Boy, 10, scores top grade in GCSE Maths SIX years early

A ten-year-old schoolboy has delighted his family with the news that he passed his GCSE Maths some four marks off an A* - before even having taken his SATs.

Zafar Awan, who is homeschooled by his parents, took the exams in May of this year after beginning revision in the spring. He discovered his results in August - but is incredibly blasé about his achievement.

His parents got the idea after reading about another youngster online who'd passed the exam early. But amazingly, Zafar, from Cheshire, did most of the studying himself.

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"I don't really enjoy maths," he told the M.E.N. "I'm just good at it - and I did a lot of revision."

"It was hard, I was nervous and, when I was doing the paper, wasn't sure what grade I was going to get. I thought I was probably going to fail."

Zafar and his father Muhammad, 42, got the idea from reading in the news about another youngster who'd successfully passed the exam. Zafar has been home-schooled since COVID - and although Muhammad studied Maths at A-Level, he said his son did most of the studying himself.

"It was all at home without any private tuition. We helped him a bit but he understood the concepts really well," he said. "We just gave him the choice, if he wanted to do it, and he did.

"He was going to do foundation, but just before the application deadline in February, we asked him if he wanted to try the higher level - and that's what he decided to do.

"Ask him any general knowledge question – not many his age would know as much as he knows. He reads a lot of books, world politics, geography, history.

"He would read even while having his tea. I asked him if he wanted to have a go at science and maths and he agreed. We are blessed to have him."

Zafar said he found sitting the exams at a test centre in Macclesfield 'really hard', especially with the distractions of other students six years his senior taking the test around him. But he's undeterred, with further qualifications already in his sights.

"Now I'm thinking about A level maths, but there's also GCSE Chemistry and Physics," he said. "I need to do other subjects so I think that's what I'll do next."

Father Muhammad is remarkably humble about his son's achievement, calling it 'a small challenge'. "He's not really a prodigy, he just likes studying, and I noticed that when he concentrates on something, he does well at it," he said.

"He wanted to be in the news - that was his motivation to study! He says he wants to be a lawyer.

"We don't have any targets for him, it's whatever he wants to do. As long as he’s a decent human being, that's what matters."