Your support helps us to tell the story
As your White House correspondent, I ask the tough questions and seek the answers that matter.
Your support enables me to be in the room, pressing for transparency and accountability. Without your contributions, we wouldn't have the resources to challenge those in power.
Your donation makes it possible for us to keep doing this important work, keeping you informed every step of the way to the November election
Andrew Feinberg
White House Correspondent
A 12-year-old school boy from Devon has been invited to Mensa after he surpassed the IQ scores of both Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking.
Rory Bidwell from Great Torrington in rural North Devon achieved the maximum possible score of 162 for his age group on the Cattell III B test, according to the North Devon Gazette.
It was above the 160 reported score of famous physicists Einstein and Hawking that had him invited by the Mensa, a high IQ society that accepts individuals whose IQ scores are in the top 2 per cent of the population.
It is a non-profit organisation only open to individuals who achieve scores at or above the 98th percentile on a standardised and supervised IQ test or other approved tests of intelligence.
Rory, who took the test just a fortnight after his 12th birthday, has reportedly joined Mensa.
The boy sat for the two-hour-long test in Exeter and his mother said he did not prepare prior to it.
His mother Abi Bidwell said: “He even took a leisurely stroll to the toilet during one section!"
She said his unawareness towards the seriousness of the test helped him approach it without “anxiety” and “completing them unprepared”.
Ms Bidwell said Rory was “blessed with an incredible brain, capable of working things out and memorising information”.
But still he is still like a regular 12-year-old who needs to be reminded to focus.
The grade seven student at the Great Torrington school reportedly solved 100-piece puzzles at the age of two and mastered 7th-level algebra by the time he was in the second grade.
He also read all the seven Harry Potter books during the first eight weeks of the Coronavirus lockdown in 2020. He is known to be an avid sports enthusiast, representing his school in cross-country, football, and rugby. Rory has garnered recognition, including the title of ‘player of the year’ for the Torridgeside football team. He actively participates in competitions with the Torridgeside swimming club.
But Rory is not the only child to have surpassed the geniuses. Eleven-year-old Yusuf Shah from Leeds last year was invited by Mensa following a score of 162.
Jacob Barnett, who was diagnosed with autism, had an IQ of 170 when he was just 12 in 2011.
