A nine-year-old Egyptian boy, dubbed "Mr Calculator" by his family and friends for his amazing ability with calculations, may be admitted to Cairo University, local media said.

This week Mahmoud Wael is meeting with the Egyptian education minister who will make a decision on whether to admit him to the university, the Al-Ahram daily said.

Mahmoud, who was acknowledged a wunderkind by teachers and officials at the age of four, can work out the most complicated calculations in a matter of seconds.

The boy learnt the multiplication table orally before he could read. He learnt English in three months, and now has advanced French and German.

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©Mohamed Wassim


Currently, Mahmoud's IQ is 155, 13 points higher than the average.

Mr Calculator could soon even enter the famed high-IQ group, Triple Nine Society, which has over 800 members from 30 countries with IQs in the top 99.9% of the world's population.

Mahmoud earlier was offered a grant to study at a Canadian university if he took up Canadian citizenship. However, the boy and his parents refused the offer.

The boy's father was the first person to realize his son was a genius when he was testing his eldest daughter's knowledge of mathematics.

When he asked her what seven times seven was, the girl gave the wrong answer. "So I chipped in and said 49. My dad was astonished and asked me how did I know the correct answer," Al-Ahram cited Mahmoud as saying.