Home Evidence Deceptive Bio The Test Credential Laundering More ▼
Wall of Shame About Take Home Test

The Man Who Made Himself Famous Using A Take Home Test

Intro

YoungHoon Kim has become a serious social media sensation in the last couple of years and his popularity grows each day. He has declared that he is the world’s highest IQ record holder with a stunning IQ of 276. He has also declared that God exists, Jesus is God, and the Bible is true. Because of this the Christian community has embraced him with open arms and little skepticism. Who wouldn’t want the world’s smartest man supporting all the beliefs you hold? Unless he says something false about Christianity there is no need to speak out against him, right? While there have been voices to speak out against him and raise the red flag this has largely been from the secular world. Kim has even used this to further his own credibility by calling all those who reject him atheists and humanists. This has helped rally other Christians to support him by believing he is being persecuted for his faith rather than legitimately criticized. This should not be a partisan issue.

Kim has used many clever tactics and ways to manipulate people into believing that he is the world’s most intelligent person. The problem is that it isn’t true. The truth is that if people didn’t think he was the world’s most intelligent person no one would be talking about him at all. The only reason anyone knows his name today is because he has been advertising that he is the world’s highest IQ record holder. He has managed to leverage this image and his “IQ score” to fool millions of people. The truth needs to be heard and he needs to be exposed.

Christians should not support this clever deceiver. Lies and deception should have no place in the Christian community. Some Christians feel that it is not a big deal if he embellished his academic or intellectual achievements just so long as he doesn’t speak against Christianity and the Bible. However, Christians would not be talking about him or listening to what he has to say as a Christian if they didn’t think he had the highest IQ in the world. This should be even more troubling for Christians today, as scandal after scandal has come out over the last ten years. There are many famous and popular names that have gone down in flames over the years. Shouldn’t someone have spoken up sooner? Weren’t there warning signs? Well here we are at the beginning of a new scandal and his name is YoungHoon Kim. Now is our chance to raise the red flag and warn others. Afterall if he is deceiving people so consistently about his IQ, what else is he capable of deceiving others about?

What is the big lie? His big lie is that he is the world’s most intelligent man. In fact he isn’t even in the top 1,000. Instead he has lied and misled people through Credential Laundering and Astroturfing, tricky wording on his websites, social proofing, and just claiming he has the world’s highest IQ. In reality he has no authoritative accreditation for his intelligence. He has shown no special skills or abilities. He is not validated outside of his own circle. And almost everything online about him is propaganda. This article intends to explain and show the truth behind YoungHoon Kim and how he has named himself the world’s highest IQ man.

Credential Laundering and Astroturfing

Kim has a long list of accomplishments and achievements on his websites. Everything from certificates, memberships, and associations to show his pedigree. The issue is that the vast majority of support for Kim comes from a few people and not independent verification. The other issue is that those people who supported Kim were already in organizations with him before giving him the achievements. This leads one to ask serious questions about his credibility. The graph below helps illustrate the issue.

YoungHoon Kim is the head of USIA, his nonprofit organization and has partnered with Dr. Kirk Raymond Butt, Dr. Tom Chittenden, and Dr. Raymond Keene. All of these he was partnered with before he gained his highest IQ score of 276. He was in GigaSociety.net with many of them as well. Gigasociet.net is largely a propaganda site for promoting Kim and defending his IQ. It posts his high score of 276 at the top right hand corner with a page devoted to him. That would not be surprising except for the additional ten articles defending different allegations against him and his IQ, but more on Gigasociety.net later. The bottom line is that this shows how interconnected they all are. Kim is not a genius because everyone says so. He is said to be a genius because he and his associates say so.

Since all of them are in league with each other this begs the question, is he truly a genius or is this image of him fabricated? When you look on Kim’s website the sheer volume of achievements listed looks very impressive. But Kim is a classic example of what is known as astroturfing. Astroturfing is when it looks like someone has a lot of social proof or support from many people when in reality it is coming from a few controlled sources or groups. Support for Kim has not been a purely grassroots movement but a careful curated creation. Virtually all others who have posted Kim’s achievements or high IQ are merely parroting the words of Kim and the men listed above. Therefore, the appearance that the world has recognized Kim’s brilliance is fabricated by Kim and his associates.

