11-year-old Indian girl memorises entire periodic table in 40 minutes

LONDON June 27: An 11-year-old who memorised the entire periodic table in 40 minutes has scored the highest possible mark in the Mensa IQ test – making her brighter than Einstein.Anushka Dixit scored 162 points, meaning she is well above the ‘genius’ score of 140 and two points higher than Stephen Hawking.

Her mother Arti, 45, said her only child has always been bright, and started talking at just six months old, copying words from TV adverts.

She begged her mother to let her sit the Mensa IQ tests because she was after a new challenge having passed her 11 plus exams with flying colours.

And despite being the youngest person in the exam – by around three decades – she got the highest score, putting her in the top 1% in the world in terms of intelligence.

Anushka, from Barkingside, London, said: ‘It was not very difficult, just slightly difficult.

‘It was only the time pressure that was difficult. One part was 28 questions in four minutes.

What is Mensa? And how do you join?

Mensa was founded in England in 1946 by Roland Berrill, a barrister and Dr Lance Ware, a scientist and Lawyer.

According to the organisation, Mensa is a society for like-minded bright people.

Its aims are:

to provide a stimulating intellectual and social environment for its members

to identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity

to encourage research into the nature, characteristics, and uses of intelligence.

To become a member of Mensa you need to prove your IQ is in the top two per cent of the population.

Anyone over the age of ten and a half can take the Mensa Supervised IQ test.
As the organisation is a ’round table’ society, all members are seen as equal and there is not a separate part of the organisation for gifted young people.
Source: Mensa

‘It just boosted my self confidence after passing the 11 plus and that made me want to sit the Mensa test.

‘I got full marks. I was definitely quite shocked at that. I started to cry after the test finished because I thought that I might have got one of the non verbal questions wrong.

‘I was aiming for 162 but I was still shocked.’

Arti said her daughter started speaking aged six months, and was already learning country capitals aged one, with the help of her mother.

She could read and write in reception class, and told her teachers during her first year of school she wanted to be prime minister one day.

Anushka took the test on April 20 at the University of East London and her mum said she was surrounded by people in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s.

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

She received the results via post at home where she lives with her mum Arti, a housewife, and dad Neeraj, 48, an enforcement officer.

‘My favourite subject is English and I love poetry,’ said Anushka, who is a keen dancer.

‘When I grow up I would like to become a doctor.