A YOUNGSTER whose IQ puts him in the top 0.1per cent of children his age has been accepted into Mensa.

Schoolboy Theo Bailey, from Darlington, was delighted to learn he had been accepted into the high IQ society.

The clever nine-year-old, who is a pupil at the Federation of Abbey junior school scored a whopping 147 on his IQ test.

He is following in the footsteps of mum Kathryn and dad David, who are both also members of the organisation.

Mrs Bailey, who decided to see if she could get into Mensa this year, said: "His dad has been a member since he was 23 and I'm quite competitive so I tried to give it a go and then both the boys wanted to as well."

The Northern Echo:

Theo did his test in September, while older brother Jacob, 12, is also set to see how high he can score when he does a test this month.

Because he is over the age of 10, Jacob will take the adult IQ test in a few weeks, while Theo did his test with an educational psychologist.

Anyone who scores in the top two per cent of their age category is entitled to join Mensa.

With an IQ of 147, Theo is in the top 0.1 per cent of children the same age as him.

"He's so proud of himself," said Mrs Bailey, who is an educational psychologist. "He's been absolutely buzzing. He keeps telling me that he's not far of Einstein."

She added: "He was always really clever and articulate and when he was a toddler he would come out with something that was quite impressive so we always knew he was quite a clever little boy."

Despite still being at primary school, Theo already has plans to try and get into Oxford University and thinks he might want to go into computing or become a lawyer in the future.

IQ or Intelligence Quotient is an attempt to measure intelligence, and is an attempt to measure a person's mental agility rather than their knowledge or memory.

The average IQ score for people of all ages is 100, with most people ranging between 85 and 115.

A score of 135 or above puts a person in the 99th percentile of the population.

It is often said that physicist Albert Einstein has an IQ of 160, though it is unclear what that estimate is based on.

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