12-year-old pupil has a higher IQ than Einstein and Hawking
A 12-YEAR-OLD boy has scored higher in an IQ test than the projected scores of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
Harrison Casey got 162 marks on a Mensa paper, the maximum possible result and two points higher than the estimated IQs of Einstein and cosmologist Hawking.
The mark puts the Aberdare Community School pupil in the top 1% of the population and he is now a member of the elite Mensa society.
Harrison, who dreams of becoming a pathologist and finding cures to diseases, said the two-hour IQ test paper, which he sat in Cardiff last month, was “sort of difficult”.
The year eight pupil, who was reading newspapers at the age of one and subtracting and dividing numbers aged three, said: “I am happy with the result. It was quite good. It was sort of difficult. I took the test because I thought I would get a rather high score and I was right. It took me two hours as planned.”
Harrison is in top sets for all subjects at school, but his favourite is maths and he aims to take his maths GCSE exam two years early next year. “The truth is I don’t really study. It just comes naturally. I quite like school,” he said modestly
And he brushed off suggestions he might be cleverer than top brains like Einstein and Hawking, adding: “I like Stephen Hawking. He’s cool.”
Aberdare Community School assistant head Tara Neale said she thinks Harrison is the first pupil in the school to become a Mensa member.
“We are incredibly proud of him. He’s obviously going to be a future star and we hope he remembers us when he is,” she said.
“Education is about responding to the needs of the child, so we will work with his parents to come up with a plan for him. It’s an amazing achievement.”
Harrison’s mother Amy said she and his dad Lee, a mechanical engineer, realised from a young age their son was gifted academically.
Diagnosed with high-functioning Asperger’s syndrome at age four, Harrison could subtract and divide numbers aged three, she said.
“We always new he was clever,” said Amy.
“He will sit GCSE maths next year at the age of 14. He gets A grades in every subject except art.
“We are very proud of him. His educational psychologist suggested he sat the Mensa test when he was in primary school, but you can’t sit it until you are at least 10.”