Anwita Patil: IQ, Mensa and the 162 She Scored at Eleven

Biography

Two scores, one headline

Anwita Jayaprakash Patil took Mensa's supervised tests in 2023, shortly before turning twelve, and scored 162 on the verbal paper. That is the maximum mark available to a candidate under eighteen. On the visual-spatial paper she scored 140. Versions of the story ran in the Manchester Evening News, in Teesside Live and WalesOnline, and in the Daily Mirror.

The second number is the more revealing one, and it is the one the headlines dropped. A ceiling on one paper and a strong but sub-ceiling result on another is the ordinary shape of a real cognitive profile: people are not uniformly fast at everything. Reporting only the maximum flattens a person into a single digit string.

The family and the school

The reports place her at Withington Girls' School in Manchester and name her parents: her father, Jay Patil, an NHS consultant, and her mother, Anu Patil, who holds a doctorate in mathematics. The quoted framing in the Manchester Evening News version comes from her mother — the story is told, in part, as a parent's account of a daughter's result.

One human detail survives the syndication intact: Anwita is described as a Harry Potter enthusiast. It is a small thing, and it is the only glimpse the coverage offers of a child who is otherwise described entirely in numbers.

The Einstein line, again

All three headline versions run some form of "higher IQ than Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking". The line is standard in British coverage of ceiling scores and carries no evidence: none of the reports states that either physicist sat an intelligence test, and no score for either man is cited anywhere in the material.

There is a second caution in the sourcing. The three articles are near-identical versions of the same story, distributed across a network of regional and national titles and read here through the aggregator inkl. A reader counting bylines would see three; a reader counting reporting efforts should see one.

What is documented — and what is not

Documented: a score of 162 on Mensa's verbal paper and 140 on the visual-spatial paper, taken days before her twelfth birthday in 2023; her school; her parents' names and professions; and the fact that the result qualified her for Mensa membership.

Not documented: her exact date of birth; the specific dates of the tests; whether she has taken further tests or entered competitions since; and anything at all about her schooling after 2023. On a child of twelve, the absence of follow-up coverage is the normal and preferable state of affairs.

What the number is worth

A Mensa paper is an entrance test. It sorts candidates against a standardisation sample and admits those above a threshold, which is why a maximum score means the paper ran out rather than the candidate did. For an eleven-year-old, reaching that ceiling on the verbal test means reading, vocabulary and reasoning under time pressure that few adults match.

It settles less than the headlines imply. It does not measure originality, stamina, or the specific obsessive interest that tends to precede serious work in any field. The useful reading of Anwita Patil's 2023 result is that a Manchester schoolgirl demonstrated an unusual verbal facility on a timed paper, that her second score was solid rather than spectacular, and that everything beyond those two facts is press decoration.

Achievement Timeline

Anwita Patil — every milestone on this page, placed by age.

2011

Birth year implied by her turning twelBirth year implied by her turning twelve shortly after the 2023 tests.

2023

Sits Mensa's supervised tests days befSits Mensa's supervised tests days before her twelfth birthday; scores 162 verbal, 140 visual-spatial.

2023

Manchester Evening News publishes her Manchester Evening News publishes her mother's account of the result.

2023

Near-identical versions run in TeessidNear-identical versions run in Teesside Live, WalesOnline and the Daily Mirror.

Historical Comparison

Person	Country	Milestone	Age / Stat
Anwita Patil	United Kingdom	Scoring the maximum 162 on Mensa's verbal paper at eleven	Age 0
Lawson Lundberg	United States	Joining Mensa at 3	Age 3
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 verbal paper and 140 on the visual-spatial paper in 2023, days before turning twelve.
Pupil at Withington Girls' School, Manchester.
Parents named as Jay Patil, an NHS consultant, and Anu Patil, who holds a mathematics doctorate.
162 is reported as the maximum available to under-18 candidates.

? Unverified, disputed or wrong

The Einstein and Hawking comparison is a headline device with no cited evidence behind it.
Her date of birth and the exact test dates are not published.
All three articles are versions of one story, read here through the inkl aggregator.
Nothing is documented about her after 2023.

Questions people ask about Anwita Patil

What is Anwita Patil's IQ?

She scored 162 on Mensa's verbal paper, the maximum for an under-18 candidate, and 140 on the visual-spatial paper. No single overall IQ figure is reported.

How old was Anwita Patil when she took the test?

Eleven. The reports state she sat the tests days before her twelfth birthday, in 2023.

Which school does Anwita Patil attend?

Withington Girls' School in Manchester, according to the 2023 reports.

Who are Anwita Patil's parents?

Her father, Jay Patil, is described as an NHS consultant and her mother, Anu Patil, as holding a doctorate in mathematics.

Did she score higher than Einstein?

No source supports that. The comparison appears only in headlines; no test score for Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking is cited in any of the reports.