Every year, there are opportunities to compete at mental maths. Even the international events are accessible to people of all ages, if you have a good foundation and prepare well!
So far for this year, there are expected to be 2–3 events. It is still too early to announce anything yet, shh! But details will be shared on this site by email and on the Facebook page, and of course directly by the organizers of each event.
So if you’re thinking about competing in a mental maths competition, how should you prepare?
1: Foundation of Number Facts
It sounds basic, but it’s essential to know the times tables from 2×2 to 9×9. Not only this, but you should need practically zero thinking time when recalling them: when you think 7×6, the “42” answer should appear immediately. This is essential so that when you solve 46×7, or 123 + 7×6, you don’t lose any time solving the individual multiplications. Many adults I work with “know” the times tables, but still need some training to attain this level of familiarity!
The same is true for single-digit additions (and subtractions) and some specialist number facts.
2: Practise Blind Arithmetic
During complicated calculations, you will have to do arithmetic with numbers that are stored in your mind, rather than on the page. For this reason, I recommend prioritizing arithmetic questions that require this skill. One example that is directly relevant to competitions is cross-multiplication, although I use other, more specialist drills for this type of training.
Some children, especially in Asian countries, learn to use the soroban (special abacus) for blind arithmetic. For example, most (all?) of the finallists in the 2021 Mind Sports Olympiad Championship used the soroban, as well as some medal winners in other international-level competitions, such as Priyanshi Somani and Mohammed El-Mir. Jeonghee Lee has world records for addition and division, and has decades of experience with the soroban.
However, many calculators use standard number imagery, and not the soroban. This includes most winners and record-holders of the past years, such as Wenzel Grüß, Marc Jornet Sanz and Freddis Reyes. Soroban is notoriously difficult for adult learners, so I would only recommend it as an option to younger children training in specific events.
3: Choose Your First Competition
Different mental maths competitions contain different events, and are in different geographical locations. Memoriad and the Mental Calculation World Cup have individual events, for example in addition, square roots, and calendar dates. You could choose to focus on 2–3 mental math events only. On the other hand, The Mind Sports Olympiad, and the Junior Mental Calculation World Championship (JMCWC) are long papers that test a wide range of mental math skills, including fractions, cube roots and approximations. The World Cup also has some surprise categories that are not revealed until 10 minutes before!
Some competitions (not mentioned) involve a large amount of very simple sums, and are therefore mostly a test of writing speed rather than calculation ability.
Traditionally, all events took place at a physical location, such as Germany or Las Vegas. These days, there are also events online. Your ability and interest in travelling will obviously determine the events that you consider.
Finally, all competitions are available to competitors of all ages, except for the JMCWC, which is limited to under-20s.
4: Learn Mental Math Methods
Now that you know which competition you are training for, you should find out what individual mental math skills you need. For example, you might need to learn how to calculate the day of the week for any date, or to divide by big numbers in your head.
Make sure you learn suitable methods for each of these, otherwise you will be at a big disadvantage against competitors who prepared well!
5: Practise the Methods
Practise each of these methods—perhaps using one of the training resources available here—until it feels natural. You don’t need to be fast, but you need to have understood the method, and you need to be getting the correct answers.
For some methods, you’ll need to memorize a bunch of number facts. For example, most competitors in square roots will know the square numbers from 31² = 961 to 99² = 9801. There is other data you need for speed in calendar dates. At the start, it is okay to have these printed out to “cheat” as you perform the method and ensure you understand it. This allows you to test the method before spending time memorizing too much.
Of course, soon enough, you will need to memorize this data so that it is possible to perform in the competition!
6: Find Out the Typical Competition Scores
Look up the equivalent scores for previous competitions, so that you know what scores to aim for. If you can solve a question in 60 seconds, but most competitors can solve it in 20 seconds, then you know that you have a lot of potential to improve! This also gives you context for whether you will be a stronger or weaker contestant if you would compete.
This is easy to do for events like the World Cup, which publishes full results per category on their website. It is harder to do for events with a mixed paper. However, you can compare your scores—perhaps on George Lane’s Pegasus spreadsheet—with other people that you know doing mental calculation.
7: Track Your Progress
Once you are able to do the method properly (including any memorization), you should start to track your progress. This way, you can see whether you are improving! When you don’t improve for a while, it means you need to change strategy…
8: Identify and Overcome Plateaus
A plateau is when your training scores become flat—i.e., they stop improving. When this happens, it’s a signal that you should work on optimizing something new. For example, you might need to practise a small component of a method, revisit your memorization, or change some detail of the method. it can take some experience to identify and remedy your weak spot in each plateau.
When I reached a plateau in calendar dates at 24 dates/minute, I decided to update my method, and reached a new plateau of 45 dates. At later stages, I changed other aspects to reach a new plateau of 60 dates/minute before I took a break from training.
If you completely change your method, as I did, I recommend to start your training statistics afresh, otherwise it will be demotivating to compare your (low) scores with a new method with your (higher) scores from the old method! Eventually, of course, the new method will give you higher scores.
9: Register for the Competition
Find out from the organizer how you can register to compete. Some events are open to all, while others have a selection process, and you need to apply.
Prepare your travel (flights, accommodation, visa letters, etc.), and read these tips about the actual competition event day.
Once you get to the event, the difficult, competitive work is over, and you should enjoy the event and connect with the other people around the world who have also been exploring advanced mental calculation. Maybe I’ll see you there!
Note about World Mental Calculation
This website has information about mental calculation competitions, mental math training and interviews, and it’s run by me—Daniel Timms—a human calculator and education specialist.
Sometimes, I get emails to me asking about participating in the “World Mental Calculation event”. This event does not exist! Although I do help with some events—such as giving training workshops at the JMCWC, writing papers, or providing tech solutions—all these competitions are run by other organizations. Therefore, for any queries regarding participation, please contact the relevant organizers, not me! 🙏
Please do contact me for queries about mental calculation, assistance with organizing events, speaking and workshops, etc. and I’ll be pleased to discuss. 😊