The 11-year-old Indian origin girl has achieved the top score in a Mensa IQ test.
On May 16, Jiya Vaducha appeared for the Mensa test at Birbeck in the University of London and scored 162 marks. She can now join the global high IQ society.
The girl said that she was the youngest in the room when she attended the Mensa exam.
Mensa is the world’s largest and oldest high IQ society. It has members from more than 100 countries currently.
The Times of India quoted her as saying, “It was hard but not too hard. Some questions were difficult, others were not. I was really surprised with my results.”
World-renowned physicist Albert Einstein was among members of the Mensa society.
Earlier this week, an 11-year-old Iranian school girl, Tara Sharifi, a student in UK’s Aylesbury High School, had also scored 162 points after appearing for the exam at Oxford.
The Mensa test is split into two sets of question papers for testing different types of IQ. Cattell IIIB includes verbal reasoning, while Culture Fair features diagrams and images. Jiya secured 162 in the Cattell IIIB Scale, bringing her in the top one percent in Britain. In the Culture Fair Scale, she came in the top three percent with a score of 131 points.
Jiya whose parents are from Gujarat was born in the UK and lives in Pinner, the London borough of Harrow.
Jiya’s mother Bijal is an accountant while her father Jignesh is a software entrepreneur. The parents are elated at the result of their daughter. Jignesh who is from Navi Mumbai went to the UK as a student in 2002. Bijal who is from Kandivli joined him in 2005.
Jignesh said that while the family knew Jiya would do well in the test, they did not expect her to get the top result. Jignesh said, “We hope she will do something meaningful with her life.”
To gain a Mensa membership, one has to gain a score within the top two percent on either paper. Children above the age of 10 and half years can sit for the Mensa test.
The United Kingdom has 22,700 Mensa members while there are 1,500 in India. Anyone can appear for Mensa exams. There are centers around the country.
