Homeschooled Family's Genius Revealed – Can You Pass Their Test?

A Family of Exceptional Minds

The Kim family, hailing from the UK, has gained attention for their extraordinary academic achievements. Unlike typical 14-year-olds who are adjusting to Year 10 and preparing for GCSEs, Elias Kim, a student from Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire, is set to begin a biomedical engineering degree at Imperial College London. This prestigious institution is known for its rigorous curriculum, and Elias has already proven himself capable of handling such challenges.

Elias is not alone in his accomplishments. He is joined by his four siblings—Juliana, Clara, Ella, and Ariel—all of whom have followed accelerated paths through school and university. Their journey began in South Korea, where the three eldest daughters were born, before the family moved to Canada and then Northern Ireland. The father, Sung Kim, pursued academic opportunities, which eventually led the family to Coventry, where they settled and where Ariel was born.

Their mother, Kyounghwa Jung, a former maths teacher, runs the household and primarily speaks Korean at home. Despite this, the children have excelled academically, often outpacing their peers. The turning point came during the pandemic in 2020 when the Kims used lockdown as an opportunity to support their younger siblings' education. The older sisters took on the role of homeschoolers, using South Korean textbooks alongside the British curriculum to ensure their younger siblings were not left behind.

Juliana, who is currently studying bioengineering, explained that the primary school system did not provide enough support for the younger children. She and her sister Clara, a PhD student at Imperial, took it upon themselves to help Elias and Ariel progress faster. This effort paid off, with Ariel achieving high grades in subjects like maths, chemistry, and physics well ahead of her age group.

Elias’s talents were evident early on. Teachers in Belfast suggested he skip a year after realizing his reading and math skills were far ahead of his classmates. However, even in Year three, he found lessons too easy. The UK education system has played a significant role in helping the family achieve their potential, allowing them to focus on specialized subjects while progressing quickly through the basics.

Despite his success, Elias faced some challenges. He applied to Oxford but was rejected due to not having enough GCSEs. His younger sister, Ariel, is now working to meet the requirements and hopes to study maths at Oxford in the future.

The Kims are also looking to share their approach with others. The three eldest sisters have launched a tutoring business called NewGenTutor, offering online classes in maths and science at £55 an hour. They aim to help other students achieve similar success through personalized instruction.

Try the Kim Family's Quiz

Are you as smart as the Kims? Test your knowledge with these challenging questions:

1. Out of the 12 Olympian gods, which deity was sometimes included in or excluded from the list?
2. A scientist wants to prepare 50ml of a 1:200 dilution of a bacterial culture using sterile water. How much of the original culture should they use? How much sterile water should be added?
3. Why does blue light scatter more than red light in Earth’s atmosphere, and why does this explain the colour of the sky?
4. A sequence is defined as: 2, 6, 12, 20, 30 … What is the 10th term?
5. Which organelle is responsible for programmed cell death (apoptosis), and what is the main mechanism it uses to trigger this process?
6. Why does hydrogen bonding lead to unusually high boiling points in molecules like water compared to similar-sized molecules without hydrogen bonds?
7. A 2kg block slides down a frictionless incline of a 30-degree angle and a height of 5m. What is the velocity at the bottom? How long does it take to reach the bottom if the incline is 10m long?
8. In Homer’s Odyssey, which god is chiefly responsible for delaying Odysseus’s return home and why?

Answers

1. Hestia
2. 0.25ml and 49.75ml
3. Blue light has a shorter wavelength than red light, so it is scattered more efficiently by air molecules, which causes the sky to appear blue during the day as blue light is redirected in all directions.
4. 110
5. The mitochondrion
6. Hydrogen bonds are much stronger than van der Waals forces, so more energy is needed to separate molecules
7. v = 9.9m/s t = 2s
8. Poseidon delayed Odysseus's return because Odysseus blinded his son, the Cyclops Polyphemus

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