An 11-year-old Iranian schoolgirl who just received the highest score possible on the Mensa IQ test has emerged as the new face of intelligence.
British student Tara Sharifi, a student at Aylesbury High School, recently sat the exam in Oxford and scored an astonishing 162 marks. The “genius threshold” of 140 is greatly exceeded by Sharifi’s score.
Professor Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein are both said to have had IQs of 160 (Stephen Hawking’s score comes from another source; Einstein never took the IQ test).
Nobody was more shocked by Tara’s accomplishment than Tara herself, who thinks it’s amazing.
The Bucks Herald quoted Tara as saying, “I was startled when I got the result – I never anticipated to earn such a fantastic score.”
“My parents and I decided together that I would take the test.”
Tara now qualifies for membership in Mensa, also known as the High IQ Society, thanks to her exceptional score. She will be able to connect with other members and join the ranks of well-known women like actress Geena Davis and American author Joyce Carol Oates. There are currently no age restrictions on Mensa membership. In Australia, a third of Mensa members are under 30.
“It will be a fantastic chance to get to know other Mensa members. My schoolmates were quite pleased when I told them about it, Tara told The Bucks Herald.
Despite being aware of her academic prowess, her father, Hossein Sharifi, told reporters that he is “extremely delighted” with his daughter. “When we watched TV and she would receive math questions before the competitors, I thought she would do well. Although I was aware of her intelligence, I did not anticipate her to have such a high IQ.
The 11-year-old has expressed an interest in continuing her math studies; might this be a sign that she may follow in the footsteps of the late Maryam Mirzakhani, a mathematician who won the Fields Medal?