162 on the Cattell III B
The Cattell III B is the supervised paper British Mensa uses, and 162 is its ceiling for candidates under 18. Mangotra reached it at ten. ITV News Central carried the story on 17 December 2019; the International Business Times followed on 20 December, which is how a Birmingham school story reached readers in other countries.
Mensa's entry standard is the top two per cent of the population. A ceiling score is a further step beyond that, and at ten it means a child answered a test built for adults as completely as the paper allows. The Cattell III B is a timed verbal-reasoning paper, which is part of why the result is notable at that age: the vocabulary and comprehension it demands are normally acquired over several more years of schooling than she had behind her.
The Einstein headline
Both outlets ran the comparison with Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking in the headline. It is worth stating plainly what that comparison is: neither man is recorded here as having sat a modern IQ test, and the 160 credited to them is an estimate passed between articles rather than a result.
The documented fact is the score and the age. Everything built on top of it, about genius, about historical comparison, belongs to the headline writers rather than to the test.
A household of doctors
Her father, Dr Kuldeep Kumar, is a psychiatrist, and her mother, Dr Gulshan Tajuria, is also a doctor. Both are named in the 2019 coverage, which is how these stories usually come to light: a family approaches the local broadcaster after the result arrives.
Outside the test, her reported activities are a taekwondo black belt, chess and Bollywood dancing. A black belt at ten is its own achievement, measured by a grading panel rather than a multiple-choice paper, and it is the detail that gets lost every time the story is retold as an IQ headline.
Where Freya Mangotra is now
The coverage gathered here is from a single week in December 2019. Nothing later is recorded: no school results, no university place, no further competition.
That silence is normal and, for a child, appropriate. A ten-year-old who makes the news for a test score is not a public figure, and this page does not attempt to follow her beyond what her family chose to make public at the time.
What is documented and what is not
Documented: a score of 162 on Mensa's Cattell III B test at the age of ten, reported by ITV News Central in December 2019; her home in Moseley, Birmingham; her parents' names and professions; and her taekwondo black belt, chess and dancing.
Not documented here: her date of birth, her school, her academic record, and anything at all after December 2019. The birth year on this page is derived from her reported age at the time of the test.
| Person | Country | Milestone | Age / Stat |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lawson Lundberg | United States | Joining Mensa at 3 | Age 3 |
| Freya Mangotra | United Kingdom | Scoring 162 on Mensa's Cattell III B test at ten | Age 10 |
| Nishi Uggalle | United Kingdom | Winning Channel 4's Child Genius in 2019 | Age 10 |
| David Camacho | Mexico | Selection for a Jr. NASA programme, 2024 | — |
| Sharvin Jeyendran | Australia | A Mensa test put him at 168, and the headlines put him above Stephen Hawki | — |
What is documented — and what is not
✓ Documented
- Scored 162 on Mensa's Cattell III B test at ten (ITV News Central, December 2019)
- 162 is the maximum score available on that paper for under-18s
- From Moseley, Birmingham; parents Dr Kuldeep Kumar and Dr Gulshan Tajuria
- Holds a taekwondo black belt and plays chess
? Unverified, disputed or wrong
- Date of birth is not published; the birth year here is derived from her reported age
- The Einstein and Hawking comparison in headlines is not supported by any test record
- Nothing after December 2019 is documented in these sources
Questions people ask about Freya Mangotra
What is Freya Mangotra's IQ?
ITV News Central reported a score of 162 on Mensa's Cattell III B test, the maximum available to an under-18 candidate.
How old is Freya Mangotra?
She was reported as ten in December 2019. No date of birth appears in these sources.
Which test did she take?
Mensa's Cattell III B paper, the supervised test British Mensa uses, which has a ceiling of 162.
Where is she from?
Moseley, in Birmingham.
What else does she do?
She holds a taekwondo black belt and plays chess, and the coverage also mentions Bollywood dancing.
Is her IQ higher than Einstein's?
The headline comparison is not supported by any test record. No source here shows Einstein or Hawking sitting an IQ test.
Where is Freya Mangotra now?
Nothing after December 2019 is documented in the sources used here.
Quick quiz: how well do you know Freya’s story?
Which test did Freya Mangotra sit?
What score did she achieve?
Which martial art has she reached black belt in?
Sources
- 10-year-old has higher IQ than Einstein and Stephen Hawking — ITV News Central, 2019-12-17
- 10-Year-Old British Girl's IQ Higher Than Albert Einstein And Stephen Hawking — International Business Times, 2019-12-20
Checked by the Geniuses.club editorial team. Ages are given as of September 2026.
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