DAMMAM — Nearly 35 young and talented students of different nationalities will be participating in the 21st International UC MAS (Universal Concept of Mental Arithmetic System) Abacus and mental Arithmetic Competition in Dubai on Nov. 11. The students, mainly from International Indian School Dammam and Jubail will be traveling to Dubai on Wednesday accompanied by Mrs. Samina Mazher and her team of dedicated course instructors. This is the 7th time that Samina,, program director of UCMAS in Jubail and Dammam, will be leading the students who will represent the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the competition. Year after year, the students of the Center have brought laurels for the Kingdom and won championship and other prizes in different categories. The Center organized a mock test on Friday in preparation to the finals in Dubai. All the 35 students selected for the competition expressed their excitement and determination to win the trophy for Saudi Arabia. The mock test of young and budding talent could easily give complexes to an ordinary grown up when he sees a 10 or 12 year old takes a long progression of numbers mixed with pluses, minuses, multiplication and division and produce the answer in a blink. There are various stages of the test but the most impressive is the verbal calculations where a student calculates in sync with the question. In written test it is a sight to see the movements of their hands, which moves on an imaginative abacus tool. It is like a conductor giving direction of musical note to his orchestra. "The students are well prepared to display their talent and brain power this year. They will be required to answer 200 questions in 8 minutes and the winners will be judged on the basis of the correct answers," said Samina, who is in charge of the center. "Our students are excited and confident. They have worked hard and passed through endless sessions. We will bring the laurel," said a confident Samina. The students are epitome of the dictum that human brain can compute faster than a computer or a calculator. The sample three pages question and answer sheet with assorted questions of addition, subtraction and multiplication are answered in less than eight minutes. UCMAS is a unique concept based on Chinese system of abacus for computation. "The whole idea is to train human mind to think logically and in symmetry," said Samina. She can well be called a pioneer in this unique science in Saudi Arabia. Its origin could be traced in Malaysia where it is headquartered. It has granted accreditation to institutes around the world and Jubail and Dammam institute is one among them.
