Clever schoolboy, 12, scores higher IQ than Albert Enstein

A Bristol schoolboy is officially one of the smartest children in the world after getting the maximum score in a Mensa test - higher than Albert Einstein.

Barnaby Swinburn, 12, from Knowle, has now been accepted into the IQ club after scoring the highest possible score for a boy of his age - 162.

He scored in the top one per cent of people in one test, and the highest four per cent on the second.

Parents Ghislaine and Christopher Swinburn said their son has already picked his university course in computer programming.

Ghislaine, 50, from Bristol, said: “Maths is something Barnaby has always stood out in because he enjoys it - sitting the Mensa test was his idea.

“We don’t push him to do anything - he made all his decisions for himself on this.

“We don’t even have to ask him to do maths homework because he enjoys it so he just does it anyway.

“When we found out his test score I was really pleased for him - and he has been very excited about it too.”

Barnaby’s love for maths goes as far back as when he was just four when mum Ghislaine recalled a time he couldn’t sleep because he was “trying to calculate how many seconds are in an hour.”

He told his parents he wanted to sit a Mensa test to “understand himself better” and completed it on December 11.

Mensa, known as the High IQ Society, welcomes anyone whose IQ is in the top two per cent of the population.

Mum-of-two Ghislaine said: “I told his dad it would go one of two ways - it could be that he won’t get in and he’ll be upset or he would get in, and he’d be unbearable because he’d know how smart he is!”

His top score of 162 on the Cattell III B test put him in the top 1% of people, with his score of 128 on the Culture Fair test putting him in the top 4%.

Barnaby dreams of studying at Oxford University.

He wants to become a computer programmer and has already “nagged” to be enrolled in programming classes for his birthday in January.

But despite his Einstein-level intellect, mum Ghislaine says her son is the furthest thing from a boffin - and he loves sports as well as playing practical jokes.

Ghislaine said: “I work within the NHS and the pandemic has been so negative and stressful for me.

“So see Barnaby do well has been something so nice.

“We don’t push Barnaby at all, everything he’s done has been his idea.

“It’s been a voyage of self-discovery for him and this is just the start!”