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March 12, 2010
Britain's Brainiest Family is Black and Has 9-Year-Old High School-Bound Twins
Paula and Peter Imafidon are just like any other 9-year-olds. They love laughing, playing on the computer and fighting with each other. What sets these twins apart from their peers, though, is that they are, hands down, prodigies who are about to enter high school and make British history as the youngest to do so.
The precocious London-based tykes, known as the "Wonder Twins," floored academics a year ago when they aced University of Cambridge 's advanced mathematics exam. They are the youngest students to ever pass the test.
The future little scholars' father, Chris, and mother, Ann, immigrated to Britain from Nige ria more than 30 years ago and have actually been down this prodigy route before with their three older children, who are also overachievers.
The couple's oldest daughter, Anne-Marie, is now 20, but at age 13, she won a British government scholarship to take undergraduate courses at John s Hopkins University in Baltimore . Christiana, 17, their other daughter, is the youngest student ever to study at the undergraduate level in any British University at the age of 11. Youngest daughter, Samantha, now 12, passed two rigorous high school–level mathematics and statistics exams at the age of 6. She mentored the twins to pass their own math secondary school test when they were also 6.
Even with all of this, the proud dad denies that there is any particular genius in his family. He does credit his children's success to the Excellence in Education program for disadvantaged inner-city youth. "Every child is a genius," he said. "Once you identify the talent of a child and put them in the environment that will nurture that talent, then the sky is the limit. Look at Tiger Woods or the Williams sisters -- they were nurtured. You can never rule anything out with them. The competition between the two of them makes them excel in anything they do."
The darling duo are competitive to say the least, and this is what fuels them to out-achieve each other. Paula said, "I am excited to pass, but I should have got higher than Peter."
As far as career paths Paula says she wants to be a math teacher, while Peter aspires to be prime minister one day.
All it takes is a dream....