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Beauty With Brains: British-Nigerian girl, Esther Okade who graduated from UK varsity at 13, earns Ph.D. in mathematics at 16

Beauty With Brains: British-Nigerian girl, Esther Okade who graduated from UK varsity at 13, earns Ph.D. in mathematics at 16 1

Esther Okade, since childhood, developed a strong interest in tackling tough mathematical problems, such as quadratic equations, at the age of three.

At age 6, Esther made a C in mathematics at the GCSE. A year later, she tried again and got the A-grade she wanted. She wrote the Math A-level exams and got a B-grade.

Due to her impressive feat, the University of Cambridge had to invite her to study mathematics at the institution.

ALSO READ: Tech genius: 13-year-old Nigerian girl gains admission into U.S university

Esther, who resides in Walsall, in West Midland, England, with her parent, wanted to begin school at age 7, but her mother, Omonefe Okade, preferred to home-school her.

“I actually wanted to start when I was seven. But my mum was like, “you’re too young, calm down.” After three years of begging, her mother finally agreed to allow Esther to attend college.

In 2015, at age 10, Esther was enrolled at Open University (a UK-based distance learning institution), where she studied mathematics to become the youngest undergraduate student in the UK.

Her excellent performance continued in her new school; Esther got straight A’s and became the best student in her class after a few weeks.

“It’s so interesting. It has the type of maths I love. It’s real maths — theories, complex numbers, all that type of stuff; it was super easy. My mum taught me in a nice way. I want to have my own bank by the time I’m 15 because I like numbers and I like people, and banking is a great way to help people,” she told CNN in 2015.”

ALSO READ: Hardworking 42-year-old woman who hustled as security guard to pay school fees graduates with second class upper

Now 16 years of age, Miss Okade has bagged a PhD in Financial Mathematics after she received a B.Sc. in the same field three years earlier from the same university. She’s the author of quite a number of math textbooks for kids, including Yummy Yummy Algebra.

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