Young UAE math geniuses compete in arithmetic competition

UAE Maths Genuis

Maths prodigies from ages 6 to 12 gathered from all over the UAE to compete in the 10th annual National Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Competition and the second National Listening Skill Competition.

Almost 1,800 schoolchildren gathered in Dubai yesterday to prove their arithmetic skills in both competitions hosted by the Universal Concept of Mental Arithmetic System (UCMAS) UAE. The fastest children in the UCMAS programme were able to mentally add 10 columns of 12 digit numbers within 30 seconds, an incredible feat well beyond the capacity of most people.

In order to qualify for the competition over 4,000 young children participated in a preliminary qualifying exam that required them to calculate up to 200 sums in eight minutes.

Soundari Raj, managing director, UCMAS UAE, said: “In our 10th year, we are delighted that we had our biggest ever annual competition today, with more than 1,700 students taking part. From small beginnings back in 2003, when we had just one UCMAS centre in Abu Dhabi with 250 students, we now have 7,000 math prodigies enrolled on our programme, with 27 centres across all seven emirates.

It has been a real honour to watch the programme grow and see so many children become passionate about numbers and arithmetic. With our system, many students find it easy to learn and succeed in maths even though they were apprehensive in the beginning. With the use of abacus, our participants are able to build their confidence and learn to see and work with numbers in a whole new way.”

A total of 1,782 young geniuses competed in the final championship yesterday to determine the national champions in their respective 28 categories. The winners were honoured during a ceremony after the competition. These national champions will now go on to represent the UAE in the World Championships in Malaysia later this year.