[2] Cawley gave his first public lecture at the age of six,[3][4] and at seven years and one month of age, he had passed the GCSE chemistry and studied chemistry at the tertiary level in Singapore Polytechnic[5] a year later.
At the age of 9, he was able to recite pi to 521 decimal places and could remember the periodic table.
[7] In 2007, Cawley studied at NUS High School of Math and Science, but left after expectations of his family were not met.
[8] In 2009, Cawley was featured in a Channel 4 documentary titled The World's Cleverest Child and Me.
[9] In 2010, his family moved to Kuala Lumpur, where Cawley is a student at the Taylor's University in Malaysia after his father's request to have his son homeschooled was rejected.