A 10-year-old child genius from Manchester, who recently recorded a higher IQ score than Albert Einstein, has become one of the city’s youngest members of the intellectual organisation – Mensa.
Nishi Uggalle, from Audenshaw in Tameside, scored a perfect 162 out of 162 in her official intelligence test – known as the Cattell III B score.
Open to children from the age of ten-and-a-half-years-old, young Nishi was eager to ‘have a go’ at the exam after being asked on a number of occasions about how smart she actually was.
Her father, Neelanga, subsequently arranged for the test as soon as his daughter reached the minimum age and was delighted to see her produce a perfect score.
“From just six-months-old, we knew that she was very special,” he said. “She was able to count up to 20, do the full alphabet and say a sentence from memory when she was just 15 months so we have always known she was very intelligent.”
He added: “Her success in her Mensa test still came as a surprise though. We knew for a long time that she was very gifted, so when she actually went for the test we had hoped she would do well.
“I maybe expected her to make around the 145 mark but it was a big shock to us when I saw 162 out of 162.”
As well as scoring 100 per cent on her first test, Nishi then scored 142 on her second, the Culture Fare Scale, ensuring she was placed in the top one per cent in the country in terms of IQ.
The Withington Girls’ School pupil is one of the youngest Mensa members in the Manchester, with two children aged 10 or under also part of the society.
She lives with her parents Neelanga and Shiromi, who arrived in the UK from Sri Lanka in 2001.
Neelanga said: “When I tell my friends about Nishi and Mensa, many say they are not that surprised because I was quite good at school too.
“The difference is, I have a lot of general knowledge whereas Mensa is more mentally challenging. It’s a different kind of clever.”
John Stevenage, chief executive of British Mensa, explained what it meant for Nishi to achieve membership.
He said: “I hope she will make full use of her membership to meet new, like-minded people and challenge herself.
“Joining Mensa opens the door to an international network of more than 100,000 people and many members make friends for life amongst fellow Mensans.”
There are approximately 110,000 Mensa members worldwide and 20,000 in the UK and Ireland.
