Child prodigy who has higher IQ than Einstein scores highest possible mark in Mensa test

A child prodigy with an IQ higher than Albert Einstein is celebrating becoming a unique member of Mensa.

Nishi Uggalle, 10, is one of the youngest in the country to score the highest possible mark of 162 in the IQ society’s supervised testing.

The Mensa Supervised IQ Test can only be taken by children aged over 10-and-a-half and consists of two separate industry-standard assessments. One measures mainly verbal reasoning skills and the other, which includes diagrams and images, assesses visual and spatial logic.

And Nishi, from Audenshaw in Tameside, scored the highest possible mark of 162 in the first test - known as the Cattell III B score.

She scored 142 in the second element, the Culture Fare Scale, with the results putting her in the top one per cent of the nation in terms of IQ. Anyone scoring a percentile of two in any Mensa test is admitted to the society.

Mensa has seven members aged 10 or under in the North West, with only two in Manchester. Nishi is the oldest of them, and the only one to have sat the official test. The society said the others would have been assessed using different forms of testing.

The controlled test takes two and a half hours and, according to theories, Nishi’s score and subsequent IQ of 162 would be two points higher than famous physicist Einstein.

The former pupil at Audenshaw’s Poplar Street Primary is studying at Withington Girls’ School and starts at Altrincham Grammar School for Girls in September.

She lives with her parents Neelanga and Shiromi, who moved to Manchester from Sri Lanka in 2001. Dad Neelanga, 44, praised Nishi’s first teachers at Poplar Street Primary.

He said: “We knew very early on that she was gifted. She started reading and writing very early and was became very good at mathematics. We gave her challenging, an interesting, things to do. As a parent, you do not want their talents to be wasted, but there has to be a balance with their childhood.

“She is just a normal 10-year-old, just like any other 10-year-old really. She loves reading, cycling and walking, and we’re all very proud of her.”

Nishi, an only child who sat the test last month in Manchester, said she completed the first element of 150 questions with time to spare, but didn’t quite finish the second paper.

Nishi Uggalle has qualified for, and become a member of, the high IQ society MENSA (Image: Vincent Cole)

She said: “It wasn’t easy, but it wasn’t hard at the same time. In the first test I had enough time to check over things.

“I didn’t manage to finish one or two questions in the second one. I have been telling my mates about Mensa and they are all very proud of me. I want to be a scientist, as the subject of time has always interested me.”

John Stevenage, chief executive of British Mensa, said he was delighted for Nishi. 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.”

Nishi Uggalle with her mum Shiromi and Dad Neelanga at their home (Image: Vincent Cole)

Mensa: The high IQ society

Mensa is Latin for ‘table’ and the high IQ society was formed in Oxford in 1946 by Australian barrister Roland Berrill and Dr Lance Ware, a scientist and lawyer.

Their founding principle was that all members are equal regardless of age, gender, nationality or religion.

IQ, or Intelligence Quotient, is an attempt to measure intelligence. You cannot pass or fail an IQ test - it’s a measurement.

Membership is restricted to the top two per cent of the population by IQ. There are 110,000 Mensa members worldwide and 20,000 in the UK. Around 1,300 Mensans are under 18.

The two test papers assess different types of IQ. The Cattell III B score includes verbal reasoning, while the Culture Fair Score has no words, only diagrams and images.

A child can only get a maximum of 162 on Cattell III B and 183 on the Culture Fair.

Members younger than 10 and a half are accepted on the basis of education psychology reports. The oldest member is 105 with celebrities reported to have qualified include TV presenters Carol Vorderman and Fern Britton, and Olympic swimmer Adrian Moorhouse.

And you could qualify - Mensa is holding a supervised IQ test session at the Arora Hotel on Princess Street in Manchester on Saturday from 2pm. The test costs £24.95.

Visit www.mensa.org.uk to book, or take an online Mensa mental workout, which takes 15 minutes and includes 18 questions.