CHINA: A nine-year-old maths prodigy becomes the youngest university entrant in Hong Kong

A nine-year-old boy makes history by becoming the youngest university entrant in Hong Kong. March Tian Boedihardjo, an Indonesian-Chinese resident in Hong Kong, gained an A in mathematics exams in the UK, where he studied maths, further maths and statistics. He was nine years and three months old when he sat the exams in the summer. Following the boy's top results, Hong Kong Baptist University announced in a news conference on Thursday (August 23) its decision to admit the nine-year-old applicant. The university has specially designed a five-year curriculum for Boedihardjo after which, he will be awarded a Bachelor of Science in Mathematical Science as well as a Master of Philosophy in Mathematics. "Actually I like to spend most of my time studying. But on the weekends, I like to play with my classmates from kindergarten," the young student told reporters on Thursday. The father of the maths prodigy was also present at the news conference and shared some parenting tips. "I will advise parents in Hong Kong there's no need to know the IQ of your children. Just try to do your best to nurture them and give them space to develop," said Tony Boedihardjo. Dr Tong Chong-sze, Associate Dean of Faculty of Science and Associate Professor of Mathematics Department has arranged several professors to be Boedihardjo's mentors, exploring and developing his mathematical talents. "The very first concern of course is academically can he handle the mathematics at university. So that was the purpose of the first interview and he did very well. He handled himself very well, one against four professors," said Dr. Tong. One of the young student's future schoolmates, Dorothy Lam, said she was excited by the admission of the maths prodigy and said she was willing to lend her helping hands to Boedihardjo. "I will try to help him, just like we are trying to communicate with foreign visitors or mainland Chinese. As a university student, we like to widen our social circle and I think it is a good challenge to communicate with a 9 year-old," said Lam.

ITN Source | September 2, 2007

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