Imagine your child solving 200 maths problems in only 8 minutes or even faster. This may surprise you. However, under the Abacus programme, students do not need a pen or paper to solve maths problems as they are trained to solve those through quick mental calculations.
At the 15th UCMAS National Abacus Mental & Arithmetic Competition 2018, held in Dubai, a total of 1,100 students from across the UAE participated in a competition to showcase their fierce maths skills. Of these, 242 students returned home with glorious trophies, won under different categories.
The competition was for students between of 6 and 13 years old, and participants were given a narrow time frame to answer questions involving addition, subtraction, multiplication and division set at different levels of difficulty. It also included listening and flash competitions where numbers were called out or flashed on screen for children to compute and write the answer. The challenge was to solve 200 questions within 8 minutes and those who solved the questions within the time frame won trophies.
Participants at the contest also included five students from the Al Amal School for Deaf associated with the Sharjah City of Humanitarian Services, who were recognised and appreciated for taking up the challenge.
The Universal Concept of Mental Arithmetic System (UCMAS) is an internationally acclaimed skill and mental development programme that promotes mental arithmetic system designed for children between 6 and 13 years of age. The programme offers eight levels in which students explore their creativity, imagination and powers of abstract thinking. Currently, 3,500 students are enrolled in the program at 34 centres across the UAE.
Commenting on the challenge, Soundari Raj, Managing Director UCMAS UAE, said: “Children and teenagers today are far intelligent than ever before, and they need energetic activities to exercise their minds. The UCMAS programme fits the bill since it not just improves the speed of thinking, but successfully sharpens their concentration and observation skills. This year’s competition further cemented our belief that students now-a-days thrive on challenges and are willing to scale greater heights, provided they have a platform which they can use constructively”.