There are lots of smart adults out there who don’t understand things like the difference between a modem and a router. You can’t know everything, right? But lack of tech chops starts to feel a little more shameful when you find out that Ayan Qureshi, a 6-year-old who lives in Coventry, England, passed a Microsoft IT technician exam at 5.
Not surprisingly, Qureshi is the youngest person to ever take, much less pass, the exam. Asim Qureshi, Ayan’s father, who is an IT consultant himself, says that when Ayan went to take the Microsoft exam, the proctors worried that he was too young to take the test. But Asim convinced them to let his son try.
Asim told BBC News, “The hardest challenge was explaining the language of the test to a five-year-old. But he seemed to pick it up and has a very good memory. … I found whatever I was telling him, the next day he’d remember everything I said, so I started to feed him more information.”
Ayan has a computer lab at home where he manages a network of computers that he built. He uses the computers for about two hours a day and is learning about operating systems and program installation, while also building on his knowledge of hard drives and motherboards. He started using computers when he was 3.
Looking back on the Microsoft test, Ayan says it was challenging but manageable. “There were multiple-choice questions, drag-and-drop questions, hotspot questions and scenario-based questions,” he said.
It’s an awesome accomplishment, but I feel bad for any kid who already uses the phrase “scenario-based.”
