An 11-year-old boy from Leeds has achieved the highest score possible of 162 in the MENSA IQ test – which puts him in the top one per cent of the world population.
Yusuf Shah, a Year 6 student, sat the MENSA IQ test after both family and friends recognised his extraordinary intelligence.
Yusuf told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “Everyone at school thinks I am very smart and I have always wanted to know if I was in the top two per cent of the people who take the test.”
Yusuf’s father Irfan said: “It is a difficult test to prepare for. We just did what we were already doing – nothing specific for the IQ test.”
“I still tell him that ‘your dad is still smarter than you’,” said Irfan, “We take it all lightheartedly. Even if you are talented, you have to be the hardest worker.”
The family celebrated the eldest son’s achievement with a meal at Nando’s.
Yusuf’s mother Sana said: “I was so proud. He is the first person to take the MENSA test in the family. I was actually a little concerned too – he has always gone into a hall full of kids to take tests. We thought he might be intimidated by the adults [at the centre]. But he did brilliantly.”
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Yusuf is interested in geography and flags but mathematics is his passion. He spends his downtime doing sudokus and solving Rubik’s cubes and doing anything that stimulates his brain.
He first started playing with Rubik’s Cubes in January and was quickly able to solve cubes of all difficulties with ease.
In the future, he wishes to study mathematics at Cambridge or Oxford but in the meantime he will be practising his creative writing for secondary school entrance exams.
