I'm going to show the other competitors
that I'm very, very good at maths.
It's day two of Child Genius,
the competition that celebrates the academic achievements
of Australian children.
He's basically a human calculator.
Led by quizmaster Dr Susan Carland...
They're all just bloody amazing. Hi.
Oh, yeah. ..and overseen by Australian Mensa...
Perfect score, Karen.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
..the search continues to find Australia's Child Genius for 2019.
You study! Good luck.
Today the top 12...
My dad can be irritating at times. ..and their parents...
But I've always found a way to work around that.
..are vying for a spot in the semifinal.
I'm nervous as hell. I think a little bit of wee came out.
Really? Is there anything you love more than maths?
Mummy. (LAUGHS) OK.
Right answer, right answer.
This changes everything!
(MIMICS EXPLOSION)
Over four big days of competition,
it's day two of heats,
to see who will go through to the semifinal of Child Genius.
I think it's a very tough competition. Oh, it's very tough.
After saying goodbye to four competitors on day one,
things are now heating up for the remaining 12 children and their parents.
There's real competition out there.
He is competing with the best of the best.
I was nearly eliminated.
I'm feeling nervous. Extremely nervous.
There will be two rounds of competition for today's heats,
a maths round in the morning
that maths whiz Jamie really wants to win...
"Maths is the best subject in the entire universe."
Which is quite true, actually.
..and a memory round in the afternoon
where the children have to recall an entire deck of playing cards,
and Mahesh is expected to do well.
Very strong in maths as well as memory as well,
so, yeah, hoping for the best.
They're all keeping their cards close to their chest.
I'm looking forward to seeing particularly maybe some dark horses,
people that may have just sort of flown a bit under the radar
in the first day of competition,
really shining in maths competition.
And then the memory round I don't know what to expect,
so I'm open to surprises.
At the end of the day, the four children with the lowest scores
will be eliminated from the competition.
I feel more nervous this time than the last time.
It's tough. That's four. That's a big cull.
Raising the stakes on day two,
the competitor with the highest score at the end of the maths round
will be fast-tracked to the semifinal on day three.
His plan is to get the top score in maths
and then not do the memory.
Who knows, I may surprise myself.
In round one, competitors will have 3.5 minutes
to answer up to 16 maths questions,
covering written and mental arithmetic.
This is always the round
where we see some just jaw dropping, stellar performances,
particularly by the kids who just eat, breathe and live maths.
I love math. And I definitely do.
Hello, geniuses! How are we?
Joining quizmaster Dr Susan Carland for this round
is author and self-confessed maths geek Adam Spencer.
Who's ready to rumble with some mathematics today?
Me! Come on, give me five if you love maths.
Come on, yes. Who are you? I don't know who you are.
My name's Adam Spencer. What's your name?
Celia. No, like, what do you do? Nice to meet you, Celia.
He's a mathematician. Why else would he be here?
I write popular mathematics books for people.
Hands in the middle on three and say mathematics.
One... two... three... mathematics!
Good luck, guys.
We're just gonna see young minds
that love mathematics, that think numerically
and love the challenge of doing maths under pressure - can't wait!
How do you guys not know Adam Spencer?
Stand by.
(APPLAUSE)
Welcome to Child Genius.
Please join me in welcoming our top 12 competitors
for day two of the competition.
(APPLAUSE)
Joining me again is our independent adjudicator
Jane Allen from the International Quizzing Association,
and joining us for this first round is our self-confessed maths geek
and author of many books on maths, Adam Spencer.
Wonderful to be here. Yeah, give me a round of app... Oh, please!
No.
(LAUGHS)
I think you'll really enjoy today. I can't wait.
OK, let's get under way.
Please welcome Callum to the lectern.
(APPLAUSE)
Welcome back, Callum.
You happy to be here for day two? Definitely.
Day one was an emotional one for Callum,
who came very close to elimination.
You're OK, Callum.
I haven't got a good enough score to be assured that I can get in.
I was quite disappointed with that, to be fair.
So was he. He blames no-one but himself for that.
Callum was desperate to make it to today's heats
because his mum Kylie was flying in from Perth.
Sorry, I missed round one.
Hopefully we can make it through to round three
and then I can be there again.
Callum, are you ready? Yes.
Question 1.
63 times 5.
315. Correct.
23,657 plus 8,402.
32,059. Correct.
To one decimal place, what is 29.4 divided by 7?
EDWARD: Traditionally maths is not one of Callum's strong points.
Pass.
(BUZZ!)
And it's something we have been working on for a little bit now.
Sorry, I can't keep the numbers in my head.
