The word "genius" has been so abused in colloquial English that it has lost a lot of its meaning. I attended a school system that participated in a lengthy study (a twelve year period) of IQ tests and I took six of them during that time. I took two more as a participant in an educational psychology study. I also took courses in measurement and evaluation during my teaching degree in which we studied IQ tests at some length. From the age of 12 to 24, my IQ scores averaged at 142 (between 6 and 12 they were slightly higher).
Does that make me a genius? Well, by one measurement standard, it does. The score of 140 is the cutoff in many standard scales--not because it means such a score makes one an Einstein, but rather because it indicates a cutoff above which very few people, in the general population, consistently score. The label "genius" was attached to that cutoff a very long time ago (in the days when "moron" and "idiot" were actual categories separated on the scale by about 5 IQ points). It does not, however, mean I will make a lasting contribution to society that will be remembered centuries from now.
Modern understanding of intelligence, however, does not rest merely on a simple number. There are all sorts of measures of intelligence (some more dubious than others) and they are not all focused on academic ability. Beyond that, the designation "genius" doesn't really carry much weight anymore as it has been used indiscriminately to describe a variety of things that are not especially related to the concept.
So what does a high IQ, traditionally measured, mean? Not nearly as much as some people think and a bit more than others think. It is NOT a guarantee of success at any endeavour--academic or otherwise. It is certainly not an indication that one is a better person than any other (except in a very narrowly defined sense to which I'll come in a moment). What a higher IQ amounts to, in the end, is a facility in learning relative to the general population. Complex ideas and topics are relatively easier to absorb correctly. However, as I've seen in my 20 years as an educator, at just about every level between pre-K and undergraduate, people with higher IQs are a bit more prone to laziness (believing that if many things come easily, all things will) which often cancels any advantage they might have over someone with a lower IQ. In fact, it is not uncommon for such people to become overly discouraged when encountering something that does not come as easily. And even if someone with a higher IQ has an advantage in academic areas, it is no guarantee of an equal advantage in non-academic areas.
When debates about "genius" arise, and the word is not being used in an overly casual fashion, people often have in mind "super-geniuses"--with scores well above the cutoff of 140. Such people are very rare and they are the type who are exceptionally intelligent. Having a high IQ is akin to having an artistic talent or a good musical ear or a good singing voice and so on. It is a talent that, properly utilized, can yield many rewards. But talent alone rarely suffices to succeed. It still requires discipline and effort.