This of course is the most significant when it comes to his IQ score. Many have said that Kim has this high IQ score but they are simply reporting what they have heard from Kim’s group. Few media sites have looked beyond what they were told. Many of the others have simply relied on the words of Kim’s group. This is a clear red flag.

Out of Nowhere 276

Kim having the highest IQ in the world has been less than obvious. Unlike many geniuses there is no record of him being recognized as a child. Kim has been in IQ communities for years since at least 2015 where he was already part of nine IQ societies. It is interesting to note that in 2015 his score was 220 SD 24/175 SD 15 while in 2024 he scores 276 SD 24/210 SD 15. Basically his IQ grew from his mid twenties until he was in his mid thirties. This shows he was not born the world’s highest IQ man but he magically changed over ten years. While IQ isn’t a completely fixed number, its stability is a cornerstone of intelligence research. For most people, IQ scores become quite stable after adolescence. The ranking of an individual’s intelligence relative to their peers tends to remain consistent throughout their adult life. Think of it this way: your height doesn’t change much after your late teens or early 20s. Your IQ, which is a measure of your cognitive potential, is similar. A two-standard-deviation jump represents a shift from the 50th percentile to the 98th percentile. This kind of change would fundamentally alter a person’s intellectual capabilities and place them in the top tier of cognitive ability, which is not something that can happen in adulthood through learning or training. Training can improve one’s abilities to a slight degree but not magnitudes higher. To put this in perspective his intelligence jumped up an entire genius level to 276. It was clear to everyone that he was not a super genius in 2015 but then he magically became a genius ten years later. The issue is if you see a guy that you know isn’t good at chess and then all of a sudden he beats the greatest players in the world you don’t conclude he is a genius, you conclude he cheated.

The IQ (take home) Test

Kim’s 276 IQ score is based on one test. In this IQ test he scored a 276 SD 24 and this is the reason that Kim is talked about so much. He markets himself as the world’s highest IQ man and that is what he is known for. Without this one test no one would be talking about him. The big IQ test is more than a little suspect. It is outright scandalous for someone who is looking to it as proof of one’s IQ. As a tool for measuring who is truly the smartest man on the planet, it is a joke. The question one has to ask themselves is this test what I would use to evaluate who is the smartest man alive? Any reasonable person will conclude, no it isn’t. Let’s dig in and see what the big deal is. The first issue with the test is the conflict of interest. The test was given to Kim by Dr. Kirk Raymond Butt. Dr. Butt was already a member of USIA under Kim and they had written a book together about high IQ tests prior to this test. The close association with the creator creates an inherent bias and conflict of interest. This shows that there has not been a series of independent attestation for Kim’s intelligence since it is this test that is the primary claim for his world record. His whole claim to high IQ is based on this one test alone and there are no other tests in which he has obtained such a high score. The evidence shows that he has historically always scored much lower on other tests. But the test has other issues as well.

The test in question is called the VNPT II and it was created by Dr. Butt. The test sample size only has a group of 32 persons who have taken it. Incidentally the test is no longer publically available. A sample size this small makes the test useless for reliability. It had a short life span and has accomplished little more than being used by Kim to promote being the highest IQ man in the world. There is no official documentation from Kim of his exam and the exam was not given by anyone other than Dr. Butt. There was no peer review process or validation from any external sources. The test did not have examiners watch Kim take the test nor did Dr. Butt watch Kim take the test. One may think, “how is that possible?” It is possible because it was a take home test. The participants were not required to sit in an examination room but merely received the test and took it home to finish it. The answers were to be submitted via email. This being the case there was also no time limit either. The fact that there were no basic controls or observations on such a test proves the absurdity of it being authoritative. Therefore, even if Kim produced the paper that he took his exam on with all the correct answers there is no way to validate the veracity of those answers.