OK. At the end of the day, it's a problem.
So far Callum has scored four points.
We'll move onto mental arithmetic now.
In the mental arithmetic section of the round,
competitors must answer the questions without the aid of pen and paper.
In minutes, what is one-fifth of an hour?
12 minutes. Correct.
Calculate 27, plus 49,
plus 11, plus 78.
113. (BUZZ!)
Unlucky. 165.
679. Correct.
134. Correct.
Well done, Callum, you scored 7 points!
Callum scored 7 points out of a possible 16.
Fellow West Australian, Celia is next.
Awkward silence.
Hi. Hello.
Celia and Callum are actually very, very good friends now,
been studying together and helping each other
and they are each other's emotional support as well, very much so.
The competition's been great
because Celia's been able to connect with Callum
and that's wonderful to see.
Alright, let's welcome Celia to the lectern.
(APPLAUSE) Yeah! Come on, baby!
Team WA! What?
Welcome to day two, Celia.
Now you nailed it in the memory round of day one.
You got nearly a perfect score.
How are you feeling about the maths round?
OK.
OK. (LAUGHS) Not giving anything away. I get that.
11-year-old Celia lives in Perth.
Her mum Chantal is an academic and epidemiologist,
and has high hopes for her daughter.
My mum's been helping me prepare for Child Genius by quizzing me.
Did you add them up like I did yesterday or...?
Yes, Mum, I did. OK, well, then, I just...
You wouldn't go into a boxing championship
without ever having trained
and it's pretty much the same thing.
It's brain boxing.
Very good.
Celia's daily routine is fairly structured.
She gets up in the morning,
she comes out, she has a drink of water,
then she goes back into her room and she studies.
According to Chantal, Celia wakes each morning at 6am
and completes 45 minutes of study before breakfast.
I have greater expectations of her.
It was mum Chantal who entered Celia into the competition.
She's not, like, aggressive competitive,
but she likes to give it her all and do... go 100%.
C-E-P-H-A-L-L-I-C.
Close.
You missed the H. But that's alright.
Wouldn't label myself as a tiger mum or pushy parent,
but what I do see as my role as a parent
is to be able to identify my child's natural talents.
Minus 12.
153? Yes!
High five. Good job.
(SIGHS) Let's see how the competition goes.
We don't have a problem of overconfidence here, definitely not.
She's... You've really got to work on that, darling.
Got your pen and paper? Yep.
OK. Your first question, Celia.
42 times 8.
336. Correct.
65,328
plus 8,987.
74,315. Correct.
What is 43.4 divided by 7?
6.2? Correct.
108? Correct.
70. Correct.
Well done, Celia. 9 points!
(APPLAUSE)
Good job!
Good job, Celia!
All of the children are hoping to top score in this round
so they can skip the next round and go straight to the semifinal.
91 times 8.
728. Correct.
What comes next?
25, 29, 33, 37?
41. Say again?
41. Correct.
241.
Correct.
What is 137 minus 98?
239.
(BUZZ!) Just 39 was the answer.
Well done, Kate. 6 points.
Congratulations, Justin, 8 points! Well done.
Well done Karin, 10 points!
Aidan, 10 points, congratulations.
They're all just bloody amazing. Yeah, yeah.
Karin and Aidan are currently sitting in front with 10 points each.
He really loves maths.
I'd just love to see that shine through on the day,
but I'm sure the other kids must be pretty good at maths too.
Next is day one's equal top scorer, Mahesh.
His shoulder's poking out and my mum's like, "What the hell?"
The 12-year-old received a perfect score on day one's memory round
and hopes to do well in today's maths round
so he can be fast-tracked to the semifinal.
Don't panic. Just be relaxed and, uh, do well.
Yeah.
From here onwards Mahesh is going to put his 100% effort
and, uh, no stones unturned.
You must be pretty happy with your performance day one. Equal first.
Yeah. And how do you feel about maths?
Um... I feel quite good
because maths is a strength of mine,
but I feel better because a lot of my family's here today.
Mahesh lives with his parents and little brother
south-east of Melbourne.
BOTH: Yes!
He was entered into the Child Genius competition
by his father, Ravee.
My dad can be irritating at times
but, um, I've always found a way to work around that.
He doesn't push himself so much,
um, so that's where I have to sometimes step in.
So another 30 minutes then you are done.
OK.
Mahesh is a member of Mensa
and has an IQ in the 99.99th percentile.
What do we have to be careful of?
The blue flame can reach temperatures of up 1,500 degrees,
so we need to be careful
also because we can't really see it that way.
Excellent. So we need to be careful with it.
