The exam he was not supposed to sit
HSK is the official Chinese proficiency examination for people who are not native speakers, set in numbered levels. The third level tests listening, reading and writing and requires a working vocabulary of several hundred words. Leo scored the maximum, 300 out of 300.
The point his father made is about who takes that paper at all. “Normally children don’t sit this exam as it is designed for adults,” Iñaki San Pedro said, “as there is a special exam for children called YCT.” The Youth Chinese Test exists precisely so that children are examined on material and in a format suited to them. Leo took the adult paper instead, and left nothing on it.
Four languages by six
His languages are Spanish, which is native, English, French and Chinese. That is four systems of grammar and three scripts before the age of seven, and only one of them, English, is reinforced by everyday life in London.
Chinese is the outlier in that list for a European child, because it shares no alphabet, no cognates and no grammatical scaffolding with the others. It is learned by memorising characters and by ear. Leo's interest goes past the language: he is drawn to Chinese culture, is fascinated by Kung Fu, and had visited China five times by the time British Mensa wrote about him.
The lockdown song
Before the exam there was a video. During the first lockdown Leo performed a song he had written himself, intended to cheer people up, and it became an internet hit.
The detail is worth keeping alongside the test result, because it describes a different kind of child from the one a perfect score suggests. The impulse in the song was social: a small boy with an audience he could not meet, making something for them. British Mensa's write-up treats the two achievements as belonging to the same person rather than to a specialist.
What a junior Mensa membership is
Mensa admits people who score at or above the 98th percentile on an approved intelligence test, and it has no lower age limit for membership. Junior members are children, and the society's provision for them is social and organisational rather than academic: publications, events and contact with other families.
It confers no qualification and teaches nothing. That is why the HSK result is the more substantial item on Leo's record. An externally administered examination with a published mark scheme, sat under supervision against an adult standard, is a measurement of something specific that he can do, rather than a percentile describing how he compares.
Veinte preguntas, ocho minutos de reloj y un percentil medido frente a todos los que la han hecho. Sin registro.
Hacer la prueba de CI →Where Leo Gomez-Franqueira is now
The record used for this page is British Mensa's own report from March 2021, when he was six, newly in possession of a perfect HSK 3 result, living in London with his family.
Nothing later is documented here: not whether he went on to higher HSK levels, not which school he attends, not how the languages have developed. He would now be around eleven. No date of birth is published, and no further family detail beyond his father's name appears in the source used for this page.
| Persona | País | Hito | Edad / Dato |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elijah Kodzo Motey | Canadá | Aceptado en Mensa International a los seis años | Edad 2 |
| Jadon Prieto | Estados Unidos | Ingresó en American Mensa a los siete años | Edad 2 |
| Leo Gomez-Franqueira | Reino Unido | Un perfecto 300/300 en el examen de chino HSK 3 para adultos | Edad 4 |
| Arjun Bithal | Reino Unido | Había estado haciendo pruebas de CI en secreto. Sus padres solo se enteraron cuando el | Edad 11 |
| Cyrus Leung | Reino Unido | Se quedó a dos puntos de la puntuación máxima. Su padre lo inscribió para ayudarle a | Edad 12 |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Scored 300 out of 300 on HSK 3, an adult Chinese proficiency exam, at six (British Mensa, March 2021)
- Spanish-born, moved to London at four; speaks Spanish, English, French and Chinese
- A junior Mensa member who had visited China five times and became a lockdown YouTube hit with his own song
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No date of birth published
- No school named, and no reporting on him after March 2021
- No IQ score has been published, only his junior Mensa membership
Questions people ask about Leo Gomez-Franqueira
How old is Leo Gomez-Franqueira?
He was six when British Mensa reported his HSK result in March 2021, placing his birth around 2015. No date of birth is published.
What is HSK 3?
A level of the official Chinese proficiency examination for non-native speakers, testing listening, reading and writing. It is designed for adults; children normally take the YCT instead.
What score did he get?
300 out of 300, the maximum available.
How many languages does Leo speak?
Four: Spanish, which is his native language, English, French and Chinese.
Where is he from?
He was born in Spain and moved to London with his family when he turned four.
What was the lockdown video?
A performance of a song he had written himself to cheer people up during the first lockdown, which became an internet hit.
Is Leo Gomez-Franqueira on Wikipedia?
No Wikipedia article on him was identified in the research behind this page.
Where is he now?
Nothing after March 2021 appears in the sources used here.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Leo’s story?
What score did Leo Gomez-Franqueira achieve on HSK 3?
Which exam do children normally take instead?
How many languages does he speak?
Sources
- Leo excels in Chinese challenge — British Mensa, 2021-03-31
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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