One of the 32 who has taken the test has given further insight into the test. Jihun is one of the few who took the test from Dr. Butt. Unfortunately he did not have a copy of the VNPT II but he provided a deeper understanding of the test and its details than anyone else. Here he shares the VNPT I which was also created by Dr. Butt and was quite similar to the VNPT II. This gives us an inside look at the kind of test Kim took. Here is a copy of the VNPT I and his results.

ihun explains that the VNPT II test was quite short and only took less than 10 minutes to complete. It was very similar to the test you see here. This shows you on the first page this is a take home test with no time limit. Not only that but it explicitly says that the use of references is allowed including the internet. The only thing not allowed is collaborating with others but there aren’t any measures to prevent collaboration. Test takers are to be on the honor system.

Now Jihun did not come away with a perfect score; he only missed three questions on the numerical portion. If he had gotten those three correct then he also would have gotten a perfect score and been the smartest man in the world. This he felt was quite absurd.

He is a part of the IQ community, but he also knows that he is nowhere close to the top. He did not feel that the test was especially difficult but felt quite sure that it was not a great exam to show who has the highest IQ in the world. The most obvious issue with the test is the lack of controls and accountability. Today, it is well known that cheating and integrity is a major issue in Universities and many other exams around the world. Students who take exams on campus can be caught cheating and taking advantage of the many tools available to students today. Many of these exams are often proctored or looked after by the professors. This one had no preventative measures. It isn’t taken with direct supervision by Dr. Kirk Butt. There were no other examiners looking it over. It wasn’t timed. And the test taker can even use the internet for reference. You take the test at home and send in your answers. You aren’t required to record your session and there are no clear consequences for cheating. No respectable organization would accept such a credential as valid and authoritative. And neither should any respectable person listening to Kim.

Giga Society

Giga Society has been one of the most controversial aspects of Kim’s high IQ history. While he has gained certificates from several different societies he did not qualify for Giga Society. This may sound surprising at first since he has a certificate from Giga Society posted on his page. The truth is there are two Giga Society pages online. This alone has been a controversy that has surrounded YoungHoon Kim and rightly so. A little investigation will help shine light on the confusion about Giga Society.

This new Giga Society only emerged around 2021. The original Giga Society was started in 1996 by Paul Cooijmans and this is the one that he did not qualify for. This can be seen through the two different websites where the original is gigasociety.com and the newer one is gigasociety.net. gigasociety.net uses the moniker unashamedly. This copycat society calls itself “the professional and real Giga Society.” One only has to look at the new Giga Society page to see that it is clearly a propaganda site for Kim. There are long posts defending Kim and denigrating detractors. While there has been disputes if Kim is the one completely in control and if he started it there can be no doubt that the site is one supporting and defending Kim. The connection of Kim to the new Giga Society was one of the primary factors that Kim was expelled from the Glia Society when all of this happened. He was expelled for certain misbehaviors, like using the name GigaSociety, and using personal information of members to list them as members or officers on his web sites without their knowledge. Kim may deny this but the timing and evidence are not in Kim’s favor. The response from Giga Society.net has been to say that they belong to the Brain Trust Limited and that has been around for many years. That is true that Brain Trust Limited is and has been under the control of others besides Kim. However, those in control of Brain Trust Limited are controlled by associates of Kim during this transition to the name Giga Society. Even if Kim is not the President of the new Giga he is no doubt involved and has been for a while. This new Giga Society only showed up during this timeframe of Kim being rejected by Giga Society and being expelled from Glia Society.

There have been articles and accusations against Kim claiming that he is not as he seems and gigasociety.net has taken up defending Kim by launching responses to some of these claims and accusations. From gigasociety.net “At the time his IQ score of 276 (SD 24), equivalent to IQ 210 (SD15), was officially recognized in 2024, Dr. Kim held no affiliation with GIGA Society Professional, the World Memory Championships, or any related body.” This gives a defense for Kim and argues that there was no funny business in the past with Kim creating, using, or even being associated with Giga Society until after he became the highest IQ record holder with a 276. This is blatantly false. Kim scored a 276 in 2024 (from the test mentioned previously) but he was attached to this new Giga in Aug 2022 where he wrote this high IQ test booklet with Dr. Kirk Raymond Butt. On the front page it says Giga Society Publication and includes the website www.gigasociety.net. Did they forget that they were the ones to publish a book under Kim’s name? Likewise, he also has this certificate from Giga Society

The certificate is from 2023. To say that Kim was never a member of Giga Society before 2024 is nothing less than a lie. Giga Society was the very society to give him the certificate and the one who published his book.