We knew Mahesh was gifted when he was able to say alphabets by one.
Uh, he was able to read by two years.
I wouldn't consider myself a full-on genius
but I'd consider myself quite close to that.
Not an Einstein-like genius
but, uh, I believe myself as a very smart person.
Class Captain Mahesh has a solid group of friends,
but being smart isn't without challenges.
I guess the main challenging thing
is the stereotype of being a nerd I guess.
Because being a person like me,
like, a smart person who wears glasses,
everyone automatically thinks a nerd,
and I guess just getting over that stereotypical challenge is just the main thing.
So when you...
..wherever you see a C, you put in 10 minus 4B in brackets.
Is that helpful? Yeah. Cool.
For me I wanna be within that top 50% of all of the kids.
That's a lot of maths.
I'd be pretty happy with that.
And more than happy will be? If I win.
No, when you win, not if. When.
(LAUGHS) When I win.
Oh, well, it's good to have a confident dad.
SUSAN: Are you ready to go? Yes.
Question 1.
31 times 9.
279.
Correct.
5,037 minus 258.
4,779. Correct.
5.2. Correct.
33. Correct.
68,347 plus 8,356.
76,603.
(BUZZ!) So close.
76,703. Oh, crap.
OK, Mahesh, put your pen and paper down.
Let's move onto mental arithmetic.
Are you ready? Yep. Hopefully.
652 minus 59?
593.
Correct.
Calculate 14 times 8...
..plus 9...
..and finally, divide it by 11.
11. Correct.
What is 25% of 8,000?
2,000. Correct.
230.
Correct. Correct. Correct.
Mahesh has overtaken Karin and Aidan with 11 points.
Now he faces his final and most difficult question of the round.
Calculate 4,768...
..plus 1,467...
..plus 5,374...
..plus 4,366.
(MUTTERS)
15,975.
No-one has ever got that answer correct. That is correct!
Well done, Mahesh! (APPLAUSE)
Whoo-hoo! Mahesh! Yes!
In the history of Child Genius, no-one has ever got the last question correct.
Really? So well done! You scored 12 points.
(APPLAUSE)
Incredible, that last one. Great get.
It felt really good to know that I had made history.
Mahesh getting the last question,
the impossible last question, was really impressive.
Mahesh now sits at the top of the leader board with 12 points.
That last question I think we will remember
for a very long time to come.
But maths whiz Jamie is yet to compete.
Jamie, yeah, we... we all know he loves maths as well,
but I think he may facing a big competitor named Mahesh.
JAMIE: He got 12, which just makes me less confident.
It's the second day of heats
to find the top eight competitors
to go through to the semifinal of Child Genius 2019.
In today's first round,
the top scorer will be fast-tracked to the semifinal.
But the four lowest scorers for both rounds will be going home.
Well done, Mahesh!
Right now Mahesh is at the top of the leader board with 12 points.
I got it right when it counted, so I'm at the top.
Karin and Aidan are equal in second place, and Celia is third.
Currently Callum is in last position.
(EXHALES)
Next, it's 10-year-old Harlan's turn.
He scored a respectable 16 points on day one.
(APPLAUSE) Oh, my God.
Welcome back, Harlan. Hi.
Now, your favourite subjects are maths and science.
Yep. So are you feeling pretty confident?
Living with autism,
only child Harlan consistently tops his classes academically.
Some kids will sit there and do a colouring-in book.
He wants us to write out a sheet of...
..multiplication and addition and division questions,
you know, and he'll sit there and answer them.
And that's his fun. That's fun. (LAUGHS)
Harlan entered himself into the Child Genius competition.
And he said, you know, "It's my first chance to be on TV,"
so he was pretty happy about that.
I have never been on TV before
so this is a whole new experience for me.
Harlan, your first question is...
..47 times 7.
329. Correct.
56,178 plus 5,392.
MELISSA: We know it's not gonna be easy, obviously.
61,720.
(BUZZ!) Unlucky. 61,570.
It'll just come down to how switched on he is.
854. Correct.
46. Correct.
3,957.
Correct.
173. (BUZZ!)
So close! 174. (AUDIENCE GROANS)
Pass. It was 15.
MELISSA: Been, um, bit tense,
'cause you just want your children to do so well.
Pass.
(BUZZ!) It was 486.
6 points, congratulations! (APPLAUSE)
With a score of 6, Harlan joins Callum at the bottom of the leader board.
Now he faces a nervous wait
to find out if his place in the competition is in jeopardy.
(APPLAUSE) But the maths round isn't over yet.
4.3. Correct.
72,083.
Correct.
