UAE math prodigy, 12, cracks SAT to win Johns Hopkins Grand honors

Abu Dhabi: When 12-year-old Arjun Abhinav Patwardhan walked into the SAT examination centre in Abu Dhabi on May 2, heads turned.

The test, designed for high school students typically aged 16 and above, is not where you expect to find an eighth-grader. Some candidates could not help but ask what this young boy was doing there.

He was also there to take the test. And he scored 1290 with a whopping 750 out of 800 in math.

That math score has earned the Australian expat of Indian origin the Grand Honors Award from the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth (CTY), one of the most prestigious gifted education programmes in the world.

Only a very small number of students from the UAE have ever received this recognition, a fact that makes Arjun's achievement all the more remarkable.

"My first score in Maths was 730, and by the end of the tenth practice test I was getting 770 to 780. So, I was confident I would get 750 to qualify for Grand Honors."

His advice to other young learners is to take practice tests on the College Board website and use Khan Academy, a free, non-profit online learning platform, to clear concepts.

His father, Abhinav Patwardhan, says the family is especially proud that the score came without any formal support. "Arjun achieved 750 out of 800 in SAT maths entirely through self-study, discipline, and consistent practice. It reflects his strong self-motivation and independent learning,” he said.

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