Elon Musk’s 1989 Aptitude Test Shows He Was Already a Prodigy at Age 17, Says His Mother

[Article déjà publié le 10 juillet
2025]

Long before rockets, electric cars or artificial intelligence, there was a simple sheet of paper, decorated with graphs and check boxes, on which a 17-year-old South African teenager was awarded the maximum mark in programming. Recently rediscovered by Maye Musk (the billionaire's mother), Elon Musk's aptitude test taken in 1989 reveals an early talent for computing, at a time when the digital universe was still in its infancy. Behind this document, yellowed by time, the profile of an extraordinary young man emerges, long before the emergence of a technological empire.

At 17, Elon Musk's aptitude test already betrayed a singular genius

In 1989, Elon Musk briefly studied at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. It is in this context that he takes a computer aptitude test designed by the Institute of Management Systems (ISM). The result is clear: A+ in programming and system operation. At just 17 years old, the young man achieved what is described as the highest engineering aptitude score ever recorded by the establishment. This was revealed in a document recently unearthed by his mother, Maye Musk, and shared on her X account, triggering a wave of admiration online.

The letter, signed by a university director, emphasizes the exceptional nature of the performance. It confirms what many observers have since observed. Elon Musk displayed extraordinary technical skills from the start. The future founder of SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink and xAI already showed rare dispositions, well before his departure for Canada, then the United States. According to Benzinga, Musk himself commented on this memory by stating that his score was “the highest they have ever seen”, a way of humorously emphasizing what billions of technological investments have since confirmed.

From frugal childhood to technological empire, the common thread of a visionary mind

This test, as modest in its form as it is revealing in its content, takes place in a family context far removed from the current image of the globe-trotting billionaire. After her divorce in 1979, Maye Musk raised her children alone in a modest daily life. She often recounts the difficult beginnings, such as during a testimony given to Fox News. At the time, Elon asked for Coco Pops cereal, but had to settle for Raisin Bran. These seemingly innocuous anecdotes show how economic restrictions had a strong impact on the early years.

Today, Elon Musk's trajectory seems dizzying. At the head of several cutting-edge companies, he has a fortune estimated at more than $421 billion according to the Forbes ranking. However, his mother says she sleeps in simple accommodations when she visits him, even near the SpaceX launch center in Texas. Far from the traditional symbols of luxury, it is in functional austerity that the entrepreneur seems to have found his balance, between space exploration, advanced robotics and artificial intelligence.

The aptitude test not only measured knowledge, it also captured the momentum of a building mind. In this forgotten evaluation sheet is perhaps one of the first tangible clues of an extraordinary destiny. And it is no coincidence that this memory resurfaces as Elon Musk continues to shake up the rules of the global technological game.