96. Correct.
What comes next - 9, 13, 17, 21?
25. Correct.
100. (BUZZ!)
So close. 101.
Pass. (BUZZ!)
105. (BUZZ!)
55.
All the competitors still hope to win this round
so they will be accelerated straight to the semifinal.
Well done, Jacintha, 8 points! (APPLAUSE)
Sebastian, 7 points.
(APPLAUSE)
Well done, Jena. You scored 4 points.
Congratulations. (APPLAUSE)
Jena now joins Callum, Harlan and Kate
in the bottom four on the leader board.
Currently in first place,
eyeing off the fast-pass to the semifinal, is Mahesh.
EDWARD: When, you know... when it comes to the lower end of the ladder
you're very, very aware of
the children that are sitting around the same sort of score
as your child, and, yes, you're mentally adding in your head
as the final scores come up.
You go, "Yeah, we're there," or no, you're not there.
It must be very disappointing for the ones who don't get through.
The only obstacle standing between Mahesh
and a ticket straight to the semifinal
is the youngest competitor,
maths obsessive,
nine-year-old Jamie.
I want... I need to do this because I'm already too good at math.
But this is day 3.
What do you mean you're already too good at maths?
Jamie surprised many, including his parents, on day one
when he tied with Mahesh at the top of the leader board.
Yeah, we didn't expect that, to be honest.
I think the favourites are Mahesh and me. (LAUGHS) And me!
The big question now is, which one of them has the edge in maths?
Lets welcome to the lectern Jamie. (APPLAUSE)
He will need to score 13 points or more
if he wants to skip the rest of the day's competition.
Now, obviously you're not really that into maths at all, are you?
(LAUGHS) (LAUGHS)
Is it your favourite subject in the whole wide world?
Yeah.
Is there anything you love more than maths? Mummy.
OK. Right answer! Right answer! (LAUGHS)
(APPLAUSE)
9-year-old Jamie loves his mum and maths.
3,553.
Yes, that's correct.
I think about numbers all the time.
5.
I don't know why... I just can't get my mind off maths.
Maths is his favourite subject at school
and numbers bring Jamie to life.
Tested at age 6,
his IQ is in the top one quarter of 1% of the population.
He's like a mini Albert Einstein.
He thinks like Albert Einstein.
He's basically a human calculator.
This has tricked a few people so far, OK?
Jamie sees numbers in his head, they dance for him
and he can get them to do whatever he wants them to do.
I've never seen it before
but I'm in awe of it
'cause what he can do with numbers is just absolutely amazing
and he has a passion for it.
Ask me.
When I think on math I just suddenly get really, really involved into it.
When the teacher's talking about history or geography...
..I will be doing math.
(APPLAUSE)
Jamie, your first question is,
46 times 4.
184. Correct.
48,725...
..plus 3,548.
52,273. Correct.
GANG: He's still very nervous,
although it looks like he's very relaxing.
6,392...
..minus 464?
5,928. Correct.
CXX. Correct.
51. Correct.
7.7. Correct.
8,428...
..times 387.
3,341,636.
(BUZZ!) Very, very close.
3,261,636.
GANG: We're worried about him,
like, we want him to do well but we can't help him.
With a score of six, Jamie needs to answer
seven of the eight mental arithmetic questions correctly
to top Mahesh's score.
OK, Pi Man, put that pen and paper down.
OK.
You ready for mental arithmetic?
Yeah. OK.
He can do mental maths really fast, faster than me.
Calculate 37 plus 86
plus 60 plus 19.
202. Correct.
What is 18 times 5...
..minus 21,
and finally multiplied by 4?
276. Correct.
112. Correct.
764. Correct.
$15. Correct.
10. Correct.
With two questions left,
Jamie needs just one more point
to beat Mahesh's score of 12
and be fast-tracked to the semifinal.
What is 17 times 6...
..plus 11...
..minus 27?
86. Correct.
(IMITATES EXPLOSION) Pfff!
Jamie, 13 points! Well done. (APPLAUSE)
I came a very close second.
I know I could have done better
but I'm really happy with what I did.
Jamie, 9-year-old Jamie, will go to the semifinals.
Really happy that he don't need to go through the second round
'cause he's really nervous about that.
Top scoring in the maths round with 13 points,
Jamie has now been fast-tracked to the semifinal of Child Genius
and has the afternoon off,
while the others have to face the gruelling memory round.
It's the halfway point on the second day of heats
to find Australia's brightest child.
The leader board awaits!
Only the top 8 out of 12 will go through to the semifinal.
You got 7. You tied with Callum.
Second-highest score. Harlan!
