QE pupil Rahul Doshi has been named Child Genius 2017 after seeing off his young rivals in the national Channel 4 show of the same name.
Rahul, who goes into Year 8 next month, took the title after six days of competition by beating another boy, nine-year-old Ronan, in a quickfire buzzer round. As quizmaster Richard Osman read out the question: “In which artistic brotherhood were William Holman Hunt and John Everett…?” Rahul interrupted with his buzzer to give the correct answer: “Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood”, thereby taking his total to a winning 10 points.
In the show, Rahul was originally pitted against 19 other contestants, aged eight to 12, who were gradually whittled down to just five – four boys and a girl – for the final, and then only two – Rahul and Ronan – for the last round.
His performance on one of the programmes earlier in the week had generated headlines of its own when he correctly answered all 14 questions he was asked. He impressed Richard Osman by achieving full marks in a spelling test – knowing words such as accouchement and hyponatraemia (low level of sodium in the blood) – and by general knowledge answers to questions such as “What is the scientific name for apricot?” (answer: prunus armeniaca).
Rahul has an IQ of 162, which, at the age of 12, already qualifies him to be a member of Mensa and places his figure in the same bracket as the estimated scores of Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein.
Headmaster Neil Enright said: “My congratulations go to Rahul and his family: this was an excellent result for him, which was the result both of Rahul’s great natural ability and of his very careful preparation.”
Rahul was mentored by his father, Mr Minesh Doshi, who is an IT manager. Both Mr Doshi and Rahul’s mother, Komal, were interviewed by the Child Genius programme-makers.
Earlier in the week of the programme, before the final was screened, Rahul spoke to interviewer Christine Lampard on the ITV morning show, Lorraine. He said: “The key is to block out everything else and remain calm. So just focus on your goal. Mine was to answer as many questions as I could correctly and that helped me stay calm and do quite well in the early stages.”
Asked what he wants to do when he grows up, he added: “I want to do something with maths because I really love maths, maybe be a financial advisor or something like that.
“I like to also help others as well, because I want to use my talents wisely. It’s not good to be selfish, you should help others as well.”