Two British girls recently notched IQ scores of 162, beating out Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and the godfather of modern physics himself
Albert Einstein is one of history's brightest minds, but recently, two girls too young to drive both bested his alleged IQ score of 160. The budding geniuses, ages 15 and 12 respectively, earned official IQ scores of 162, putting them in the top 1 percent of the population. (The average IQ is 100.) But they're hardly the first youngsters to beat Einstein in the smarts department — at least on paper. Here, a few notable kids who recently scored higher than Mr. Relativity:
1. Fabiola Mann
Age tested: 15
IQ score: 162
Fabiola, who was born in Goa but currently lives in the U.K., recently begged her parents to pay the fee and let her take Mensa's IQ test. The 15-year-old "has a purple belt in karate and is now taking tae kwondo in school," says Forbes. She enjoys the classic genius hobby of chess, plays the piano and guitar, and can sing as well. "Yes, she is a human being and not an Indian cyborg."
2. Olivia Manning
Age tested: 12
IQ score: 162
"Everyone knew 12-year-old British schoolgirl Olivia Manning was smart," says Madeline Holler at Babble. A quick learner, she required only 24 hours to learn all her lines for a performance of Macbeth. But even she was "surprised when the results of an IQ test came back," and she scored a 162 — higher than astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates, and yes, Einstein himself.
3. Jacob Barnett
Age tested: 12
IQ score: 170
At age 2, Jacob Barnett was diagnosed with a mild form of Asperger's. Turns out, he was just functioning at a higher level than everyone else. Jake, who appears to have an affinity for wearing caps backwards, is already taking advanced college math and astrophysics classes near his home in Indiana. As revealed during a 2011 appearance on Glenn Beck's Fox News show, Jacob would like to become a professor at a high-ranking college and make high-level math textbooks easier to understand.
4. Pranav Veera
Age tested: 6
IQ score: 176
When he took the test in 2009, this young resident of Loveland, Ohio, could recite the U.S. presidents in order, say the alphabet backward, and tell you the day of the week of any given date going back to the year 2000. He was also 6. Blessed with a photographic memory, Pranav says that one day he'd like to be an astronaut.
5. Victoria Cowie
Age tested: 11
IQ score: 162
Victoria Cowie, another British schoolgirl, "isn't glued to her studies," says her mother. "She loves drama and music and plays football too." But the young girl scored a whopping 162 on her IQ test in 2011, and has been offered scholarships from high-ranking secondary schools. When asked what she wants to be when she grows up, Victoria says she'd like to work with animals and become a vet.
View this article on TheWeek.com Get 4 Free Issues of The Week
Other stories from this section:
- The newly discovered Star Wars-like planet with four suns
- Where did the water on the moon come from?
- NASA's dazzling X-ray images of dying stars