With 13 points, Jamie blitzed this morning's maths round
and advanced straight to the semifinal.
This is the one time when 13 is going to be lucky.
Jamie's absence in round two puts Mahesh at the top of the leader board
with 12 points at the start of the memory round.
Alright. Lots of love. Do well, huh? No rush, OK?
Why am I so tired?
With four eliminations looming,
round two will see competitors face
the extremely challenging memory card recall round.
The memory round really is make or break because for some of the kids
this is their last opportunity to hang into the competition,
and you can see that pressure weighing on the kids.
Along with IQ,
memory recall is one of the indicators of high intelligence.
Six...
Today's memory round will require the children
to remember an entire deck of randomly shuffled playing cards.
Helping Dr Susan Carland to officiate this round
is memory expert Daniel Kilov.
The competitors this round have a really difficult challenge in front of them,
memorising a full deck of cards in order.
And basically the thing that's gonna help them do that
is if they can create visual mental images of the cards
and then string those together in an interesting story.
My strategy for memorising cards
involves my love of following soccer.
Mahesh just missed out on being fast-tracked to the semifinal.
He hopes his unique soccer game technique
will help him remember all 52 cards.
So, each suit for me is a famous team.
And each card from that suit, going up to the queen,
is a player from the team.
The queen being a substitute goalkeeper
and the king being the manager.
2 of hearts...
SEBASTIAN: My best is probably about 10.
So far. Yeah.
But you've got 52, though. So, yeah.
(LAUGHS) That's 52 cards.
Each child will have one hour
to remember their specific set of cards
before recalling them in front of the audience.
For every four correct cards, competitors will score one point,
and there are no second chances.
The first incorrect card will end their round.
Get the first card wrong, um,
your score already stops before you got anything.
And one slip and game over,
and that that's harsh, that's brutal.
CELIA: I'm feeling pretty good about this 'cause memory is my strength.
CHANTAL: Celia is competitive,
but I think her biggest competition is herself.
She's very hard on herself.
Celia is first. She's fifth on the leader board with nine points.
SUSAN: Welcome back, Celia. Hello.
You've had one hour to memorise your deck of cards
and you'll now have 4.5 minutes to recall the order.
You'll receive one point for every four cards you get correct.
Your time starts now.
King of hearts.
7 of clubs.
8 of diamonds.
6 of clubs.
(SIGHS)
5 of diamonds.
CHANTAL: Being a parent
watching the competition is... is tough.
King of spades.
It's an emotional roller-coaster,
can't help, you know, getting involved
and... and being there with them
and sharing the feelings that they feel.
7 of diamonds. Queen of spades.
Jack of spades.
I can't do it.
Can't do this anymore. Do you want to stop?
That's fine if you want to stop, sweetie. That's fine.
You can stop now. That's OK.
(SNIFFLES)
You wanna hop off? You can go, you can go.
Can't help but be involved
and have the same emotions as the child
but the outcome, whatever it is,
you've got to step back into mummy mode and be that support mechanism.
You did a great job. (CRIES)
You did a great job. It's a lot of pressure up there, darling.
(CRIES) It's a lot of pressure.
Oh, it's tough, it's a hard... it's a hard round.
Very emotional.
Look at Mummy.
You did amazing.
Just kept telling Celia, you know...
..that's no reflection of her intelligence,
her capability, her potential.
Many high-achieving children feel the pressure to do well.
For this reason, the Child Genius psychologist is available
to help console Celia.
This is just a little blip in your life. It's not all of it.
For me, as a parent, I just... I couldn't be prouder.
(APPLAUSE)
Next is 12-year-old Jacintha.
Welcome back, Jacintha. Thank you.
Jacintha lives on the outskirts of Sydney
and attends up to 10 dance classes a week.
WOMAN: Three, four, five, six, seven, eight, one.
Usually I find time to study in between dance classes,
or, like, at night, or eating.
Hang in there, OK? 45 plus 12.
Um... 57?
Good job.
I try not to pressure her too much.
78. Mm-hm.
I'm more like the... like the free-range mum... (LAUGHS)
..so I let her to roam free, and, you know...
Free-range... (LAUGHS) I don't know.
I'm thinking about the free-range chicken. (LAUGHS)
I need to cook chicken tonight, so... (LAUGHS)
An only child, Jacintha lives with her Indonesian-born parents,
and was recently accepted into Mensa with an IQ of 138.
That's in the top 1% of the population.
I got, like, top 99%, so I was, like, what?
And there are many theories in Jacintha's family
on where her intelligence comes from.
Four containers of chilli!
