Who is Preesha Chakraborty? 9-year-old Indian-American listed among 'world's brightest' students

A sixth-grade Indian-American schoolgirl, Preesha Chakraborty made it to the prestigious list of ‘World’s Brightest’ students after competing in the aptitude tests featuring 16,000 students. The Johns Hopkins Centre conducted the test for Talented Youth which challenged students on the results of above-grade-level tests.

Preesha aced the test, which she took in the Summer of 2023 and etched her name in the list of the world’s brightest young minds after competing with students from around 90 countries.

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Preesha Chakraborty: Nine-year-old Indian-American prodigyis one of ‘world’s brightest’ students

Preesha is a Grade 3 student at the Warm Spring Elementary School, based in Fremont, California. She took one of America’s most tricky tests - Johns Hopkins Centre for Talented Youth (JH-CTY) last year, as per a media release.

As part of CTY assessments, she was honoured for her exceptional performance on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT), American College Testing (ACT), and School and College Ability Test.

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According to the press release, Preesha aced in CTY’s verbal and quantitative sections with 99 percentile, which were based on advanced Grade 5 level. For this, she has been awarded the Grand Honors, which is very hard to achieve on the test.

Less than 30 per cent of students qualify each year for either High Honors or Grand Honors/SET based on their test scores.

The achievement qualifies Preesha for more than 250 Johns Hopkins CTY's Online and On-Campus Programmes for advanced students in grades 2-12 in mathematics, computer programming, chemistry, physics, reading, and writing.

Preesha is also a lifetime member of the Mensa Foundation, a globally acclaimed and world’s oldest high-IQ society. The membership for the foundation is only open for people who score 98th percentile or higher on a standardised, supervised IQ or other approved intelligence test.

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She achieved this accomplishment at age six by securing99 percentilein the national level NNAT (Naglieri Nonverbal Ability Test), which assesses K-12 students for gifted and talented programmes.

Apart from studying, she enjoys travelling and hiking and is also fond of mixed martial arts.

CTY was founded in 1979 as a centre for innovation to promote gifted education through research on testing, programming, and other support for advanced learners.

As per its Executive Director, Amy Shelton, the test resultsnot only recognise a student’s academic capabilities but are also “a testament to their curiosity and capacity for learning”.

(With inputs from agencies)