"When I found out I got such a high score, it was so unexpected," she said. "I was shocked."

Nicole, who attends Burnt Mill Academy, wants to become a doctor.

"I remember when I was in primary school and I was an angel in a school play, another girl who was playing the other angel didn't turn up so I learned her lines too," she told the Daily Press.

James Barr said his daughter's achievement is "the talk of the gypsy community."

"It's nice for us to be in the news for something good for a change," he told the Daily Press. "This shows that it doesn't matter where you come from, anyone can be academically brilliant.

Nicole, her dad and her 3-month-old half-sister live in a caravan.

A Mensa spokesperson said that Nicole's IQ score "puts her comfortably within the top 1 percent of the population."