My grandma thinks that chilli makes me smart
because it, like, boosts your brain somehow.
I don't know if that's true.
I just eat chilli because it tastes good. (LAUGHS)
(APPLAUSE)
And your time starts now.
4 of hearts.
6... 7 of clubs.
6 of clubs.
She has been practising very hard for this competition.
4 of clubs.
King of spades.
9 of clubs.
5 of diamonds.
Ace of hearts.
She always try her best and never give up.
King of clubs.
Jack of clubs.
Ace of clubs.
8 of hearts. 7 of hearts.
Ace of spades.
Jacintha needs just two more cards and she'll have a perfect score.
8 of...
..diamonds.
8 of clubs.
Perfect score, Jacintha! (APPLAUSE)
You nailed that. 52 cards! Well done!
You scored 13 points. well done.
I read the books.
They said the kids' intelligence coming from the mother,
so I think I would say...
..maybe it's coming from me. (LAUGHS)
Good job. Good job.
Next is 12-year-old Callum,
who only just scraped through on day one of heats,
and is currently on the lower end of the leader board with 7 points.
Four children leave today, so Callum will have to do well
to secure his future in the competition.
EDWARD: Well, the card memory I think,
Callum's technique initially was a bit out there...
..but, then, so is Callum.
This one would be Bonnie the Bunny. OK.
Just go with it. OK, OK.
So... (LAUGHS) ..it might work perfectly for him.
He needs to get four cards right for every one point.
The first wrong card is the end of his round.
9 of clubs. 7 of spades.
King of diamonds.
Callum's memory is very, very, very, good
He's got a huge potential...
Queen... of spades...
We just always have to find
a way for him to store that knowledge.
Jack of clubs.
6 of hearts. 6 of clubs.
5 of clubs.
The 10 of hearts.
Ace of hearts. (BUZZ!)
Sorry, it was king of hearts and then ace of hearts.
Well done. Callum, you've scored 4 points.
In a shock turn of events, Callum has only scored 4 points,
bringing his total for the day to 11,
and he is still at risk of elimination.
I don't know what happened.
I had the whole story in my head, meaning I could do all the cards.
He's confused about where he went wrong
so he's asked for clarification from independent adjudicator Jane Allen.
Hello. I'm Jane.
Nice to meet you. Hello.
Hi, Callum. How you doing?
With four children being eliminated today, every point counts.
Sure. OK, so, I've been in to have a look and see what happened.
And so actually on card 17, you said 10 of hearts,
and it was the king of hearts.
OK!
But I think what confused you is that you weren't told
that you were wrong until you'd said ace of hearts,
which is the following one, which was correct.
OK. Perfect. No, that's it. Thank you. Thank you so much.
Lovely, thank you. Good luck, Callum.
With Callum's query cleared up, his score remains at 4 points.
My confidence after seeing how difficult the competition can be...
..it's lowered a bit.
So the only thing I can keep doing is stay positive.
(APPLAUSE) And it's on with the competition.
10 of clubs. Jack of hearts.
9 of clubs. Queen of diamonds.
Jack of spades.
4 of diamonds. Queen of hearts.
Diamonds 5...
OK, what's next?
3 of clubs.
Ace of diamonds.
Um... 4 of hearts.
SUSAN: Well done, Jena, you scored 4 points!
(APPLAUSE)
Well done, Justin, you scored 1 point.
(APPLAUSE)
Incorrect, I'm afraid. (GROANS)
Aidan, you scored a wonderful 9 points. Well done!
(APPLAUSE)
King of spades.
Jack of clubs. And ace of clubs.
Perfect score, Karin! (APPLAUSE)
4 of spades.
3 of diamonds.
Jack of hearts.
Perfect score!
(APPLAUSE)
Do you want to hear some good news? Yes.
Only girls have got them all right.
Really? Yeah, three girls and no boys.
Got them all right, every single one?
Yes, yeah.
Come on. Hop up. Next is Harlan.
He's a little bit umm frustrated at himself for the first round, so...
Sitting in the bottom four of the leader board,
he's concerned a bad card round
could see him eliminated from the competition.
(APPLAUSE)
And your time starts now.
4 of clubs.
Ace of hearts.
5 of clubs? (BUZZ!)
Incorrect, I'm afraid.
It was 4 of clubs, ace of hearts, 9 of clubs,
5 of hearts.
Harlan needed to get at least four
cards right to earn one point.
(APPLAUSE)
Failing to score any points,
Harlan has a total of 6 points for day two of the competition.
Unfortunately, this means Harlan's time in the competition has ended.
HARLAN: I hope I can try again when I'm a year older, though.
