Genius icon (f) 30
Genius icon: used various eoht tables to signify that the person is known be a 200-range IQ certified genius.
In genius studies, certified genius refers to a person with either an historically certified, psychologist certified, and or test certified 140+ range IQ; each of these so-called "certification" methods, however, may vary in terms of accuracy, and may indeed, more often than not have what Isaac Asimov (1990) refers to as a "paper IQ", namely an sheet of paper that says what one's IQ is, the value of which, however, not necessary matching up with reality (e.g. mislabeled geniuses and IQ tests).

Overview
In terms of what constitutes "certification", the issue is a bit murky, in the general sense of the term; as it is relatively easy for someone to go online, find the appropriate IQ test, and become a certified genius in a matter of a few hours (e.g. Mensa-certified, Mega-test certified, etc.). This, however, is not what is meant in the original Lewis Terman 1910s IQ-defined genius level (140+). The only true means of asserting genius certification is by peer-certification, namely when one well-known genius specifically labels another as a genius. The original psychology-based genius certifications were done in the 1920s by American psychologist Catherine Cox and here team of psychologists at Stanford University who ranked the 300 greatest genius who lived between 1450 and 1850. The second study on greatest geniuses of all-time was the 1994 ranking done by English accelerated learning expert Tony Buzan who ranked the 100 greatest geniuses of all time. The cream-of-the-crop of these geniuses, namely those with assigned IQs at or above the 200-range, from each respective study, are shown below, and can each be said to be "certified geniuses" in the true sense of the word:

Cox's 200-range Geniuses (1926) of 300-geniuses
Buzan's 200-range Geniuses (1994) of 100-geniuses





1.Goethe (75px) Goethe (IQ=210)Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses
1.Leonardo da VinciDa Vinci (IQ=220)Buzan's Book of Genius (1994)
2.Gottfried Leibniz (75px) Leibnitz (IQ=205)
2.Goethe (75px) Goethe (IQ=215)
3.Hugo Grotius Grotius (IQ=200)
3.Shakespeare Shakespeare (IQ=210)
4.Thomas Wolsey Wolsey (IQ=200)
4.Albert Einstein (1905) (75px) Einstein (IQ=205)

The best example of a real “certification” was when after, in 1905, a relatively unknown Albert Einstein had “predicted” that a large mass would cause light to bend, Arthur Eddington in May 1919 conducted a solar eclipse expedition, therein proving or “certifying” Einstein’s genius logic.

See also
IQ: 200+
IQ: 225+
Cox-Buzan IQ
IQ: 200 (±) candidates
IQ: 200+ (references)

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