Emotional Intelligence Scores: What Your EQ Result Means
What a self-report EQ score measures, how it differs from ability-based tests, and how to use your result sensibly.
You took the emotional intelligence test and got a number between 60 and 140 and a label. This page explains what that number is, how to interpret the four branch scores, and how to turn a result into something useful. For the wider debate on how EQ compares with IQ, see EQ vs IQ.
What the score is
Our test is a self-report questionnaire of 28 statements, 7 for each of four branches from the Mayer-Salovey model. You rate each from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), with some statements reverse-worded. Each branch has a raw score from 7 to 35, shown on a scale from 60 to 140, and your overall score is the average of the four. A branch score of 100 means your answers sat at the midpoint of the scale.
The IQ-like scale is for readability. It is not normed. It shows how you rated yourself, not how you compare with a measured group. A score of 120 means you mostly agreed with statements describing strong emotional skills; it does not mean you are in the top 9% of the population.
Result labels
| Score | Label |
|---|---|
| 130 and above | Exceptional self-rated emotional skills |
| 115–129 | Superior |
| 105–114 | Above average |
| 95–104 | Average |
| 85–94 | Below average |
| Below 85 | An area with room to grow |
The four branches
- Perceiving emotions. Noticing emotions in faces, voices and body language, and recognising your own feelings. A low score may mean you are often surprised by how others feel or find it hard to name your own state.
- Using emotions. Using mood to support thinking, for example staying calm for precise work or using enthusiasm for creative tasks.
- Understanding emotions. Knowing how emotions arise, blend and change: how annoyance can grow into anger, or why disappointment and regret differ.
- Managing emotions. Regulating your own feelings and helping others with theirs, including under stress and in conflict.
Mayer and Salovey arranged the branches from the most basic to the most complex, with managing emotions at the top depending on the other three. The gap between your branches is usually more informative than the total. Someone high on perceiving and low on managing probably notices the feelings but struggles to act on them.
Limits of a self-rating
- People are not always accurate judges of their own emotional skills. Self-rated EI overlaps strongly with personality traits such as low neuroticism and high agreeableness.
- A high score is encouraging but is not proof of skill. A low score may reflect modesty or a rough week.
- Ability-based tests, such as the MSCEIT, ask you to solve emotional problems and score them against expert or consensus answers. They correlate only modestly with self-report measures, so the two are not interchangeable.
How to use your result
- Find your lowest branch and pick one specific behaviour to practise.
- Name feelings more precisely. People who can distinguish similar emotions (frustrated, disappointed, ashamed) tend to regulate them better.
- Pause before reacting. A short gap between trigger and response gives you a choice.
- Reframe. Cognitive reappraisal, finding another reading of a situation, is among the best-supported regulation strategies.
- Ask others. Someone you trust can tell you how you come across, which a questionnaire cannot.
- Retest sparingly. Self-ratings move with mood and recent events. Compare results months apart, not days.
Frequently asked questions
Is this an official EQ test?
No. It is a free self-report questionnaire based on the four-branch model. Commercial tests are licensed and scored against norm samples.
Does a low score mean I lack empathy?
Not necessarily. It means you rated yourself lower on some statements. Empathy and emotional skill can differ across situations, and they can be developed.
Does EQ matter for work?
Research finds that it matters most in jobs with high emotional demands, such as care, service and leadership. Claims that it matters more than IQ overall are not supported.
Sources
- Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (1997). What is emotional intelligence? In P. Salovey & D. Sluyter (Eds.), Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence. Basic Books.
- Petrides, K. V., & Furnham, A. (2001). Trait emotional intelligence. European Journal of Personality, 15(6), 425–448.
- Joseph, D. L., & Newman, D. A. (2010). Emotional intelligence: An integrative meta-analysis and cascading model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(1), 54–78.
- Gross, J. J. (2002). Emotion regulation: Affective, cognitive, and social consequences. Psychophysiology, 39(3), 281–291.