Two 14-year-old classmates have been found to have higher IQs than genius Stephen Hawking.
Liam Gormley and Michael Gowie, both studying for their GCSEs at St Bede’s Catholic College, Bristol, have both achieved outstanding scores of 162 in the IQ test for Mensa, the global society for people with high IQs.
That is higher than the renowned theoretical physicist Professor Stephen Hawking, who has an IQ of 160.
Liam, who hopes to land a career in Game Development one day, said: “I’m really surprised. I didn’t really think too much about it, I just thought ‘that’s cool’ and forgot about it.”
Michael, who wants to be a computer engineer, said: “I wasn’t expecting it to be as high as it was. A couple of my friends had been talking about the test a bit, so when I received my results I was relieved and happy.”
Liam and Michael aren’t the only students with exceptional scores at the Academy school.
Classmates Joseph Sharman, 15, and Hal Hewlett, 14 scored 158 and 156 respectively and join Liam and Michael in the top one per cent of the population in terms of intelligence.
Meanwhile, fellow students Oliwia Makulec and Ethan Woolley, both 14, are in the top two per cent in the country, with a score of 152 and 148 respectively. The average IQ score for a person is 100.
The secondary school’s principal, Catherine Hughes, said: “This is obviously a phenomenal accomplishment and we are very proud of our students.
“As well as being bright they are also well rounded, well grounded youngsters, each of whom will achieve huge success both in their studies and in life.”
