A 10-year-old boy from Upchurch has a higher IQ than Albert Einstein.

Reiss Sanders found out his intelligence quotient was 162, two points more than the famous physicist, after sitting a Mensa test last month.

Reiss Sanders and his step-dad Stephen Sanders-Hall

The Holywell Primary School pupil took the exam on Saturday January 29, with his step-father, Stephen Sanders-Hall, 40, also taking the test for moral support.

Mensa is the largest and oldest high IQ society in the world. Individuals over the age of 10 and six months are able to become a member of British Mensa, is they can demonstrate an IQ in the top 2% of the population, measured by a recognised or approved IQ testing process.

Reiss and Stephen, an international business developer at EQUANS, who scored 142 on his IQ test, took the exam, that costs £26.95 at Maidstone Community Centre.

The young boy, who hopes to attend the Sir Joseph Williamson's Mathematical School in September, said: "I've got an IQ higher than Einstein, I got 162 out of 162 on the test, full marks.

"It assess your IQ through verbal reasoning and logic reasoning."

Reiss was the youngest person taking the test and his step-dad was the oldest.

Stephen said: "I was very nervous, I went along for moral support, to help Reiss so he didn't feel alone, not that he needed it clearly."

The Mensa test consists of two papers, questions include scenarios about similarities and opposites, shapes and non verbal reasoning.

Reiss said: "It's completely different to school tests, they ask you things like what's the odd one out in a pattern and what's next in the sequence, things like that."

Reiss's mum, Rebecca Sanders-Hall, said: "Reiss has always excelled academically and in recent years has shown that he has a gifted mind.

"I can’t even put into words how proud I am of them both but especially Reiss who, at just 10 years old, was assessed as having an IQ of 162, the highest possible score on the Cattell lll B test!

"He sat the test surrounded by adults and achieved a score most could only dream of."

Stephen was sat opposite to Reiss when they took the exam and noted how fast he answered the questions.

He said: "I was running out of time and Reiss had finished his paper, sitting back whilst I was still rushing through.

"I was there to help with his nerves but clearly it was more the other way around."

Reiss wanted to sit the test to help him secure his place at secondary school next year.

Stephen explained: "Throughout the test there are 20 question sections to be completed in three minutes, once you've done that section you can't turn back.

"It isn't just about answering the questions it is also about the speed you can do it in, what they try to assess is your natural instinct, what is your first answer?

"If you have to sit and think about it, then you're calculating it, you're working it out, which isn't a reflection on your base IQ."

Reiss and Stephen were told they may have to wait three weeks for their results, however, they arrived just six days later.

Stephen said: "I was actually in a meeting when the letters arrived and Reiss's mum, Rebecca, said 'quick quick come out we've got something to show you'.

"I didn't know what it was because we weren't expecting to hear from Mensa for a while.

"And she said 'look, look you got in to the Mensa High IQ Society, well done!'

"I was like oh wow, that's really good. I wasn't really expecting it necessarily.

"My first thought was, what did Reiss get as I thought he may have done better than me and when we read he got 20 points more on his base IQ than me it was phenomenal."

However, Reiss hasn't been bragging about his amazing achievement, his mum was the one who told his head teacher.

Stephen said: "So Reiss got a maximum score and I've got 142, which, you know, is quite considerably lower.

"But it was enough to be entered into the Mensa society for high IQ alongside him.

"We didn't realise just how well he'd done when we got the result.

"We new it was really high but when we started to look it up over the weekend we actually realised that it was full marks, because that wasn't on the result letter."

Reiss and his family did some research and discovered 162 was the maximum IQ that can be assigned to a child under the age of 16.

Stephen added: "When we looked around, there's only a few people that have ever scored such a high mark on a invigilated moderated test, which is what we sat.

"There was a girl, she was 12 or 13, she did about five years ago and there was a young boy, again, I think he was 12, that did it, I think last year, but Reiss was only old enough by a few weeks to take the exam.

"But when you look it up, Einstein had an IQ of 160. So he has a higher IQ than Einstein which, which is very impressive."

Reiss did a little bit of preparation for the exam to understand the format of the test, however the questions aren't ones you can revise for.

Stephen said: "I know a couple of people that are Mensa members and they were very, very bright.

"For me, I think Reiss did so well because of the way he kind of learns things and how he understands, his his thirst for knowledge is huge.

"He just remembers everything like a sponge, there's something special about him."

Even though the academic world is now his oyster Reiss said: "I'm not sure what I will do in the future.

"I don't really know what I'm going do, I like football, I like gaming, I like maths, we'll just have to see."