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As Britain’s brainiest kid, Elise Tan Roberts should have a glittering future.

The Mirror revealed yesterday that the toddler is the youngest member of Mensa – at just two years and four months old.

Her IQ of 156 is higher than telly maths whiz Carol Vorderman and she has a phenomenal memory which could be her ticket to fame and fortune.

But Elise is by no means the first child to be hailed as a “junior genius”.

We tracked down a few others – and found that a high IQ doesn’t always guarantee success as a grown-up.

Andrew Halliburton, IQ 145: works in McDonald’s

Maths genius Andrew Halliburton’s teachers predicted he would make a fortune in computers or banking.

He was so bright he went to secondary school four years early and was just 14 when he scored an A in his maths Higher – the Scottish equivalent of an A-Level.

But eight years on, university drop-out Andrew now clears tables in a burger joint for £5.75 an hour.

He told the Mirror: “I feel frustrated. I don’t really know what I want to do with my life. I’ve felt like that for the last four years. What I do is OK but I don’t feel challenged with my work, though I’m fairly content with my life. I think I might study English.”

Andrew excelled in maths at an early age. At primary school he remembers sitting separately from the rest of his classmates and being given different work to do. Then his headmaster arranged for him to study maths at secondary school when he was just eight.

With an IQ of around 145, he could have been earning a six-figure salary by now. Instead Andrew, 22, who lives in Dundee with girlfriend Lynn Connor, 21, has spent the last four years at McDonald’s. He reckons his problems started when his primary classmates joined him at secondary school. “People my age would say, ‘Oh you’re that genius who’s already been here for four years’,” he said. “I’d ask them not to call me that, I didn’t like it and didn’t cope with it.

“I was just trying to make friends with my peers and be normal. Eventually I realised I was never going to be the same as my peers. I changed my image, went round with my hair in a mohawk for a couple of years. I took the idea that I was a bit different and ran with it really.”

Andrew got a B in his GCSE-equivalent Standard grade maths when he was 11 and an A in his Higher maths three years later.

When he took the rest of his Standards at 16 he got six As and a B, followed by two As and two Bs in the rest of his Highers.

He went on to study applied computing at Dundee University – but dropped out after six months. He said: “I was studying things I already knew, I got bored, so I left.”

Andrew believes his experience should be a lesson for Elise and her parents. He said: “My parents and my sister think that I might have been pushed too hard. Elise should keep her head down and try and enjoy it without feeling pressurised.”

Read more real life stories here - or read on for more child geniuses...

Jeremy Roberts, being brainy left him feeling bored

At three he was so brainy that staff at his nursery asked him to help when their computer went wrong.

Jeremy, from Watford, said: “I can remember one of the staff who was new looking for a member of staff called Jeremy to help sort out a problem with their computer and then she realised it was me.”

He attended ordinary state schools and became increasingly frustrated. “I used to get so bored because I was ahead of everyone,” said Jeremy, who ended up with average GCSEs.

But when he went to Jerusalem at 17 to study for an International Baccalaureate he was inspired and ended up with one of the best marks possible.

Now he’s happily studying Legal Studies at a Jewish study centre in Florida. “I'm happy with how my life's turned out,” says Jeremy, now 20.

Adam Dent, studied chemistry at Oxford at 14

At 14 Adam was studying chemistry at Oxford but a year later in 1995 he left after being accused of sexual assault on an older student – he was later acquitted.

He did an Open University degree while stacking shelves at Iceland then went back to Oxford and graduated with a first in chemistry in 2002. Adam, from Aylesbury, Bucks, now an IT consultant, said: “Being a child prodigy is a double-edged sword. It can be as much a curse as a gift.”

Terence Judd, classical pianist

He is known as one of this country’s greatest musical talents. But sadly there are few recordings of pianist Terence Judd before his suicide, aged 22.

Nurtured by his musician parents, Terence progressed with dazzling speed. At ten he won the National Junior Pianoforte Competition and appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra two years later.

At 18 he won the British Liszt Piano Competition but in 1979 he killed himself by jumping off Beachy Head. The biennial Terence Judd Award is now given to Britain’s best young pianist.

James Harries, antiques expert

From the age of five, James Harries displayed an encyclopaedic knowledge of antiques and art. When he picked up a piece of porcelain for pennies and sold it for several thousand pounds his ability became national news.

At 12, he appeared on Terry Wogan’s TV chat show and became a national celebrity.

In 2001, aged 23, he had a sex change operation and changed his name to Lauren.

Now a counsellor and drama teacher in Cardiff, Lauren still makes appearances on reality

TV, including Trust Me I'm A Beauty Therapist in 2006.

Ganesh Sittampalam took maths gift to the bank

Ganesh Sittampalam got an A in his maths O-Level at eight and the same grade in his A-Level a year later in 1988.

Originally from Surbiton, Surrey, he graduated from Oxford with a first in maths in 1992. On hearing about his degree, he said: “I yelled ‘Yippee!’ I’m quite proud. I'm happy because I’ve done it, not because of my age. I’d have felt the same if I was 20.” By his 20s, he had a masters in computing and a doctorate in intentional programming. Now 30, he’s an associate at Credit Suisse and lives in Oxford with wife Amanda. They had a son, Alexander, last September.

Ruth Lawrence, degree at 13

Ruth got an A in her A-level maths at nine, a first from Oxford in 1985 when she was 13 and was a junior fellow at Harvard at 19.

Ruth, originally from Huddersfield, moved to Israel in 1998.

She now works at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and is married with two children who she is determined to allow to “develop in a natural way”.