11-Year-Old Iranian Girl Gets the Highest Mensa IQ Score, Beating Einstein, Hawking

Tara Sharifi, a student at Aylesbury High School, recently took the Mensa IQ test in Oxford where she scored well above the “genius benchmark” of 140.

The 11-year-old student scored 162 points on the test, which is two points ahead of Einstein, a theoretical physicist who is considered as one of the two pillars of modern physics, and famous cosmologist Professor Stephen Hawking.

The Mensa IQ test, which needed to be answered within a set time, focused on the student’s ability to understand the meanings of words, according to Iran Front Page.

“I was shocked when I got the result – I never expected to get such a good score,” Sharifi said.

With the score she received, Sharifi now qualifies for the Mensa membership, which is also known as the High IQ society.

“It was a joint decision between me and my parents to take the test,” the girl said. “It will be a wonderful opportunity to meet other people within the Mensa system. I have told some of my friends at school and they were really impressed.”

She also added that when she becomes older, she would pursue “something related to mathematics.”

Her father, meanwhile, admitted that he was surprised by the result, but was proud of what his daughter achieved.

“I am extremely proud but very surprised at how well Tara scored,” her father, Hossein, said, Bucks Herald UK reported. “I figured she might do well when we watched TV and she would get maths questions before the contestants. I knew she was very clever but I did not think she would have such a high IQ.”

Feat image via Iran Front Page