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British 12-year-old Nicole Barr

British 12-year-old Nicole Barr, who lives in a caravan in Harlow, Essex, UK, with her father and three-month-old baby half-sister, has just scored two points more than Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and even Bill Gates – with a perfect 162 on her Mensa IQ test!

With that score, Nicole has hit the top one per cent of the brightest people on Earth. It implies this young girl is more intelligent than some grown men recognised as the brainiest in the world – including the three renowned celebrities mentioned earlier, who are all thought to have an IQ of 160. The comment by Mensa spokeswoman Ann Clarkson reflects that view: “Nicole’s IQ puts her comfortably within the top 1% of the population.”

Remember that the average adult IQ score is 100, whilst a score above 140 is considered to be that of a genius. And she got 22 more than that! Actually, there are some1,10,000 Mensa members across the world, including about 20,000 in the British Isles (with India lagging at barely 1,500). A mere eight per cent of these members are under 16, with only 35 percent being female. According to Mensa, traits for high potential in children are: outstanding memory, academically ahead of children of the same age, deep interest or knowledge in a subject, and preference of more mature company.

Academically, the girlis only a Year 7 student in Burnt Mill Academy but several years ahead of her peers in primary school, having been able to tackle complex algebra problems even before she was 10 years old. But she enjoys reading, drama and singing.

Her very proudfather, James (36) who is just a gutter cleaner and driveway repairman and is separated from Nicole’s mother Dolly, said: “The story has been going around the gypsy community, particularly on Facebook where it keeps being shared.It’s nice for us to be in the news for something good for a change. This shows that it doesn’t matter where you come from, anyone can be academically brilliant.”

Nicole’s mother, Dolly Buckland (34), enthuses, “She’s a hard working child. She stays after school for homework club and never misses a day. From a young age she’s been picking out mistakes in books and magazines. She’s a happy, fun-loving girl who is always asking for extra homework. She’s determined to finish school and go to college and university to be a paediatrician.”Fancy that in a 12-year-old!

Nicole herself was overwhelmed by the intelligence quotient test results. As she exults: “When I found out I got such a high score, it was so unexpected. I was shocked.” Then adds: “I remember when I was in primary school and I was an angel in a school play, another girl who was playing the other angel didn’t turn up, so I learnt her lines too.”

Now, this talented genius,who also attends drama classes, will soon be making an appearance in a performance of Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare.

The head of the BMA group of six schools including Burnt Mill Academy, Helena Mills, sums it all up with the comment: “Nicole is a brilliant pupil. She works incredibly hard and has thrown herself into many different activities in her first year with us.
For example, she has been camping, entered writing competitions and taken part in a national maths challenge.She lives and breathes our unofficial motto of hard work pays.”

What’s Mensa?
Mensa is a worldwide organisation founded by Barrister Roland Berrill and scientist and lawyer Dr Lance Ware, in 1945 in England. They intended to form a society for bright people whose sole qualification for membership would be a high IQ. It was and is a society that is free from all religious or racial distinctions and remains non-political. It embraces people from every walk of life whose IQ is in the top 2% of the population, so that they enjoyeach other’s company and participate in wide-ranging social and cultural activities.

What are Mensa’s goals?
Mensa has three stated purposes: • To identify and foster human intelligence for the benefit of humanity • To encourage research in the nature, characteristics and uses of intelligence • To promote stimulating intellectual and social opportunities for its members.