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Whiz kid: Japanese boy, 9, becomes youngest to pass university-level math test

Kyodo

A 9-year-old boy in the Kansai region set a record by becoming the youngest student to pass a university-level mathematics test, the test organizer said Tuesday.

Shogo Ando, a fourth grader in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, passed Suken’s top-level 1st Kyu test, held in October by the Mathematics Certification Institute of Japan.

Ando beat the previous record, set by Hiroto Takahashi, who passed the test as an 11-year-old last year.

The institute said Ando started studying for Suken when he was about 7.

“I want to use my mathematics knowledge and contribute to society through research, such as stopping global warming,” the boy was quoted by the institute as saying.

The test is available in 14 levels, ranging from preschool-level to college-level, and more than 350,000 people take the test every year, according to the institute’s website.

The 1st Kyu test covers a wide range of subjects including multivariable functions and metric linear spaces.

The pass rate for the most recent 1st Kyu test was 14.4 percent, the institute said.

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