The new Giga Society is full of misleading info designed to deceive the reader and build up Kim. One other such example is their top 10 Highest IQ list. At the top of the list they list YoungHoon Kim with a score of 276 then right below is Terrence Tao and Marilyn vos Savant. Marilyn vos Savant held the world record with a 228 in 1989 until Guinness discontinued the category. Then they also have Evangelos ranked number six with a score of 198. What could possibly be the problem? The problem is these people are not graded on the same scale. Kim’s defenders have realized this issue and wrote in defense of Kim concerning Marilyn and Tao. They explain that both Marilyn and Tao took IQ tests when they were children which is true. For that reason their scores cannot be held to be equivalent to Kim’s. The reason for this defense is that Kim only has an IQ score of 210 SD 15. That means that Marilyn and Tao both should have an IQ score above Kim because they are at 230. The difficulty and one of the reasons that Guinness discontinued the category of IQ is because there is no complete standard metric. The way that IQ is calculated is not completely the same. Either way it does appear that Marilyn and Tao have a higher score than Kim on the surface because the way the majority of people calculate or speak of IQ is based on an SD 15. The defenders of Kim can fight about that one but when someone thinks about IQ scores the standard is an SD 15. Marilyn vos Savant officially held the world record with a score of 228 by Guinness. No one compares IQ scores based on an SD 24 until Kim. Therefore, if Guiness was still in the picture they would have considered Marilyn as maintaining the record instead of Kim. The true reason their list is deceptive and not legit at all is that they used Evangelos with a score of 198. That one absolutely calculated with an SD 15 while Kim is calculating his score based on an SD 24. The list is bogus because they lined up people and measured several of them using different metrics just to make Kim’s score look more impressive. This is only one example but it proves the point that this was not a serious list of high IQ persons. It was created for the purpose of pumping up Kim and misleading the public.

Regarding the new Giga Society page, I’ll leave a quote by Paul Cooijmans, the founder of the original Giga Society.

“Almost no one takes his society serious, but there are always a few people who like to have themselves listed as members or officers there out of vanity.”

Outside His Circle

There is a lot of support inside of Kim’s circle which includes Dr. Tom Chittenden, Raymond Keene, and Dr. Kirk Butt. Nearly all others only parrot the talking points of Kim and cite these achievements given by his associates. What are the opinions of those who are not associated with Kim? Those views are far less favorable. Eunjoo Lee, a member of Mensa Korea was asked about Kim and his IQ scores. He said that he could not disclose the score but that Kim did not have a special IQ score according to Mensa standards. Melao Jr, has said that Kim does not belong in the top 1,000 most intelligent people alive. He believes that Kim’s IQ is probably closer to 170 and not such high levels as Kim has reported. This is in accord with Dr. Jason Betts who has also said that he doesn’t believe that Kim has an IQ above 175. These quotes are corroborated by Kim’s official score which was in the 170s in 2015. But this is a long way away from an IQ of 210 or 276 for that matter. Likewise Jihun believes Kim to be a fraud and that he is a complete liar for claiming that he is the highest IQ man in the world. He holds that the evidence from the Giga Society scandal, the conflicts of interest with Dr. Chittenden, Keene, and Dr. Butt, and the unreliability of the IQ test Kim took are all evidence against Kim that he is not an honest person. Paul Coojimans has also said that he believes Kim to be a pathological megalomaniac liar. This is a sample of some of the opinions of others outside Kim’s circle. For the average person this is a caution sign that Kim is not all that he claims to be.

