Kerala boys shine at SIP National Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Competition 2013

Kerala boys outsmarted all the state in the just concluded 10th SIP SIP National Abacus and Mental Arithmetic Competition held at HICC on Saturday. In this largest gathering of the students 3100 students from across India competed in 16 categories.

Kerala boys excelled. 7 out of 19 National Champions are from the Kerala, followed by Maharashtra with four Champions and Karnataka with two Champions. Tamil Nadu got one Championship.

The results were announced late in the night on Saturday. These winner get the eligibility to participate in International Competition.

Unfortunately this time, Hyderabad could not manage to get even a single Championship. Andhra Pradesh track record has been good so far.

Among children across the India, this is the most awaited competition. The competition saw record number of 3100 students from 20 different states despite of the disturbances and not very favorable atmosphere
prevailed in the state of Andhra Pradesh due to the division of the state informed Dinesh Victor, Managing Director.

Hyderabad hosted the event for the fourth time, which is a record.

Even the Chief Guest C.V. Anand, Commissioner of Police who graced as the Chief Guest said it was great honour to be host to such a gathering.

The event also witnessed many first timers participating in the National Competition.

When talked to the participants from far off places like Amritsar Gurphet Singh, Hargurpreet Singh, Amardeep Singh said they enjoyed participating in the competition. Seeing so many people under one roof participating in the same competition was little scary they observed.

Their Coach and Escort, Gurdeep Kaur who is an Area Head of Amritsar City said, boys are beating calculators and computers in mental arithmetic’s. They are super fast. She trains about 450 students in Amritsar.
Speaking about Hyderabad she said, it is a fantastic city, neat and clean city.

Aardra Presanth and V.K. Nandam from Kerala both who participated in 2nd Level of the competition said though it was first time for them to participated in Nationals, they enjoyed doing it as the ambiance of the place made a lot of difference.

Surpirya from Vijayawada who participated in Level 2 of the competition said she likes Mathematics. And Brain Gym Exercise that she does before such competitions relieves her stress.

Anish Shah of Pune said he was not scared of so many students taking part in the competition at one go. Though the time is 5 minutes which is very short, he was confident as he had participated in similar competition
in Pune. It is a great occasion for young students like us to get exposure like this so that we are well prepared for our future. This experience is great, he said and added that the Airport of the Hyderabad is too good.

Mahesh N Sahu from Karnataka is veteran in these kinds of competitions as he had attempted five times earlier. He was quite familiar with the format of the competition. Mental Arithmetic’s is good. I enjoy doing arithmetical calculations using only the human brain, with no help from calculators, computers, or pen and paper. People use mental calculation when computing tools are not available. Most of the time when i accompany our parents to the super market, i do the calculations of the total bill of the grocer much faster than the sales man prepares the bill Mahesh Sahu said.

Some people develop a fear of mathematics because they believe things about math that aren’t necessary true.But, it bothers many. I’m not quite sure if there is an exact term for a “math phobia” but the fear of numbers is known as arithmophobia. I have learnt Abacus and Brain Gym to teach my daughter said Supriya, a parent from Bangalore. I keep hearing often Maths trouble girls more. I am not sure about it. My daughter Shweta is weak in Maths. I focus on her from the beginning.

Who is good in Maths, boys or girls. It is not a gender specific problem. Some believe that men are inherently better in Mathmatics than women. While there have historically been more male mathematicians than female
mathematicians, no evidence exists to show that men are innately better at math than women. Historically, men have had better educational opportunities than women, but this is changing, said Supriya.



The best way to crack fear of Mathematics is to face. That is what i teach my son. So i put him in Abacus with SIP as well as many other organisations including one in Vedic Maths, said Thiagarana, a parent who has come from Chennai. Practice makes perfect in Mathematics, like the Chief Guest CV Anand said quoting from a book “Outliers” written by Malcolm Gladwell, the key to success in any field is, to a large extent, a matter of practicing a specific task for a total of around 10,000 hours. He is right. I was afraid of Organic Chemistry. I suffered about it for very long time. Once i decided to see its end. That’s all. I used to read it very often. I got almost cent per cent of marks. So practice is more important, said Thiagarajan.

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