Winners in Mental Arithmetic announced

CHENNAI: Ideal Play Abacus India Private Limited (IPA) distributed prizes to the winners of the National Level Eighth Abacus & Mental Arithmetic Competition and Fourth National Level Speed Arithmetic Competition at a function held on Sunday at the Chennai Trade Centre.  IPA awards were presented by luminaries such E Ma Masanamuthu IPS, Chennai, in the presence of Pandiaraj, film director, M Rangarajan, general manager, IOB central office, Chennai, and Steven Tan, president, Play Abacus SDN BHD, Malaysia. The competition had students in the age group of seven to 12 years participating on three levels. Students of level one were asked to solve 75 problems in three minutes, those in level two had to complete 100 sums in three minutes and level three students did a clean 150 sums in five minutes.“The children are trained to do the calculations mentally. They become so skilled that some of them can solve 75 to 100 sums in three minutes flat,” claims director of Ideal Play Abacus India Pvt. Ltd Chitraa Ravindran. Speaking on the occasion Shaarada K Sriram, managing director of Ideal Play Abacus India Private Limited, said, “In this competition, the contestants were tested on concentration, confidence, intelligence, speed and accuracy. The objective of this competition is to give each child a chance to compete at a higher level and raise his or her standard of performance .”