Are you smarter than a preschool student?

The answer likely depends on if the preschooler is Heidi Hankins.

The fair-haired 4-year-old is the U.K.’s newest genius. Hankins, of Winchester, England, was recently accepted into the exclusive international brainiac society Mensa, with a staggeringly high IQ of 159 — one point lower than theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking’s.

Heidi began showing signs of unusual intelligence as early as age 1, her father, Matthew Hankins, told the Star. She managed to boot up the family’s Windows-based computer — “I think that shows much more perseverance,” Hankins joked — and navigate applications.

At 18 months, Heidi was playing chess. Six months later, she was reading at the level of an 8-year-old.

But while Heidi may display precocious smarts, she doesn’t fail to act her age, sometimes ignoring her parents.

“She’s fiercely independent,” said Hankins, a psychologist and public health lecturer.

The average adult IQ is 100, with most falling somewhere between 90 and 120, said Lyn Kendall, a gifted child consultant for British Mensa.

And Heidi’s 9-year-old brother, Isaac? “He is completely different,” Hankins said. “He’s all over the place.”

To qualify for Mensa, a candidate must hold an IQ that falls within the top 2 per cent of the population. Heidi is reportedly one of about 90 children under 10 who belong to British Mensa.

There is no standardized IQ test for children younger than 10, so Hankins performed a psychological assessment of Heidi when she was 3 years, 11 months — “I just ran her through to see out of curiosity,” he said.

One of Hankins’s first jobs as a psychologist was conducting IQ tests on children under 5. “I’ve literally done hundreds of them,” he said.

Kendall said children with high IQs often express excellent memories, early reading capacity and a higher level of sophistication compared with their peers. This sometimes leads to frustration in play group or nursery settings.

Indeed, what most impresses Hankins is Heidi’s memory.

“She will remember times and events and things you wouldn’t even notice,” he said. “She has a really good memory for times and places and details.”

While Heidi may be in elite intellectual company in the U.K., she wouldn’t even be under consideration in Canada — Mensa Canada only accepts members 14 or older.

“The calculation of one’s IQ is not very accurate below that age,” said Bob Yewchuk, vice-president of communications for Mensa Canada.