Yusuf Shah, 11 years old, received the highest score ever on a Mensa intelligence test – 162 – and is now being acclaimed as a genius. He outperforms physicists Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein, whose IQs were estimated to be around 160. Mensa, an organization that welcomes high-IQ individuals throughout the world, validated Shah’s score according to NBC News, saying he landed in the top 2% of the population and “has significant potential.”
The Yorkshire Evening Post, the local newspaper in Shah’s county, reported that his parents had urged him to take the test without particular preparation out of curiosity.
The 11-year-old from Leeds, in Northern England, told the Post that everyone at school thinks he is exceptionally brilliant, and he has always been curious if he was in the top two percent of the people who take the exam. According to his family, the young mathematician is focused on registering for secondary school, and he likes to do sudoku puzzles and Rubik’s Cubes in his spare time.
Shah said having a certificate makes him feel special. He never imagined that he would be in the headlines.
Irfan Shah, Shah’s father, told the Washington Post that when Shah was seven years old, he came upon a mathematical anomaly that baffled him. The family got in touch with a math expert at Cambridge University, who gave Shah a justification for the rule, which has since been known as “Yusuf’s Square Rule” at their home.
Shah’s parents, however, claimed that in addition to developing his aptitudes, they are also teaching him how to cultivate his work ethic and social life.
Irfan said that he still tells Shah that he is still brighter than him. He remarked, “We take it all in good fun. Even if you have talent, you must put in the most effort.”
