Photo: Kim Family
Elias and Ariel Kim are a pair of gifted siblings from Bicester, Oxfordshire, who have achieved remarkable academic milestones at a very young age – with one completing his first year at university at just 14 years of age while his younger sister has already started her A-levels at age 12.
Their story is often cited in discussions of academic acceleration, homeschooling, and high‑achieving families in the UK.
Elias and Ariel’s parents, Sung-in Kim and Kyoung-hwa Jung, both have academic backgrounds — their mother teaches math, piano, and Korean, while their father is a senior lecturer in mechanical and aerospace engineering.
Three older sisters – Juliana, Clara, and Ella – all of whom work as private tutors at NewGenTutor, an online tutoring company, have also supported Elias and Ariel’s education.
Clara said, “I always tell other people… ‘You have to be the one who needs to be self-motivated to self-study because [nobody] can do the study for you.’ And so that’s what Ariel and Elias did.”
The family, originally from South Korea, attribute much of the children’s success to early academic acceleration and strong parental guidance.
The Kim family was featured in Homeschooling Teen last year, and we thought you might like to know what Elias and Ariel are doing now. Here’s an update!
Elias Kim
Elias, 14, began studying at Imperial College London in September 2025. Building on his 2024 A-levels exams success, Elias received an unconditional offer to enter Biomedical Engineering – one of the most demanding programs at one of the UK’s most prestigious universities.
Elias secured his place at the university after taking five A-levels — Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics, Further Mathematics, and Biology — earning four A*s and one A.
He completed his first year with a first-class mark of 84.77%.
Reflecting on his first year, Elias admitted: “I felt very nervous and worried that I was not able to follow along well with the other university students, but I tried my best.”
He added: “The other students around me were so friendly but they were so surprised I was so young and taking the same class as them.”
Elias plans to become a Master of Engineering (MEng) by June 2029 before potentially switching to medicine or pursuing a PhD.
Elias showed exceptional ability at an early age, and skipped years at primary school. His parents and older sisters began homeschooling him along with his younger sister Ariel during the Covid pandemic.
Ariel Kim
Ariel, 12, is Elias’s younger sister and also a high-achieving student. Ariel started taking her GSCEs when she was nine years old, much earlier than the typical age of 14.
She completed her GSCEs this year with six Grade 9s and one Grade 8. Her results include: Grade 9 in Mathematics and Chemistry (2024), Grade 9 in Further Mathematics and Physics (2025), Grade 8 in Biology (2025), Grade 8 in Further Pure Mathematics, and Grade 9 in Biology (2026).
This year she also received an A grade in OCR Additional Mathematics – a post-GCSE qualification designed to bridge the gap between GCSE and A-level Mathematics. Ariel has now started A-levels in Chemistry, Mathematics, Further Mathematics, and Physics, aiming to keep pace with and eventually surpass her brother’s achievements.
Ariel is obviously good at Biology and Mathematics, and has expressed ambitions to study Mathematics at Oxford. She is considering a career in academia, having stated: “I would like to be a lecturer to teach other students on fascinating subjects and share knowledge to other people.”
In her spare time, Ariel is passionate about jigsaw puzzles, chess, and portrait drawing. According to reporter Lula White at The Banbury Guardian, Ariel also “dreams of appearing on television, inspired by K-dramas and K-pop.”
Elias and Ariel Kim are a notable example of young academic achievement in the UK. The siblings’ early start, self-driven learning, and strong family support have enabled them to accelerate their education far beyond typical timelines.
Read more about Elias and Ariel in the news at https://newgentutor.com/news
