HK maths whizz impressed by prodigious memory of twins
Maths whizz Horatio Boedihardo commended the prodigious 10-year-old twins he is teaching.
Hongkonger Boedihardo was at 17 one of Oxford's youngest PhD students when he started his maths doctorate in 2008, and is brother of child prodigy March.
He said the patience and prodigious memory of his two proteges, Estephe and Perrine Corlin, who study at Hong Kong's French International School, made them stand apart from their age peers.
The twins, of French and Malaysian descent, are also Hong Kong judo champions.
'Their attitude is really good,' said Boedihardo, now in the final year of his doctorate, who has given personal maths instruction to the twins in Hong Kong since 2008.
'They ask questions until they fully understand. When I asked them questions about the IGCSE [International General Certificate of Secondary Education], they didn't hesitate in giving me correct answers.'
The children sat two maths papers for the IGCSE in November, having studied for them with Boedihardo and their mother. Results will be released on Monday. The maths taught at their school is too easy for them. 'We have to use a calculator to tackle the IGCSE,' Estephe said. He said the maths at school did not involve its use as it was just basic.
Boedihardo said if the children scored well in the exam, it was their mother, Rosalind Corlin, rather than he, who should take most of the credit. 'She took it upon herself to teach the kids with the IGCSE textbook,' he said. 'Every day, she used the 20 minutes between leaving for school and breakfast, when other kids usually watch TV or comics, to teach them. Twenty minutes might seem a meagre amount of time, but if accumulated over two years, it is enough to go through the whole textbook with the kids.
'Although they are frisky in nature, they are more patient than ordinary kids.
'When they are about to slide off the seat, their mum will ask them not to move and they will comply.'
Boedihardo's brother March finished his A-level exams in Britain aged nine and was the youngest university entrant in Hong Kong when he began at Baptist University. He is studying the first year of a masters in maths at the university.
Perrine said she enjoyed best the card tricks and logic questions in the lessons with Boedihardo.
Both twins admitted they were nervous when taking the exam in November, when they had to 'sit in a large hall and face other candidates much older than them.'
Their mother said it was a challenge for them to sit the two papers, which took a combined 4 hours 15 minutes. 'We went sailing from 9am to 5pm every day for a whole week before the exam for relaxation.'
