Pitying myself against two 11-year-old kids to complete Wordle in the fewest guesses might not seem like a fair challenge – but these aren’t any ordinary schoolchildren. These mini-Einsteins could be Britain’s smartest twins – with a combined IQ of 314.
The siblings, who attend a state school in Hounslow, are both members of a super exclusive society for geniuses. Krish was first to join Mensa last year in November at age 10, inspired by his idol Young Sheldon – the lead character and child genius in the Big Bang Theory’s prequel series. Twin sister Keira followed in his footsteps earlier this month aged 11.
Despite having an IQ of 162, which some say is higher than Albert Einstein’s would have been, Krish still enjoys spending his evenings playing video games – when he isn’t playing piano or learning to programme robots. Twin sister Keira, with an IQ of 152, is usually busy performing as lead in her rock band or writing author-level poetry.
“Its a very proud feeling. Sometimes you think about it and you feel they’ve done something impossible because they’re so young, so it’s remarkable – we never thought that something like this would happen,” says mum, Mauli, who wonders if these could be Britain’s smartest twins.
If there’s one things these siblings have its confidence, so Krish and Keira jumped at the opportunity to take me on at a game of Wordle. The New York Times game sees players guess a five-letter word in six chances – if you guess quickly and in fewer guesses you get a better score.
Wordle is probably my least confident NYT game but they’re just two 11-year-old children, right? I shouldn’t have anything to worry about. Krish and Keira sit in one corner with an iPad at the ready. On the other side of the table, I grip my tablet steeling myself for the task at hand.
But Krish and Keira look unrattled as their mum Mauli presses go on her timer. Panic sets in, I can’t think straight – all I that is running through my head is how quickly Krish and Keira are typing away on their iPad.
Time ticks on, I’m three guesses in and I’ve only got one letter in the right place. My mind scrambles to fill in the gaps but I can’t seem to get the letters in the right places.
And a grand one-minute-and-19 seconds later its all over. Krish and Keira have guessed today’s word, fifth, in four guesses – while I trail behind. We shake hands and take a celebratory picture with our puzzles.
While I’m not shocked, I’m left in awe at how smart these kids already are and how much more time their brains still have left to grow. Could these be the future problem solvers of society’s many problems?
“I’d like to be a lawyer when I grow up. I think commercial law because I’m very good at negotiating with people and I think I’d excel in commercial law. I feel like I want to do my rock band as a hobby but not as a job,” says Keira.
Krish, who has already conquered Year 9 maths, adds: “I want to do something related to mathematics because it’s my favourite subject. Probably a mathematician or an actuary.”
“Sometimes at school when we do maths I put my hand up they say Krish, not you, don’t answer. But I still have a lot of things to learn, I haven’t done A Levels yet but I’m very privileged to know I’m really smart – smarter than Einstein,” he says.
‘By age 4 he was reading fluently and doing complex decimal divisions’
So how do you know if you’re child is a mini-Einstein? Mum Mauli says that its different for each child. “Krish was doing things very early on which kids of his age would not do. He was reading very early, so when he was four he was reading fluently and was doing complex decimal divisions around that time. His spellings were also really good for his age. So we did see the sparks,” says Mauli.
“Keira’s creative side was really good. She attended a few creative writing workshops and whenever she went the feedback was always that she wrote like an author, so she has a very emotional soft touch to her writing. She creates the environment and she puts a lot of emotion in the story that she writes,” she adds.
The twins will be moving onto start their secondary school studies in September. Krish will be attending the UK’s most highly-rated grammar school, Queen Elizabeth in Barnet, while Keira will be attending the selective Tiffin Girl’s School in Kingston.
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