Child prodigy from the Urals

Ksenia Lepeshkina, an 11-year-old schoolgirl from Magnitogorsk, will attend the 11th, graduating form (in which 16-17-year-olds study), together with her sister Yana (Magnitogorsk is a city in the Urals). Ksenia has passed all the necessary exams for the tenth grade.

The Lepeshkins have two daughters. Their mother is a house-wife, and their father is chief engineer at a poultry farm. Both girls are doing well at school, with 16-year-old Yana studying together with other students of her age, while the gifted Ksenia, who was from the second from promoted straight to the fifth form, and later on reduced her studies by another year by taking examinations as an extern.

Ksenia has a remarkable memory and an absolute musical ear. At a school party she recited from memory "Ruslan and Lyudmila," a large fairy tale in verse by Alexander Pushkin. She is fluent in English and even writes verses in English. She solves complicated mathematical problems in her head. Last academic year she came third in a regional chemistry Olympiad.

It is not ruled out that she will receive her school-leaving certificate ahead of time, too.