The Kingdom will be sending 32 students to Malaysia for the 15th Universal Concept Mental Arithmetic System's (UCMAS) abacas and Mental arithmetic competition on Nov. 23. The 32 participants from the Kingdom will be competing in Cyberjia, Malaysia with 5,000 students from 42 countries including America, China, Canada, United Kingdom, India and Egypt. Ten out of the 32 competitors are from Jeddah while 10 are from Riyadh and 12 from the Eastern Province (Dammam and Jubail). Future Experts Center (FEC) announced the names of participants from Jeddah on Tuesday night at a press conference. Under the USMAS training program, the FCE has trained over 1,000 children in less than two years. The competition will have 10 categories starting from beginners to advance stage. Jeddah will participate in elementary category while the Eastern Province will participate in intermediate and Riyadh in advance categories, said Ahmad Maher Toukan, Supervisor General of the UCMAS. The participants are aged between four to 14. Toukan also said last year three Indian participants from Jubail won the award in the annual competition. “This year we have better chances to win as last year we had only 10 participants,” added Toukan. The competitors are not just Saudi but non-Saudis as well. participants will be asked to solve 150 arithmetic questions in just eight minutes using abacus or mental arithmetic in the elementary level while 200 arithmetical questions have to be solved in eight minutes without using arithmetic for higher level. The excitement among the participants is palpable. “I am happy that I am representing my FEC and my country. It feels great to be part of such a big event,” said Karim Jalal Atassi, 8, a Saudi participant.
