Pakistani girl in London sets record with 34 GCSEs

LONDON: A British Pakistani 16-year-old student Mahnoor Cheema has passed an astonishing total of 34 subjects at the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) level – setting a new record in the history of the United Kingdom as well as internationally.

Mahnoor Cheema passed 17 subjects with A* grades as a private candidate in Year 10 and on Thursday she added 17 more subjects – taking the total count to 34 and establishing a new milestone, marking the highest number of subjects ever taken by a student in the history of UK and EU GCSEs.

Mahnoor Cheema spoke to Geo and The News in an exclusive interview at her home to share her success story. Mahnoor Cheema’s father, Barrister Usman Cheema, and mother, Mrs Tayyaba Cheema, hail from Lahore in Pakistan. They moved to the UK in 2006 in order to pursue further education at Lincoln’s Inn and SOAS, respectively, and Mahnoor joined Langley Grammar School in West London in Class-5 after initially studying at a private Lahore school.

The exceptional Pakistani origin student has set other records too. Apart from her academia, Mahnoor’s IQ has also been recognised on a global scale, at 161 on the Mensa IQ Test, ahead of Albert Einstein, who is believed to have possessed an IQ of 160. With this, she has earned her place among the top 1 percent of the world’s population for intellectual ability. She has also completed ABRSM Music Theory and Practical at Grade 8, with distinction. She is one of the youngest individuals in the UK to be pursuing a music diploma. She has also been shortlisted in the prestigious John Locke essay competition, with the awards ceremony in Oxford later this year.

Her desire to learn seems to extend far beyond GCSEs. Mahnoor harbours a deep passion for medicine and has said that she wishes to dedicate her life and work to helping humanity. Owing to her ambitions to study medicine at the University of Oxford, she undertook the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) and the Biomedical Admissions Test (BMAT) at the age of 15, falling in the 99th percentile of test-takers with a score of 3,290. Her passion for medicine, coupled with her outstanding track record, positions her as a promising future medical professional.

The genius student explained how she was able to achieve such stunning results: “I’m a highly driven individual. I’ve always understood that hard work would be required with aspirations like mine, and I’ve never backed down from a challenge.”

The student said: “I set a target and then I stay focused on it. I constantly considered the fact that I wasn’t studying just for myself, but for my family and for the people I wish to help one day. Besides this, time management has always been a skill of mine. For the past three years, I’ve had to manage my time very effectively between school and my extra subjects. I have to say that the workload has never felt particularly challenging for me, because I retain information well and always appreciate an opportunity to broaden my knowledge.”

But has she let her impressive ambitions stop her from leading a normal, relaxed life? “No”, she says, “I’m a firm believer in the ‘work hard, play hard’ ethic. I put in the work, but I have leisure pursuits like any other 16-year-old. I love playing the piano, horse riding, swimming, playing chess; I go to concerts, meet up with my friends, and spend time with my family.”

Mahnoor Cheema told Geo News she aspires to maintain the same level of excellence in all the subjects she will study in future. Mahnoor said that while her father provided full support by arranging finances, etc., it was her double masters’ degree holder mother who helped her at home and helped her maintain her schedules and disciplines effectively.

Her parents expressed their pride in their daughter’s achievements and utmost faith that she will continue to be as successful in the coming years.

Barrister Usman Cheema thanked his daughter’s teachers in both Pakistan and Britain for helping her. He said that Mahnoor took her own initiatives and put her mind to it. Tayyaba Cheema said she has the option of taking jobs after coming to the UK but decided to dedicate her time and efforts for her children. She said she worked with Mahnoor every day to help her with her schoolwork as well as with her passion of doing extra GCSE subjects.

She said: “Our daughter’s achievements break a long-held European record as this is the first time a feat like this has ever been accomplished across the UK or EU. We are over the moon.”

Some of the 34 subjects passed by Mahnoor Cheema include: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Maths, Economics, Sociology, Psychology, English Literature, Latin, German, French, Classic Civilization, History, Film Studies and Drama. Ten years ago, a Pakistani student Haroon Tariq had broken the current world record by securing a total of 47 As in his International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE) O Level and A Level exams.

In 2009, Pakistani national Ali Moeen Nawazish had passed a record 23 A-Levels in a single year.