
Topstar: RM says he was born in Sangdo-dong, Seoul, and lived in Ilsan from age five. Herald: Cabinet decision on the fifth-class Hwagwan Order of Cultural Merit. Newsis: promotion to full KOMCA membership. Soompi and SPOTV: Hanyang Cyber University MBA enrollment in March 2019, per Big Hit. UPI: presidential special envoy. Yahoo: RM on Friends and his English. Korea.net: discharge on June 10, 2025. KQED: RM x SFMOMA, October 2026 to February 2027.
Birth date and place, joining Big Hit in 2010, the June 13, 2013 debut, the stage name RM from November 2017, release dates, military dates and the KOMCA count of 238 (August 2026); the show’s February 26, 2015 premiere with RM in the cast; the SoFi Stadium dates of the Arirang World Tour. Korean Wikipedia lists his education (Global Cyber University, Hanyang Cyber University master’s), states the 148 as a fact of his school years, gives a top-1.6% mock-exam rank and a TOEIC of 880, and notes that 15, 16 and 24 are standard deviations in use, with Mensa’s 148 equal to Wechsler 130. Wikidata confirms Q20514446 is RM, the BTS leader, born September 12, 1994.
The sources behind our estimate
The figures that circulate for Kim Namjoon, what we were able to confirm, and where the two diverge.
The figure given almost everywhere “RM BTS IQ” is searched is 148: on Koreaboo, Soompi and armybangtanworld.com, and in the English and Korean Wikipedia articles on him. It usually arrives with a genius label and no test.
No published IQ test result for Kim Namjoon exists: no test name, examiner, date, scale or score report. What exists is a statement. On the February 26, 2015 premiere of tvN’s Problematic Men, MC Jun Hyun-moo introduced RM with an IQ of 148 and a top-1% mock-exam score (Veritas Alpha, March 5, 2015), and RM replied that 148 was correct and had been measured four years earlier, in his second year of high school (Sports Kyunghyang, April 20, 2015; Cheonji Ilbo, November 13, 2017, describes the same exchange). TenAsia and eToday reported the number on February 27 without a source, and Noisey (May 26, 2015) made it the reason he was cast. Koreaboo and Soompi give 148 with no test; armybangtanworld.com says most BTS members’ figures come from fan discussions and variety-show moments.
The range on this page, 130–145, ends three points below the 148 that circulates. Unlike most figures on this site, 148 is not anonymous: RM confirmed it himself. What is missing is everything that would let it be checked, above all the scale, because 148 is about 1 person in 1,450 on a 15-point scale, 1 in 740 on a 16-point scale and roughly the top 2% on a 24-point scale, where it equals 130 on the 15-point one.
Want a number that does hold up? Every figure on this page is somebody’s claim. Take the 30-question test and get a percentile you can check rather than a figure you have to trust.
Kim Namjoon — frequently asked
What is Kim Namjoon’s IQ?
As of November 2026, no IQ test result for Kim Namjoon (RM of BTS) has been published, so his IQ score is not publicly known. The 148 that circulates is his own on-air confirmation, on tvN’s Problematic Men in 2015, of a score measured in his second year of high school, with no test named. This site’s estimate, from his documented record, is 130–145.
What is RM’s IQ level?
RM’s IQ level is not publicly measured; the estimate on this page is 130–145 on the standard scale (mean 100, standard deviation 15), from about the 98th to the 99.9th percentile. RM is the stage name Kim Namjoon has used since November 2017, when he dropped Rap Monster. The 148 that circulates sits just above that range.
Where does Namjoon’s IQ of 148 come from?
It comes from tvN’s quiz show Problematic Men, which began airing on February 26, 2015. Cheonji Ilbo (November 13, 2017) reports that the MC said RM’s IQ was 148 and that RM replied it had been measured in his second year of high school. Noisey (May 26, 2015) said the figure was a reason he was cast. No test or report is named.
Is Namjoon’s IQ of 148 real?
It cannot be checked, because the test and its scale are unknown, although RM confirmed the number himself. On a standard 15-point scale 148 would be about 1 person in 1,450. On a 24-point scale, the kind behind American Mensa’s Cattell cutoff of 148, it is only the top 2% and equals 130 on the standard scale.
Is RM a genius?
Nothing published measures that, but his record points to strong verbal and academic ability. It includes English remarks at the United Nations on September 24, 2018, full Korea Music Copyright Association membership since January 2020 and a Global Cyber University degree. Those are achievements, not an IQ score; this site’s estimate is 130–145.
Was RM really in the top 1% of Korean students?
That rank is reported, not documented. The MC cited a top-1% mock-exam score on Problematic Men in 2015; a CNB News headline of November 25, 2017 says top 1.3%, and Xportsnews says top 1.6%. No score report is public, and a mock-exam rank measures achievement among test-takers, not IQ.
Does RM have a university degree?
Yes. He enrolled at Global Cyber University in March 2014, studied Broadcasting and Entertainment and, according to English Wikipedia, had graduated by March 2019. He then enrolled in Hanyang Cyber University’s MBA in Advertising and Media in March 2019, but completion of the MBA is not documented in the sources cited here.
When did RM speak at the United Nations?
RM spoke on September 24, 2018, at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, at the launch of Generation Unlimited, a high-level event of the 73rd session of the General Assembly. UNICEF published his English remarks, as prepared for delivery, under the title “We have learned to love ourselves, so now I urge you to ‘speak yourself.’”
How does RM’s estimated IQ level compare with Brian May’s and Dexter Holland’s?
This site’s estimate for RM, 130–145, equals Dexter Holland’s 130–145 and sits below Brian May’s 140–155. May’s and Holland’s ranges rest on completed doctorates, while RM’s rests on documented achievement and degrees without a published test score, so all three are estimates rather than measurements.
What is the IQ of BTS members?
No BTS member has a published IQ test result. RM’s 148 comes from his own television remark; ranking lists give other members figures drawn from fan discussion and variety-show moments, without a named test, date or examiner. Treat any BTS IQ number as unverified unless it names all three.
How does my IQ compare with Kim Namjoon?
You can find out in about fifteen minutes. The IQ Metrics assessment is 30 questions, scored on the same 100-mean scale used throughout this page, so your result and the estimate above are at least expressed in the same units — one measured, one inferred. Once you have a number, the leaderboard shows where it would sit, and how we score and norm it explains the benchmarking.
Where does this estimate come from?
From the documented record rather than a test — the method is named above and set out in full under how we read a number. Compare it against the other musicians profiles, starting with Brian May.
- Take the 30-question IQ test — get a measured score and percentile of your own
- Average IQ by country — how the scale behaves across populations
- How IQ Metrics scores its assessment — the method behind our own number
- More on how IQ testing works — reliability, error and what a score can and cannot say
- More musicians profiles — same field, same method
More musicians
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