Elon Musk’s computer aptitude test results from the University of Pretoria were so high that they had to retest him.
This is feedback from his mother, Maye Musk, who posted the results from his computer aptitude test when he was 17 on social media.
Musk was born in Pretoria in 1971 and showed a special aptitude in computing at a young age.
When he was 11, Hyperama ran a computer course in partnership with Wits and computing experts from England.
Elon was keen to attend, but the course organisers informed his father that they do not take any children. Elon, however, persisted and told his dad he must do this course.
Errol, who has worked with Hyperama as a consulting engineer previously, called the company and they agreed to let Elon attend the introductory lecture.
Elon, who was only in primary school at the time, was told to dress appropriately, sit on the side, and keep quiet.
“I left him at the 3-hour lecture at Wits, and when I came back to fetch him everyone came out, but not Elon,” his father recalls.
They searched the halls of Wits and finally discovered him in a lecture hall with his tie and jacket removed, his sleeves rolled up, talking to the computer experts from England.
The one professor called Errol Musk aside and told him Elon had to get a computer. Errol duly purchased a computer for Elon, which was the start of something special.
Using this computer, Elon taught himself to program and become familiar with the Internet. It was clear that he was an exceptional talent and loved the field.
Just one year after receiving his first computer, at the age of 12, Elon coded a space fighting game called “Blastar” which he sold for $500 to trade publication PC and Office Technology magazine.
He continued teaching himself new computing skills and took a computer aptitude test at the University of Pretoria in 1989 when he was 17.
“If I remember correctly, they had to retest you because they had never seen such a high score,” his mother said.
JLM Wiechers, Director of Information management at the University of Pretoria, said Musk’s results were “outstanding”. Musk received an A+ for both computer programming and computer operating.
He used this ability to start numerous successful tech companies and become one of the most successful entrepreneurs in history.
In the nineties, he joined forces with his brother Kimbal Musk and Greg Kouri to build Zip2. They sold Zip2 for $307 million to Compaq in 1999.
Musk then founded X.com, which ultimately became PayPal, which was sold to eBay in October 2002 for $1.5 billion in stock.
Musk used his cut of $180 million to invest $100 million in SpaceX, $70 million in Tesla, and $10 million in Solar City.
These companies showed tremendous growth in recent years, which helped to make Musk the richest man in the world.
Computer aptitude test
The image below shows Musk’s computer aptitude test scores from 1989.
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