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March 3, 2022
International Grading Exams
A non-competitive grading exams conducted by UCMAS International... Read More

March 3, 2022
UCMAS Abacus & Mental Math National Competition
Grand National Event Organized Annually... Read More

March 3, 2022
UCMAS Spring Workshop 2022
Fun-based Learning for Your Child during Spring Break... Read More

Stories

• Richmond students excel in international math contest

  
  Richmond children have proven their excellence in math on an international stage. Six students at UCMAS Richmond, a math program focusing on developing children’s brains, returned with trophies from the 22nd UCMAS Abacus & Mental Arithmetic International Competition in Malaysia.

  Students competed with more than 2,200 participants from 40 counties by answering math questions in different categories. For example, in one contest, students answered 200 math problems in eight minutes. Nine-year-old Petra Dmitrovic won second place in the world in the “listening competition,” in which he had to calculate up to 35 rows of three-digit numbers.

  “This is indeed a proud moment for the Richmond community…and once again demonstrated the skills and talents of the students of Richmond,” said centre director Binu Kumar. The children are among more than 200 students at UCMAS Richmond, who attend the class once a week and practice math for 20 to 30 minutes every day, according to Krishna Kumar, founder of the centre.

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• Who needs a calculator? Calculators can't keep up with this math whiz

  
  Akash Sasitharan speaks four languages, maintains a 93-per-cent average in the International Baccalaureate program at St. Thomas High School in Pointe-Claire and can calculate math equations faster than a calculator. The 15-year-old was crowned champion in the most senior category of the Quebec Regional UCMAS Mental Math Competition in Pointe-Claire on May 8.

  The Universal Concept of Mental Arithmetic Systems (UCMAS) Mental Math Program was established in Malaysia in 1993. It came to Canada in 2004. About 100 of the 400 competitors at the fourth edition of the Quebec regionals were from the West Island.

  Sasitharan triumphed in what is called the “I Category” — the highest level of calculating prowess in the UCMAS program. There are 10 levels to complete in the rapid-calculation program. Initially, students use an abacus — an ancient calculating tool made up of rows of beads

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• Richmond Students bring home international math championship

  
  Some Richmond children have proved their excellence in mathematics on the international stage. Six students at UCMAS Richmond, a math program focusing on developing children’s brains, brought home trophies from the 23rd UCMAS International Competition in Malaysia on Dec 9.

  Beatrice Antoni-Ching, a student of St Paul’s School, won the top honour at the competition – a Champion trophy.

  Anna Lee and Ethan Lam from Jessie Wowk elementary, Carson Lam from Tomekichi Homma elementary and Caiden Yap from Richmond Christian elementary brought home the first Runner Up trophies. In addition, Annie Lu from Queensborough Middle School received the second Runner Up trophy.

  The students competed with more than 3,000 students from over 50 countries in the contest, which tested speed and accuracy in arithmetic, with contestants having only eight minutes to solve as many as 200 math questions in their respective competition categories.

  UCMAS, the Abacus Mental Math Program, is a global afterschool program with a branch in Richmond, which trains children from four to 13 to perform mental calculations quickly and accurately.

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• Help youngsters ‘see’ their future successes in school and beyond

  
  The ancient abacus is helping young students “see” their way clear to a new way of learning, designed to bring them more than just academic success.

  That’s because the program at UCMAS (Universal Concept Mental Arithmetic System) in Richmond seeks to develop a child’s learning ability in a holistic fashion, using visualization methods that begin by using an abacus to solve math problems.

  It’s an approach that attracted the interest of Krishna Kumar, director of UCMAS in Richmond, six years ago. “I’d always been passionate about education and wanted to do something in the community,” he says. “And when I found UCMAS I realized this was a program that was not just teaching for a grade.”

  “This program focuses on developing a child’s visualization capabilities that are controlled by the creative side of our brains.” The use of an abacus triggers that visual form of learning and makes it a powerful tool. “A child will ultimately be able to visualize numbers to do the math, meaning they can do complex math mentally without the need of the calculator,” Kumar says.

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• Hundreds of students heading to Richmond for huge mental math competition

  
  While most may rely on their cellphone’s calculator to solve simple math problems, hundreds of students will descend on Richmond this weekend to showcase their prowess in a fading art: mental math.

  On May 25, the sixth B.C. provincial Universal Concept Mental Arithmetic System (UCMAS) Abacus and Mental Math Competition is scheduled to take place at Westwind elementary in Richmond.

  Throughout the day, 350 Lower Mainland students will participate in a variety of competitions, solving complex math problems without the help of any tools like a calculator or scrap paper. The event brings together participants aged four to 13 who take part in an eight-minute challenge where they’re required to solve 150 to 200 math questions. In other challenges, participants are allowed to use an abacus.

  The competitions are part of UCMAS’ 10-level program and this year, 14 students are graduating from the program in Richmond.

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• Grade 6 math whiz aces the abacus for speedy mental calculations

  
  In 23 seconds, Megha Jani rattles off 10 three-digit numbers for her son to add and subtract: ” 849 minus 437 plus 172 …”

  Param Vyas, her 11-year-old, watches her intently before answering, without hesitation, “3,273.” He’s right, of course.

  After more than three years of ritual practice, the sixth-grade mental math maven was provincial and national champion in his class last year, and came third in a December international competition. At those contests, thousands of children age four to 13 line up in a gym full of tables. A person with a timer stands at the front of the room while the kids are challenged to rapidly crank out computations.

  They do the number crunching with the aid of an ancient tool: the abacus. The lattice of beads on rods dates back to pre-Christ Greece and served as a way for people to keep track of numbers as they did calculations in their heads. 

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• 2nd grade Windsor student places fourth in national mental math contest

  
  The City of Windsor may have a mathematics whiz in its midst and mental math is his game. 

  Shivam Patel, 8, recently finished as the third runner up in his age category in a national mental math contest.

  The Universal Concept of Mental Arithmetic System (UCMAS) is an international program which helps young students develop mathematic skills through the use of an abacus. Children are trained in rapid math calculation and are taught strategies to enhance their cognitive skills in order to complete complex mathematics in their head. 

  "I'm glad to win the national competition and make my country, Canada, proud," Shivam said. 

  Shivam, a grade two student at St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual Elementary School, has been a student of UCMAS for the last three years. He has participated in the national contest once before, but this was his first year achieving a high award. 

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