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Genius schoolboy scores higher than Einstein and Hawking in IQ test

A 10-year-old boy has become the youngest applicant in a decade to achieve the highest score in the Mensa IQ test, beating geniuses like Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.

Mehul Garg, also known by his nickname Mahi, decided to take the test to follow in the footsteps of his older brother, 13-year-old Dhruv Garg, who had also scored the highest score of 162 last year.


"Mahi is fiercely competitive. His older brother had achieved the same score last year so he really wanted to prove that he is no less intelligent than his brother," said his mother Divya Garg.

The pupil of Reading Boys Grammar School in Reading, southern England, scored the maximum score of 162 to become a member of Mensa, the High IQ Society.

His score is two points higher than Einstein and Hawking and places him in the top one per cent of people in the world who achieve this distinction.

"Mehul said the paper challenged his language skills, including analogies and definitions, and his sense of logic," said his mother.

The anxiety of the time-pressured exam did make the 10- year-old extremely nervous but cheered on by his father, Gaurav Garg, he relaxed after he had solved the initial few questions.

"I was in tears when I got the results back," Mehul said after he got the results this week.

While his passion is cricket and ice-skating, the schoolboy whose favourite subject is mathematics has ambitions of heading a major tech company like Google.

He enjoys solving the Rubik's cube under 100 minutes and is also pursuing higher grades in playing the drums. But he and his brother also find time to pursue other projects and are currently raising funds to build an app to reduce social isolation by connecting neighbours with each other.

"We are passionate young men with an ambition to make a difference in the world around us," they write on their online fund raising page, which has already attracted over £1,300.

"They both are currently working on social projects and want to give something back, to make the world a better place. And I hope they continue on this path always. For me this is more important than their marks," said their mother.

Mehul is also working towards his participation in the Child Genius 2018 show on Channel 4 after being shortlisted among the top 100 candidates for this year.

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  • Lancashire’s public health chief says rising demand on services cannot continue.
  • New prevention strategy aims to involve entire public sector and local communities.
  • Funding concerns raised as council explores co-investment and partnerships.
Lancashire’s public sector will struggle to cope with rising demand unless more is done to prevent people from falling ill in the first place, the county’s public health director has warned.
Dr. Sakthi Karunanithi told Lancashire County Council’s health and adult services scrutiny committee that poor health levels were placing “not sustainable” pressure on local services, prompting the authority to begin work on a new illness prevention strategy.

The plan, still in its early stages, aims to widen responsibility for preventing ill health beyond the public health department and make it a shared priority across the county council and the wider public sector.

Dr. Karunanithi said the approach must also be a “partnership” with society, supporting people to make healthier choices around smoking, alcohol use, weight and physical activity. He pointed that improving our health is greater than improving the NHS.

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