Regardless of Kim’s protests he has been expelled from Gila Society, Lifeboat Society, and Mega Society. Kim’s response is always to say that he left for reasons of his own. In the case of the Lifeboat Society he claims the reason that he left was due to them being atheists and leaning in that direction. However, they have said it was for nothing of the sort. They expelled him because of the Giga Society scandal. These are a few examples of the thoughts of Kim outside of his own circle. These examples are important as many who are giving glowing reports about Kim’s IQ do not give such reports out of personal experience but from merely repeating the talking points that Kim has given instead of any independent attestation. An example of this issue can be seen by looking at Noble World Record. They gave Kim an award recognizing his high IQ and this is what they said their criteria was,

This all sounds very impressive. They even said they were open to an interview and further correspondence to which I was all too happy to hear about. After requesting more info and an interview they ceased to respond. What they propose is not even what Kim has claimed for himself. There is no video-proctored test, no peer review, and no independent attestation. These are the types of things that one may think Kim is claiming for himself, but upon investigation there is no evidence that any of these things exist.

Skills and Abilities?

There have been many geniuses over the years that have not been prominent in academia. One such example is Marylin vos Savant. She did not have high degrees or stay in major academic settings. However, her brilliance was recognized from an early age. This was followed by her writing column where she would answer math and logic problems. She became especially famous for explaining the Monty Hall Problem. As many mathematicians came out in opposition to tell her she was wrong, ultimately she proved the world wrong. She displayed her brilliance on a regular basis through her writings and explanations. Can the same be said of Kim?

Kim’s online activity, posts, and videos have not demonstrated any recognizable intelligence. He has not engaged in serious arguments in video or posts on X. As such some of his arguments in videos are barely coherent if not logically fallacious. One would expect to see brilliance on display in at least one area, but it has yet to be seen. He merely asserts that he is the highest IQ man but has never shown it. The lack of impressive qualities leaves an emptiness that is quite unexpected for someone claiming to be the smartest man who ever lived. Kim has no noticeable achievements other than a high IQ score on paper. There is no evidence of brilliance in either argumentation online, written articles, or research papers. He has not published any papers or research. He has displayed memory skills on a few occasions. But this is an issue in itself. For example, “In 2015, on the TV show ‘Finding Genius’, Kim astounded viewers by flawlessly memorizing 104 poker cards in just over 10 minutes.” This may sound like quite an impressive achievement; one should expect nothing less from the world’s more intelligent man. There is only one issue. Competitions are regularly held where others memorize two decks. This is called Double Deck and other normal people compete in this sort of thing on a regular basis with much lower time controls. Here is an example, Double Deck is a known category where people compete in memorizing the cards. In the final challenge, you have three minutes to memorize the order of two full decks of cards — 104 in all. So Kim saying that he can do 104 cards in 10 minutes is three times longer than others who do this activity. As such Kim does not have any awards for winning a memory competition. While he does have some certificates from the World Memory Championship organizations they are not for winning any competitions. And they are all given to him by Raymond Keene who has been associated with Kim since before his 276 IQ score.

One can see further evidence on YouTube of his nonexistent talent. He was on a Korean TV show where he was introduced to 24 girls. He was given specific facts to memorize about each girl and then at the end all the girls were brought out so he could recite their info. While he did get some of them correct he made so many mistakes that it was embarrassing after being introduced as the world’s most intelligent man and surprising for everyone who was expecting to see the world’s highest IQ man in action. There are many others who have achieved incredible feats in the area of memory and his performance is nothing short of weak. This continues to show that Kim has not shown any ability that would merit an especially high IQ worthy of the name genius.

Summary

In conclusion, Kim is supported largely by his associates and does not have any independent support for his claims. He has built a reputation from his community and made it appear as though he has been thoroughly vetted by many different people when that isn’t the case. His current claims do not align with his past IQ claims either. His IQ has jumped up a massive amount from 2015 to 2025 increasing two standard deviations which is absurd to say the least. The test that he took in order to claim his brilliance is nothing that the general public should consider authoritative at all. He took a take home test, with no time limit, full access to the internet, and no supervision. The defenders from Giga Society are lying and misleading the public about Kim. Others outside of his circle have been critical and outspoken against him. And lastly, there hasn’t been any real world evidence of brilliance. He has not made any impressive arguments on social media and his video content is a complete mess instead of a work of art. His abilities in memory challenges are nothing impressive. Kim has built an empire and social media presence based on misleading information, and a take home test. For that reason one should not put their faith in a man who intentionally deceives, misleads, manipulates, and bullies people into believing he is something he is not.

Adam Terry

Curious Christianity

curiouschristianity@gmail.com