MELISSA: If that's what you wanna do, I'll support you again.
Mahesh is next.
He is currently the top scorer on 12 points, a position he's in
because Jamie earned the fast-pass to the semifinal.
RAVEE: Mahesh's memory should serve him well in the competition.
He has four minutes to recall 52 cards.
Your time starts now.
Jack of diamonds.
9 of clubs. 6 of diamonds.
8 of diamonds.
5 of hearts.
5 of clubs.
4 of spades. 3 of spades.
4 of diamonds. 3 of diamonds.
Jack of spades. 10 of spades.
And 9 of spades.
The next one is... 2 of hearts.
8 of spades.
The competition is good for Mahesh's self-esteem
and for him to start believing in himself.
4 of hearts.
7 of clubs. 9 of diamonds.
King of diamonds.
And queen of diamonds. (APPLAUSE)
You did that in 1.5 minutes!
And a perfect score. Well done, Mahesh.
You've had a pretty good day today! (LAUGHS)
He is the main man. WOMAN: I was pretty nervous, I was actually looking down.
Yeah, Mum wasn't even looking. She was like, "Ah!"
With their perfect scores of 13,
Mahesh, Karin, Jacintha and Kate's total scores
are now so high it assures all of them a place in the semifinal.
For four kids to get all 52 cards
is an absolutely unbelievable achievement.
After Harlan's departure, three more children are about to go home,
and it's already clear that it's the end of the road
for Jena and Justin.
JUSTIN: I rubbed my name off for the sake of others.
You should be proud of yourself.
He still is my genius.
There's only one more place left to decide.
In an extraordinary twist,
this now means Callum and Celia are tied on equal last position.
There's only two good outcomes.
Callum and Celia have formed a very close friendship
and Callum doesn't want to go up against his new best friend.
Both of you are the same - so hard on yourselves.
He can't bear the thought of beating her
and forcing her out of the competition.
I frankly don't care about being eliminated anymore.
I don't want a tie breaker.
Is it too much pressure?
No, it's not too much pressure. Frankly, I could do it but...
It's with Celia.
Yeah, it's with Celia, that's the problem.
Callum experiences everything on a deeper level.
It's typical with gifted kids.
Every feeling they have is... is multiplied.
When he is sad he's incredibly sad.
She really wants this with her 100%.
And you do too.
But when he's happy he's incredibly happy, he's ecstatic.
There's still one child left to compete in the card memory round,
nine-year-old Sebastian.
His score could be a game changer.
MAN: Do you believe that you are a genius?
Yes.
Sebastian lives in North Adelaide with his little brother Nicholas,
his busy parents, computer programmer dad Jeremy,
and Japanese-American mum Michelle, who's a chef.
Sebastian thinks he can do everything really well.
But he can't.
My mum gets angry but she says yes to a lot of things.
My dad doesn't get angry but he says no to a lot of things.
Um, I'm not really... I'm not a tiger mum..
I'm the mean, nasty parent
who pushes him with the things that he doesn't like
and he's not good at.
Why are you writing?
The things that he's good at, it comes easy to him.
Perfect.
And what happens is that they don't know what hard work is.
Duh... duh... duh...
(MAKES EXPLOSION SOUND)
Sometimes he just needs a little sort of push, I think.
Possessing an IQ of 138 by age 4,
which is in the top 1% of the population,
that push may be just what Sebastian needs
if he wants to follow in his father Jeremy's footsteps.
Jeremy was also quite the little genius as a kid...
..and was a Mensa member as a teenager.
And still has the magazines from Mensa that Sebastian loves to read.
I mean, in terms of personality and the way we think, he's like a mini me.
He is.
26... Wait, stop.
..times 30 minus 8.
Stop, stop, stop, no, no, no, stop.
There's also one other factor
motivating Sebastian to do well in the card round
and make it through to the semifinal.
It's Sebastian's birthday on day 3.
He really wants to make it through for that.
It'll be a special, special birthday present.
Yeah, that'll be really cool.
As long as I can get a high enough score in my card memory
I can try and not get eliminated,
So, yeah, I'm pretty confident.
BOY: OK, let's see how Sebastian does.
6 of hearts.
3 of clubs...
Uh, it's a little bit nerve-racking...
(SIGHS)
We're just willing him to get the answer right.
3 of hearts.
4 of hearts. (BUZZ!)
Incorrect, I'm afraid. It was 3 of hearts then 2 of hearts.
Well done, Sebastian, you scored 4 points!
(APPLAUSE)
GIRL: What did you get? I got 4.
Sebastian's score of four points puts him equal last on the leader board
with Celia and Callum.
