UK News Brighter than Einstein: Schoolgirl has an IQ of 162

[The Helper]

In many ways, she's a typical 11-year-old girl. She enjoys swimming, dancing and playing musical instruments. She wants to be a vet when she grows up and she excels in school. Her parents are proud of her.

Every parent thinks their child is a genius. Victoria Cowie's parents have her Mensa acceptance to prove it.

Victoria has an IQ of 162. The score puts her ahead of Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates.

The Wolverhampton-area-raised schoolgirl's intelligence puts her among the top 1 per cent of the British population. (The average IQ is 100. Mensa only accepts those boasting IQs of 148 or higher.) Since her test scores went public, four prestigious schools have approached Victoria with full-scholarship offers.

Brighter than Einstein: Schoolgirl has an IQ of 162

In many ways, she's a typical 11-year-old girl. She enjoys swimming, dancing and playing musical instruments. She wants to be a vet when she grows up and she excels in school. Her parents are proud of her. Every parent thinks … <a...

ca.news.yahoo.com

 

[codemonkey]

Albert Einstein also had dyslexia.

 

[Varine]

I watched a show on a kid like this once. What test did she take?

 

[Jedimindtrixxx]

meh, still not as much as William Sidis

naw i kid good 4 her i is just jelly

 

[Varine]

Sidis was a badass dude. She aint got nothing on him yet.

I don't get this though - first why a vet? And secondly, they didn't really go into what prompted her parents to have her take a standardized test.

 

[thewrongvine]

Because she likes animals and helping them, :3

 

[The Helper]

I think my oldest daughter is going to be a vet as well.

 

[xPass]

Wow she's brilliant!

 

[SerraAvenger]

Sigh... Bad journalism is bad journalism.

Intelligence fluctuates a lot around that age. Stamping her as a 99 right now might crush her later on, when her results drop significantly. I knew a guy who did a test at the age of ten and was found to be extremely brilliant. He used it as an excuse for not liking physical sports, and well everyone kinda accepted that. But when he did another test 5 years later, he was only slightly above average. That was really hard for him. Let's just hope that she'll be able to live up to it.
For a similar reason, giving her those fellowships was not a good idea. I fear she will not profit from it. Thinking about it, I always wished stuff like that would happen to me. Sometimes it did, and while never at this scale, it didn't do me any good. I'm not proud about getting some stuff shoved down my ass, stuff other people had to work for very hard. I'm proud of the things I accomplished, most of the time only with the help of others. I'm proud whenever I'm with someone much smarter than me and I can help them achieve something. But whenever I was just given... It didn't help me experience wise, it didn't help me as a human being, if anything it opened doors that were closed for others.

Also, comparing those "IQ Numbers" is nonsense. In the german tests I score 140-144 - out of 150 maximum possible. I know some guy who did an IQ test that had numbers as big as 250 floating around. Now would you say someone who had an IQ of 200 in that test would be "smarter" than me? No.
Smartness cannot be measured in numbers, especially not in numbers of different scales. You can compare parts of the intelligence by comparing with the test scores of other people who took the same test, but one test can only measure so much. There is a lot of intelligence that is usually ignored by such tests, for example emotional intelligence.

Additionaly, the IQ "improved" over the years. As in, people who did IQ tests 50 years ago would have a worse percentage score now. Hence comparing with Albert Einstein or even Napoleon is vast nonsense.

And apart from that, IQ doesn't measure success or anything. It only tells you that X% of the population were worse at taking this test than you. Next thing you know I'll have an "IQ Test" that will give everyone who has my name 1 point, everyone who has my birthdate 1 point and everyone who was born in the same hospital as me another point. Woo, I'll have a 100% score! I'm soooo smart! Yeah baby!