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Haroon Tariq: The boy who got 46 As in his exams
A teenager is being billed as Pakistan's brainiest student after passing 46 school exams with a grade of A or A* in the past three years, reports Charles Haviland in Islamabad.
As the boys and girls take their morning break at the exclusive Froebels International School, shouting, batting a cricket ball around or playing football, there's not much to distinguish Haroon Tariq from the crowd.
But the tall, bespectacled 18-year-old from Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has set a standard his schoolmates would have difficulty matching.
He has passed 46 school examinations with a grade of A or A* in the past three years, having sat rather more than 50 with two different exam boards, Cambridge International Examinations and Edexcel.
All have been international papers at O-level, international GCSE and A-level. The O-level has been obsolete in Britain since the 1980s but is still set internationally and taken by millions of students in countries including Pakistan.
"I did my O-levels in one year - usually people do it in three years," Haroon tells the BBC, explaining how he got ahead of his peers. He sat the first exams in 2010 while still attending the Army Public School in Peshawar in his home province.
That year he did 10 subjects, including the compulsory ones.
"I had two years left in my O-levels [study period] so I thought I want to do something special, something different from others.
"I wanted to excel away from those other students... so I took many subjects."
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“
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I actually love football, you know - I love Manchester City ”
Haroon Tariq
Moving to Islamabad because of his father's army career, Haroon piled on the O-levels and international GCSEs, scoring mostly A or A starred grades although there were a few Bs and Cs in there as well.
This year he started A-levels and got six grade As.
While some of the subjects are done on both boards there is still a big range - from sciences, English, Urdu and Islam to his favourite, world history.
"20th century, world wars, the Cold War - it also dates back four or five centuries - quite interesting," says Haroon, who receives a scholarship while the school also funds his tuition.
He did some of the exams through private study at home and some through the British Council but is now working mainly through his current school.
A teenager is being billed as Pakistan's brainiest student after passing 46 school exams with a grade of A or A* in the past three years, reports Charles Haviland in Islamabad.
As the boys and girls take their morning break at the exclusive Froebels International School, shouting, batting a cricket ball around or playing football, there's not much to distinguish Haroon Tariq from the crowd.
But the tall, bespectacled 18-year-old from Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has set a standard his schoolmates would have difficulty matching.
He has passed 46 school examinations with a grade of A or A* in the past three years, having sat rather more than 50 with two different exam boards, Cambridge International Examinations and Edexcel.
All have been international papers at O-level, international GCSE and A-level. The O-level has been obsolete in Britain since the 1980s but is still set internationally and taken by millions of students in countries including Pakistan.
"I did my O-levels in one year - usually people do it in three years," Haroon tells the BBC, explaining how he got ahead of his peers. He sat the first exams in 2010 while still attending the Army Public School in Peshawar in his home province.
That year he did 10 subjects, including the compulsory ones.
"I had two years left in my O-levels [study period] so I thought I want to do something special, something different from others.
"I wanted to excel away from those other students... so I took many subjects."
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
I actually love football, you know - I love Manchester City ”
Haroon Tariq
Moving to Islamabad because of his father's army career, Haroon piled on the O-levels and international GCSEs, scoring mostly A or A starred grades although there were a few Bs and Cs in there as well.
This year he started A-levels and got six grade As.
While some of the subjects are done on both boards there is still a big range - from sciences, English, Urdu and Islam to his favourite, world history.
"20th century, world wars, the Cold War - it also dates back four or five centuries - quite interesting," says Haroon, who receives a scholarship while the school also funds his tuition.
He did some of the exams through private study at home and some through the British Council but is now working mainly through his current school.
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