Oh, what?!
A three-way tie breaker!
The tie breaker's maths. It's mental maths.
A three-way tie breaker will now determine the fourth competitor
to be eliminated from Child Genius.
There you go. Three-way tie breaker.
This changes everything!
Today, three children have already been eliminated
from the Child Genius competition...
Incorrect, I'm afraid.
..and there's one more to go.
At the end of the second day of heats,
three children are on the same score.
Three-way tie breaker. Three-way tie breaker!
Two of them will advance to the semifinal.
One will be eliminated from the Child Genius competition.
It's a nail-biting finale that no-one could have predicted.
It's a situation we didn't want to find ourselves in.
Unfortunately he's muffed up one of the cards somehow.
I just wanna get to at least day 3.
Just take your time, don't rush.
You're gonna fight to the end.
It's a tense time for all three,
especially Callum and Celia,
who have formed a special bond in the competition
and must now face off against each other.
Well, I'm up against Callum and I don't really know what to say.
CHANTAL: It's hard,
because Celia and Callum have formed such a tight friendship now
and that's always really difficult to be up against your...
..you know, your best friend, but you're still competing.
This is tough.
The thought of forcing Celia out of the competition in a tie breaker
is a lot for the 12-year-old to process.
You alright? It's alright, it's OK. (CRIES)
Callum is so reluctant to compete against his friend
he is consoled by the Child Genius psychologist.
I don't deserve to go on, compared to her.
You're such a gentleman.
Come on, where's my fighter? Pow, pow, pow, pow!
Where's my brain boxer?
Fist pump? Yeah.
So, let's have Celia, Callum and Sebastian back to the stage.
(APPLAUSE)
WOMAN: Come on, Celia! Go, CC!
Come on! Whoo!
SUSAN: This tie breaker is gonna be so tough.
It's a huge amount of pressure for them,
and I am just so impressed and proud
that they even come back and keep fighting.
The first with an incorrect answer will go home.
Congratulations, all three of you on the same score,
which means you've done an amazing job,
and sadly we do have to lose one person,
which means two of you will be staying with us.
You'll each be asked a mental arithmetic maths question.
You'll have 30 seconds to answer and the question can't be repeated.
OK, are you ready?
Good luck to all three of you.
Celia, you're up first.
CHANTAL: She's capable and she will step up to the challenge
and she'll definitely give it 100%.
What is 24 plus 65
multiplied by 2
and finally subtract 5?
174. (BUZZ!)
So close, 173. That's OK.
Callum and Sebastian must answer the next questions correctly
to stay in the competition.
Callum, what is
28 plus 13
multiplied by 2...
..and finally subtract 1?
81. Correct.
EDWARD: The biggest experience for Callum coming out of this will be
how to settle his nerves and be his best on the day that he can be.
If Sebastian manages to answer this question correctly,
it will be the end of the competition for Celia.
MICHELLE: It's much more emotionally draining than I expected.
Sebastian, what is 55 plus 10...
..multiplied by 2,
and finally subtract 2?
128.
That is correct. (APPLAUSE)
Unfortunately that does mean it's the end of your journey with us, Celia. We are so proud of you.
Well done. Let's have a very big round of applause for Celia.
(APPLAUSE)
It's about coping strategies
and being able to pull yourself together,
deal with the disappointment, accept it
and be able to regroup and charge forward
with the extra armoury of having resilience.
It's all good.
You did amazing, you put in an amazing effort,
and Mummy is really, really proud.
A very big round of applause for Callum and Sebastian.
You are through to the next day of the competition. Well done.
(APPLAUSE)
It's not on you. Even if you had have got the cards she would've had to go against Sebastian.
It's an emotional end to a very long day on Child Genius.
WOMAN: I know, darling.
Now you've got to pick up and you're going to refocus
'cause we need you to keep going for us.
KYLIE: Callum's fine now.
That's hard for him to not have her around for the next round.
But he'll be channelling Celia for round 3.
I'm sweating. (LAUGHS)
We're happy and exhausted to get this far.
The goal was to get to Sebastian's birthday.
Yeah.
One thing I learned from this competition,
I need to give him a lot more credit.
RAVEE: Mahesh has been impressing us right along the whole journey.
Yes, he will win.
That's what my focus is. (LAUGHS)
Next time on Child Genius...
Estonia.
Correct. (LAUGHS)
..it's the semifinal... Everyone says I'm the one to beat.
It's a bit of pressure. Things are not going my way.
..in the race to become Child Genius 2019.
There wouldn't be a single parent that will say,
"Oh, well, I want my child to come in fourth."