Kadyrbayev attended a high school in Almaty, the business capital of Kazakhstan, for students gifted in mathematics. "He wasn't a star student, but he wasn't a hooligan; he was a normal teenager," teacher and deputy principal Yuri Dovgal said. The schoolwork proved too much for Kadyrbayev, however, and he flunked out after his first year. "He had no aptitude for physics or mathematics, but that doesn't mean he was bad," Dovgal said, adding that Kadyrbayev later graduated from an elite private school.