How is your mental arithmetic?

RomanNose

RomanNose

RomanNose

Soldato
Joined
20 Aug 2010
Posts
8,201
My mental arithmetic has got much worse after all my exams started allowing calculators, it seems that it's a declining skill and I have even notice some teachers are just as bad. Does anyone here try and maintain this skill and how do you do it?
 
If I do it without thinking about it then it's great, The minute I question myself I **** myself up.
 
Everyone says you need mental arithmetic but we are an evolving civilization, it is slowly becoming unnecessary. It is the same thing as not learning how to go out and hunt your own food and survive in the wild etc. It just isn't really needed anymore. Well it certainly won't be in the future.
 
demotivational-posters-th-grade.jpg
 
Without sounding too big headed, I'd say mine's pretty good.

People say it's not a useful thing to have, but the amount of time that can be saved surprises a lot of people.
 
Mine is good, but I tell anyone I tutor not to worry about it if they are bad. Like it or not passing exams is far more important than real world ability.
 
nikeair94 said:
Everyone says you need mental arithmetic but we are an evolving civilization, it is slowly becoming unnecessary. It is the same thing as not learning how to go out and hunt your own food and survive in the wild etc. It just isn't really needed anymore. Well it certainly won't be in the future.
Click to expand...

I don't know if I'd go that far, I can understand the argument that certain skills will fall into a level of disuse but I still use mental arithmetic fairly regularly and I've got to admit a bit of disappointment when people immediately clutch their calculators to work out 1/6 of 1000 or similar. Mental arithmetic maybe isn't as important as it once was but it's still a rather useful skill even if you're just using it to get to a ballpark sort of figure before calculating it properly - a loose form of sense check if you will, it's perfectly possible to get a silly answer from the calculator if you don't have a vague idea of what you're looking for.
 
Mine's pretty good - I've always had an affinity with numbers and things like that.
Something like the example posted earlier is about as fast as just reading the text.

I definitely think it's still a useful skill to have, even in the modern age.
In an average day I still use mental arithmetic many times even though I have a calculator on my phone with me wherever I go.

I'm sure everyone else does as well, even if it's just things that you might take for granted, like looking at a clock, seeing the time is 11:40 and knowing it's 20 minutes until lunch or whatever.
 
I can usually do it within a few seconds. I can't do by rote, and I actually have work it out in my head but using shortcuts takes 1 - 3 seconds.

7 * 8, would for me be

7 * 10 = 70
7 * 2 = 14

70 - 14 = 56
 
Last edited:
UK-AL05 said:
I can usually do it within a few seconds. I can't do by rote, and I actually have work it out in my head but using shortcuts takes 1 - 3 seconds.

7 * 8, would for me be

7 * 10 = 70
7 * 2 = 14

70 - 14 = 52
Click to expand...

except it's 56 ;) worked out in my head.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom