Students who didn’t quite get the GCSE grades they’d hoped for this week might be looking for a few words of encouragement right now – perhaps a reassuring figure to remind them there’s more to life than exam papers. Step forward independent MP for Delyn, Rob Roberts.

With a record fall in top results across the country, Roberts decided yesterday was the perfect time to tell everyone on Facebook that even “clever guys” like him can bomb in their exams. In fact, he’s so clever he joined Mensa aged 7:

“I’m a clever guy by any reasonable standard. I was in Mensa aged 7 and have an IQ in excess of 150. But I suck at exams. Always have done. I don’t believe that “what you remember on a specific day” is an accurate or even any way relevant picture of someone’s abilities.

I could quite easily have got all A* and A grades in my GCSEs. I got zero A* and 5 A’s, two B’s and four C’s. In my A-Levels I got BCDE instead of the AAAA my teachers knew I could get.

I went to Bangor University and dropped out just before the end of Year 2 exams because I didn’t want to sit them…”