Zhou Tian

A 14-year-old boy from eastern China's Shandong province was recently admitted to the University of Science and Technology of China, one of the most elite universities in the country, local media reported. The boy, named Zhou Tian, scored 699 on the national college entrance exam, which is out of 750 points total. Zhou said he was not actually thinking about starting college when took the exam; he only wanted to see what kind of score he could get.

Zhou was able to recognize more than 3,000 words at the age of 3, and became interested in mathematics not long after. He was always the top student at school, especially in science courses. Winning the second prize in last year's national high-school math competition, Zhou earned himself the chance to participate in this year's college entrance exam.

The letter of admission

Zhou's parents attribute his success to his hard work and effort. Their house is filled with books of different genres, from fairy tales to science, and from history to foreign classics. Zhou’s mother also explained that her boy is an advanced learner.

“He was already studying at the middle school level when he was still in elementary school,” she recalled.

Now that only half a month remains before Zhou reports to the university, he is already preparing for his university courses.

“I will work hard at the university to fulfill my dream of devoting myself to mathematics,” Zhou said.