The test and the score
The examination her father described ran to about two hours and covered mathematics problems, general problem-solving, and verbal and non-verbal reasoning. Ariana scored 162, which put her into Mensa, the society for people who place in the top two per cent on an approved intelligence test.
The reporting, from November 2022, framed the result against the estimates of 160 attached to Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking. That comparison is a convention of British newspapers rather than a measurement: neither man ever sat the paper, and the figures given for them are retrospective estimates. What the 162 does mean precisely is that a ten-year-old reached the top of the scale used for children.
Her father's account
Janaka Dambarawa Hewage's description of his daughter is short and unguarded. “She’s my genius,” he said, adding that she passes every test easily.
The claim is supported by something more checkable than an IQ number. Around the same period she sat grammar school entrance examinations across West Yorkshire and received offers from every school she applied to. Entrance tests of that kind are competitive, externally set and marked against thousands of other candidates, which makes a clean sweep of offers a useful corroboration of the Mensa result.
Time travel and the Brownies
What she does with her interest is talk about it. She and her father discuss time travel, a subject that has the useful property of leading a child directly into relativity, causality and the limits of physics without anyone assigning it.
Her stated ambition is to be a famous scientist. Alongside that she reads, does mathematics, and belongs to her local Brownies group, the Girlguiding section for younger children. The portrait in the coverage is of a child whose enthusiasms are wide rather than narrow, which is more typical of children who score at this level than the popular image of the specialist prodigy.
What joining Mensa gives a ten-year-old
The reporting notes that membership brings her into a community of more than 20,000 people in Britain. For an adult, that is a social club. For a ten-year-old, its value is more specific: access to other children whose interests run at the same pace, and events built around them.
It is worth being clear about what the society does not provide. Mensa is not a school, does not teach, and confers no academic standing. A high score changes what is known about a child's reasoning; it does not change the curriculum she sits, the class she is in, or the friends available to her at break. That gap between measured ability and daily provision is the reason these stories so often end with a parent talking about school choices.
Where Ariana Dambarawa Hewage is now
The record consists of the November 2022 coverage: a ten-year-old at a Huddersfield primary school, newly in Mensa, holding offers from West Yorkshire grammar schools.
No source used here records which school she chose, how she has done since, or anything further about her family beyond her father's name. No date of birth is published. Her ambition to be a scientist is stated as a ten-year-old's ambition, and this page leaves it at that.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Elijah Kodzo Motey | Canada | Accepted into Mensa International at six | Age 2 |
| Jadon Prieto | United States | Joining American Mensa at seven | Age 2 |
| Ariana Dambarawa Hewage | United Kingdom | She discusses time travel with her father, and scored at the top of the Me | Age 10 |
| Arjun Bithal | United Kingdom | He had been taking IQ tests in secret. His parents only found out when the | Age 11 |
| Cyrus Leung | United Kingdom | He scored two points off the maximum. His father entered him to help him f | Age 12 |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Scored 162 on the Mensa test at 10 and joined the society (WalesOnline, November 2022)
- Pupil at St Patrick's Catholic Primary Academy, Huddersfield; father Janaka Dambarawa Hewage quoted
- Received offers from the West Yorkshire grammar schools she applied to
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- No date of birth published
- No reporting on which school she joined or her progress since 2022
- The Einstein and Hawking comparisons rest on estimates, not test results
Questions people ask about Ariana Dambarawa Hewage
How old is Ariana Dambarawa Hewage?
She was 10 when her Mensa result was reported in November 2022, placing her birth around 2012. No date of birth is published.
What is her IQ?
A score of 162 was reported, the top of the scale used for children, placing her in the top two per cent.
Is she smarter than Einstein?
That headline comparison relies on an estimate of 160 attributed to Einstein, who never sat an IQ test. The two numbers are not directly comparable.
Where does she go to school?
St Patrick's Catholic Primary Academy in Huddersfield at the time of the reporting. She then received offers from grammar schools across West Yorkshire.
What does the Mensa test involve?
Her father described about two hours of mathematics problems, problem-solving and verbal and non-verbal reasoning.
What does she want to be?
A famous scientist. She discusses time travel with her father and enjoys reading, mathematics and science.
Is Ariana Dambarawa Hewage on Wikipedia?
No Wikipedia article on her was identified in the research behind this page.
Where is she now?
Nothing after November 2022 appears in the sources used here.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Ariana’s story?
How old was Ariana when she scored 162?
What subject does she discuss with her father?
What did she receive from West Yorkshire grammar schools?
Sources
- 'Genius' 10-year-old school girl is smarter than Einstein — WalesOnline (via inkl), 2022-11
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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