An eight year old boy is one of the smartest people in Britain having entered Mensa with an IQ of 152 at the age of four.
Arav Ajaykumar Maliyakkal, from Leicester, whose parents Varsha and Ajaykumar, moved to the UK from Mumbai in 2009 when Ajaykumar got a job in NHS as a consultant-radiologist, just got a gold award and the top marks in his school for the Primary Mathematics Challenge, a logical reasoning test organised by the Mathematical Association.
From a very young age, Arav Ajaykumar had an affinity for numbers. By the age of two he could count to a thousand and by the age of four he had been accepted into MENSA, the 'High IQ Society', with an IQ of 152.
Now, at the age of eight, he has won Gold and the title of 'Best in School' at Stoneygate School in the UK Primary Maths Challenge.
Speaking to a local newspaper Varsha said: "He would always look at numbers everywhere when he was young. Even when he was very little he had this amazing ability to think logically. He used to play this game where he had to identify the exact position of a fraction on a line and he would do it immediately. His mind seems to work like a computer, and I really don't know how he can do that."
Arav's IQ puts him in the top 0.03 percent of people in the UK, and is almost on par with Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. The UK Primary Maths Challenge is typically taken by pupils aged between 9 and 12 and despite being at least a year younger than other students in the test, he excelled.
Varsha continued: "It is really nice that he got best in school and I am very happy that he is so gifted in mathematics. He has a long way to go though and I will be really impressed when he is an adult and he achieves something really big.
"I was proud that he got the best in school and gold on Maths Challenge, particularly at such a young age. The school and the teachers have been very supportive and understand that he is gifted and have tried to help him develop even more."
Varsha is unsure where Arav's exceptional skills have come from.
"I am not a maths person at all. I like logic puzzles, but nothing really maths based at all. I don't know where he got those skills from really. My dad, Arav's grandfather, was always good at maths but Arav is different. A lot of time he does things and we are completely baffled," she said.
Arav cannot seem to get enough of his favourite subject, as he often comes home from school and spends his free time reading books about maths.
Arav said: "I have loved maths since I was about two years old, I was always looking for numbers when I was out. I always study on my own at home and practice. I like to read different books and find out how to solve different sums. Maths is my favourite subject because there is always one right answer, and I prefer that."
The 8-year old only plans on continuing his success at school and at home. He has even started challenging his teachers to see if they could beat him at his favourite subject.
Stoneygate School head John Dobson commented: "We are all very proud of Arav's achievements- he has a very sharp, mathematical brain. Encouraged by the rest of his form, Arav recently challenged me to an on line times table test. I lost much to the delight of his friends. We will at Stoneygate continue to support Arav in this field of study. We don't believe in limiting a child due to his or her age, but want to further extend his mathematical skills and knowledge."
