Yufan Zhao scored a string of top results this summer and examining board Edexcel has confirmed he received one of the highest marks in an additional further maths paper.

The 18 year old, who barely spoke English when he joined Hemel Hempstead School in Year 7, studied no less than 18 modules to take the extra exam.

Modest Yufan said: "In all honesty, I do not think the top 10 is as amazing as it sounds seeing as only 46 people in the entire country took further additional maths as an A level.

"This is because it means studying 18 maths modules where as a standard A level only needs six and studying 18 takes a long time.

"The reason I was able to do it is because I started studying for A level maths in Year 10, therefore I had the time to study them.

"I studied it as an extra and out of interest."

YuFan, who was born in China, also has A grades in maths, further maths, physics, history and Chinese and is going to Cambridge University to study maths.

Hemel Hempstead School headteacher, Sandra Samwell, said: "Yufan was an exceptional student and I wish him well at Trinity College, Cambridge."