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SCHOOLGIRL maths genius Sai Rama Balakrishnan celebrated her 10th birthday with a prize performance at an international competition in Malaysia.
Proving that brains really do run in the family her eight-year-old brother Sai Raghav also competed in the challenge.
Sai Rama took home the third place trophy in the advanced level, which was the fifth prize overall, at the international mental mathematics tournament organised by the Universal Concept of Mental Arithmetic System (UCMAS).
She is treating her trophy as a ‘birthday present’ especially considering she has just started the last level of the UCMAS programme.
“The best thing about mental maths is it works the right side of the brain,” explained Sai Rama. “We use the left for most things and it’s usually only artists and creative people who tend to use the right side. But we started working it at a young age so our brains are used to it now and whenever I hear numbers, my mind works like an abacus … we move the beads in our head.
“I was shocked when I was one of the champions in Bahrain, but when I got the third place in my level and fifth overall in Malaysia I was so excited … words can’t even describe the feeling, it was definitely the best birthday present I could have asked for.”
Sai Raghav received a medal for his participation and was one of the 17 pupils picked to represent the country at the tournament.
The St Christopher’s School students were joined by 2,500 other participants from more than 37 countries where they were divided into 10 levels based on their ability. To qualify for the international tournament, all the students involved had to be winners in their respective countries and had to be a practicing and registered UCMAS student.
They were given a sheet in the test, which they had to answer as many of the 200 maths challenges as possible in eight minutes.
Sai Rama finished an astonishing 73 in that time and correctly answered 65 of them. She said: “I’ve always been interested in maths and although I struggled at first I’m not a quitter. Once I start something, I always finish it … and I’m extremely happy with what I have achieved so far.
“I just started level 10, so in a couple of months I will be done. I can still do open level competitions but I won’t be part of UCMAS anymore. I don’t know what I’m going to do then!”
UCMAS is a child development programme based on mental maths aimed at boosting brainpower in children aged between four and 13. Along with strengthening maths skills, the approach promotes whole brain development and establishes foundational building blocks like memory, concentration, creativity and problem solving as well as core skills that inspire greater confidence and success in all subject areas and in life.
Mum Kamala, and IT manager dad, Nagarajan, say they are extremely proud of their whizz-kids’ achievements.
The little geniuses asked if they could put GulfWeekly readers to the test. Sai Rama wants to know if you can beat her time of 32 seconds and work out this Level 9 sum:
62.19 + 37.53 + 81.6 + 75.24 + 28.91 + 30.47 + 91.58 + 64.23 + 59.06 + 87.48 =
And speedy Sai Raghav doubts anyone can beat his astonishing six seconds with a Level 6 sum:
96 + 82 – 52 + 77 – 18 + 80 =
Answers on Page 18
