In 2012, Hugo Sbaï was one of the youngest high school graduates of his generation. He obtained his baccalaureate in science, with honors. However, he does not claim to be a little prodigy. Here is the exceptional journey of this 24-year-old.
At 12, most children are in middle school, where they live their adolescence in total carefreeness. And then, there are those who, like Hugo Sbaï, at this age, take their baccalaureate like any other candidate. At the time, the young boy, born in 2000 in Essonne, began to stand out from his classmates in CP. He learned quickly, very quickly, and the lessons quickly bored him. “I didn’t have any particular talent, I just revised and studied a lot to get there. It wasn’t a given,” he tells us with a certain modesty. From primary school, he skipped several grades. CE1 then CM2 until going directly from 6th to 10th grade. “I was happy because I didn’t want to waste any more time. My goal was to get my baccalaureate because I knew it wasn’t that complicated,” he explains to us.
To achieve this, at home, Hugo was able to count on his loved ones who helped him to educate himself, in particular his sister, Marion, 6 years his senior, who followed the same course without skipping a grade. “I have always been accompanied in all my whims. My aunts [toutes deux scientifiques, ndlr] gave me lessons so that I could progress more quickly through the program,” he explains to us. A method that paid off since in 2012, after skipping yet another class, the first one, he found himself in the final year to take the scientific baccalaureate, at the same time as his big sister.
Again, no secret, to revise for the baccalaureate and the many subjects in the program, Hugo trained tirelessly on the past papers. “It’s practice that counts. Of course, during the year we studied the lessons, but we also had to know how to put them into practice thoroughly,” he emphasizes. On the day of the exams, unlike the other candidates, the young student of his age was not stressed more than that. “I wouldn’t say that everything was easy, but the subjects I was comfortable with, yes, especially mathematics and physics.” Result : he passed his baccalaureate in science with flying colours, with very good marks. “I got 19 in maths, which was my specialty, 17 in physics, and 20 in biology. In the end, I got about 16 on average,” he recalls. And when asked what it was like to have passed his baccalaureate at just 12 years old, he answers in a rather humble manner: “I knew it was exceptional, but for me, I took this exam like the others.”
After his baccalaureate, Hugo did not stop there, he continued his studies in the fields that he wanted. Today, at 24, the young man has a CV that is almost unbelievable: a master’s degree from Polytechnique obtained at 16, a master’s degree in law obtained at 17, a doctorate in computer science obtained at 18, another obtained at Oxford at 21, all while preparing his master’s 2 in law which allowed him to become a lawyer at the Paris bar. His studies are now far behind him, but that does not prevent him from having new goals. He would like to one day set up a project to make education accessible to all.