Winner will be declared on Lifetime Thursday night.
AB Wire
The Indian American boy from Dobbs Ferry, New York, Arnav Krishna, 9, who has impressed one and all with his terrific memorization and math abilities, will vie with two other finalists to win the second season of Lifetime’s $100,000 competition “Child Genius: Battle of the Brightest,” on Thursday, March 10.
The second edition of the competition, which premiered on Jan. 7 this year, featured some of America’s most extraordinary and gifted children as they prepped for the ultimate battle of the brains.
Thecompetition was created in cooperation with American Mensa. It tests the nation’s brightest young minds on their knowledge in categories such as math, spelling, geography, and current events. Former NASA astronaut, Leland Melvin, returns as the host.
The competition is based on the popular UK format, “Child Genius: Battle of the Brightest” and is produced by Shed Media.
Arnav’s mother Seema Krishna is a marketing executive, and father Vijay Krishna works as a financial services executive.
According to Lifetime, Arnav’s favorite subjects are math and reading. It adds: “With an eye to becoming an architect and a mathematician when he is older, Arnav is off to a good start with successive rankings in national math competitions. Receiving a Singapore based curriculum keeps Arnav challenged, along with programs through Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth and Mensa. Always inquisitive with a researcher instinct, Arnav loves to read from his massive book collection and memorize all sorts of facts. In addition to his academic achievements, Arnav shines at tennis, playing the piano, swimming and chess.”
Earlier this month, another Indian American contestant, Vivek Abraham, 10, from Bloomington, Illinois, bowed out of the competition. His mother Anupama Chandrappa is a Project Management Consultant, and his father, Antony Abraham, is an IT Architect.
“Vivek enjoys quantifiable science and his most recent science fair project tracked the benefits of playing video games on children’s brains. He enjoys solving real world problems utilizing calculus. He keeps a very busy schedule of extracurricular activities such as weekend classes at Northwestern University, robotic leagues, playing viola and practicing Taekwondo. Vivek desperately wants to be an astrophysicist when he grows up like his heroes Stephen Hawking and Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson.
“There is no denying Vivek has the brains to win this competition. He skipped grades at school and is performing 11th grade levels on standardized MAP tests. He is 1st Rank holder and gold medalist in the NUMATS talent search covering the entire Midwest two years in a row. He has a perfect score in his latest ACT exam. He has a bright future ahead,” said Lifetime.
The Pantagraph reported Vivek was docked points for mispronouncing “Versailles” in the history round. His dad said they focused on pronunciation for the spelling and vocabulary questions and assumed it wouldn’t affect answers in the history round.
“Because we are not native English speakers, Anupama (Vivek’s mom) wrote programs to link with Oxford Dictionary to pronounce words for him,” said Abraham.
Vivek tied with another contestant for last place and the judges made the decision to send him home after analyzing the answers.
“Poor Vivek was heartbroken, but he conducted himself very well and got a standing ovation from the studio audience as we exited,” said Abraham.
1 Comment
I think Adrian will win