Zhang Jiarui, 17, was plucked out of primary school by her father and home-schooled.
She took just two years to learn everything that is taught in Chinese schools from grades one to eight.
Zhang's father decided to teach her himself, after he attended a parent-teacher meeting when she was in Primary 3 and noticed that she had not mastered much basic knowledge.
"Education is the key to knowledge. But what she learnt in school are for exams, not very useful in the real world," said the father, who is only a high school graduate.
In order to teach his daughter, he bought many revision books to 'study' beforehand.
Zhang spent two years completing the primary school syllabus, as well as Years 1 and 2 of high school.
Then in 2007, the father worried that the girl – who had always stayed home – could not adapt to society.
He enrolled the girl at the nearby Jiang Cheng Middle School, where she studied for five years from Year 2.
According to the City Evening News, Marquette University, Baylor University and Drexel University are among the schools in the US that have offered her a place.
Zhang scored a 1990 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), a standardized test used to gauge the quality of applicants to colleges in the United States.
She also scored a 110 in the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL).
She will study at Brigham Young University, which has offered her a US$2,000 (S$2,463) scholarship and US$7,900 for working for the university every year.
And it seems the learning doesn't stop.
After spending a week learning to drive, Zhang is learning to speak Japanese and to cook.
source : edvantage
