New York: An Indian-American teenager has been named in the “world’s brightest” students list for a second year in a row by the US-based Johns Hopkins Center For Talented Youth (CTY), based on the results of above-grade-level tests of more than 15,000 students across 76 countries.

Natasha Perianayagam, 13, is a student of Florence M Gaudineer Middle School in New Jersey. She has been recognised for her exceptional performance on the SAT, ACT, School and College Ability Test, or similar assessment taken as part of the CTY Talent Search, a university press release said.

Natasha, whose parents hail from Chennai, also took the Johns Hopkins Talent Search test in Spring 2021 when she was in class 5. Her results in the verbal and quantitative sections levelled with the 90th percentile of advanced Grade 8 performance.

“This motivates me to do more,” she had then said, adding that doodling and reading JRR Tolkien’s novels may have worked for her. Natasha scored the highest grades among all candidates In her latest attempt, the university statement said adding that she “was among the 15,300 students from 76 countries who joined CTY in the 2021-22 Talent Search year”.

“This is not just recognition of our students’ success on one test, but a salute to their love of discovery and learning, and all the knowledge they have accumulated in their young lives so far,” CTY’s executive director Dr Amy Shelton said.

“It is exciting to think about all the ways in which they will use that potential to discover their passions, engage in rewarding and enriching experiences, and achieve remarkable things -- in their communities and in the world,” Shelton added.

CTY uses above-grade-level testing to identify advanced students from around the world and provide a clear picture of their true academic abilities. The quantitative section of the Johns Hopkins CTY test measures the ability to see relationships between quantities expressed in mathematical terms, the verbal section measures understanding of the meaning of words and the relationships between them.