earlier this year 13yearold natasha perianayagam a grade 6 student in new jersey was named in a list of the worlds brightest school students by the usbased johns hopkins centre for talented youth cty the results are based on abovegradelevel tests much of it focused on maths that the institute held across 76 countries for over 15000 students the indianamerican student was part of the same list last year too when she was in grade 5 this year cty said natasha scored the highest grades among all candidateshow do you do it we asked natasha over the phone a few weeks ago one thing she does thats different from many of her classmates she says is that she takes notes when the teacher gives a lesson on the whiteboard and whenever theres a test i can just look at those notes she sayshow did you become so good at maths i think its because i like maths and not a lot of people will say this she says maths she says is interesting because theres always a new concept to learn when you go into higher grades like this year we learned how to factor polynomials and quadratics and things like that on the contrary she says in english theres only so many things you can learn and then you have to put them together keep reviewing it maths natasha goes on is in its essence one principle even if you have multiple variables or exponents they are all one of four things youre adding or multiplying or subtracting or dividing and when she struggles with a concept daddy explains it to me because hes good at maths at home natashas study desk is next to sister niharikas who is in the 10th grade and natashas always looking at what niharikas doing some of the stuff that came on the test it was what she was doing and it was familiar because id already seen it natasha says niharikas doing lots in science because she wants to become a doctor natasha says she gets to see all that advanced science stuff toonatasha plays the violin guitar piano many say theres a strong connection between music and maths natasha agrees in maths there are these numbers and sometimes letters and you have to figure out how they add up and in music youre doing that same thing lookng at what it all adds up to but youre doing it more with your hands and fingers like on the keys or on the strings her dad anand originally from chennai and now a senior program manager at credit suisse in new york too sees a connection between natashas physical activities and her absorption of concepts my understanding is that sashas approach to science is kind of tactile working in the garden tending to plants playing the violin piano tennis and guitar and tying that stuff back to theoretical assignments that she has to hand in at school