Emirati students bring glory to the country at International Math contest

2 Deaf students from UAE achieve 1^st and 2^nd runner up positions in the Visual Arithmetic Category

Solving 200 Math questions in just 8 minutes, the youngsters proved their agility of mind at the 24TH UCMAS Abacus and Mental Arithmetic International Competition 2019

Dubai, UAE: Emirati students made UAE proud by winning prizes at the international math contest held in Cambodia this week, competing against 4000 students from 40 countries. The winners had participated in the 24TH UCMAS Abacus and Mental Arithmetic International Competition 2019, where they were given the overwhelming task of answering 200 Math questions in a span of mere 8 minutes with the help of just visuals– with questions going up to as high as 50 digit numbers and decimals at higher levels.

In all 41 students won awards in different categories. Besides Emiratis, others winners comprised 17 Indians, 4 Jordanians, 4 Sri Lankans, 2 Iraqis and 1 Omani, Lebanese, Filipino and Bangladeshi. Out of the winners, 10 students were awarded the Champions’ trophies, while two hearing impaired children also achieved honors at the competition by securing the 1^st and 2^nd runner up positions at the visual arithmetic contest.

Commenting on the milestone, Mrs. V.G. Soundari Raj, Managing Director, UCMAS UAE, said: “Achieving such a glorious win for the UAE just days after we celebrate the 48^thNational Day reflects the true spirit of our Rulers’ vision to promote education and learning. It was great to see participation of such a diverse group of students belonging to different nationalities, which simply underlines how well every community in the UAE is doing in terms of education. 

The crucial concept of Visual Arithmetic, i.e., thinking in pictures and using the right brain leads to clearer thinking, improved memory, faster calculation speed and greater efficiency and accuracy. The concept is an essential building block that replaces the physical Abacus (a calculating tool) in the child’s mind and by using snapshots of a virtual Abacus enables students to solve questions much faster than they could before.

Students in the Basic and Elementary levels were permitted to use the Abacus to do their addition or subtraction. However, as the levels progressed to Intermediate, students could only use mental method to do the addition, subtraction, multiplications and division questions. For each level, a Grand Champion, Champion, 1st Runner Up, 2nd Runner Up, 3rd Runner Up and Merit prizes were awarded.

In all 52 students from the UAE participated in the contest belonging to the UAE, Indian, Jordan, Iraq, Sri Lankan, Oman, Syrian, Canada, Philippines, Bangladesh and Lebanon.

“The children and the youth of today are smarter, more intelligent, more willing to push the envelope. In this regard, the UCMAS programme fits in well with its constructive and productive approach, channelizing young minds to think critically and become more agile. We are very proud of the young blood in the UAE, which has converged here from across the globe to build the future of the country,” added Mrs Soundari Raj.

UCMAS is one of the leading, internationally acclaimed skill and mental development programme promoting the Universal Concept of Mental Arithmetic System designed for children between 6 and 13 years of age. Operational in over 83 countries, UCMAS has trained more than a million students worldwide and about 25000 students across 36 centers in the United Arab Emirates since its inception in 2003.The programme offers eight levels in which students explore their creativity, imagination and powers of abstract thinking.

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© Press Release 2019