A seven-year-old boy from West London has achieved a top GCSE grade in mathematics, sitting the exam almost a decade earlier than his peers. Jivyan Dhruva, from South Ruislip, scored a grade 8—equivalent to an A—across three papers, earning 196 out of a possible 240 marks.
Surprise results and exam room confusion
Opening the results letter this morning, the young prodigy was surprised by his performance. "I saw it and thought 'What?' I didn't expect to score so high. I did find the exam really easy but wish I got a nine," Jivyan said.
His father, Dhruva Katta, an AI engineer, explained that Jivyan could have answered more questions but became confused by the assessment room. "Kids were coming out really early during paper three and he thought something was wrong. He did some of the questions but ended up leaving the centre 25 minutes early. The others were leaving because it was so difficult but he left too because he didn't know what was happening," Katta said.
Homeschooling journey and parental support
Dhruva began teaching Jivyan maths from a young age and soon found himself struggling to keep pace with his son. He started with simple exercises but has now had to spend extra time relearning theory to provide lessons. He and his wife Aishwarya decided to homeschool Jivyan in February when they realised he was growing bored of mainstream education and capable of sitting the GCSE. The pair train him themselves and were "so proud" to see him succeed.
"This was a very new experience for me but it's been really cool. As parents, we really enjoyed going on this journey with him and making sure he wasn't travelling alone in it. We realised how smart he was at five but didn't want to push the exam on him. We thought 'let him just enjoy school and then he'd come home at night and want to do maths so we went for it,'" Dhruva told MyLondon.
Future plans and a balanced childhood
The family are now eyeing the possibility of Jivyan sitting his A-level in mathematics next year. He is also keen to do English and Physics at GCSE. Despite having to study more than his peers, geometry-mad Jivyan is no different than any other kid his age. He loves to dance, play Nintendo games, and kick around a football.
His parents also make sure he has a social life despite not attending primary school. "He'll be homeschooled until the A-level but after that we need to see how it goes. We make sure he's attending different clubs and going out somewhere. I want to ensure he has enough friends growing up," Dhruva said.
Jivyan added: "My friends couldn't believe it when I said I was doing the maths exam. They went 'you can't do that!'" Thinking about the future, the whizz kid would like to invent robots that can help "old and young people with whatever they want." However, his parents are in no rush to whisk him off to university any time soon. Dhruva told MyLondon: "We don't want to hurry him to do anything. We're happy with him doing some subjects at the moment. But if he wants to go to university as a teenager then we'll do as much as we can to support him in everything he wants to do."
For now, the family are preparing for a celebratory trip to Japan in November, with Jivyan already planning a holiday in Scotland after his looming A-level.
