Eight-year-old Ananya Desale from Mumbai’s Holy Cross Convent School bagged the ‘Champion’ trophy along with a cash prize of Rs. 5,000 at the 17th National UCMAS Abacus & Mental Arithmetic Competition 2018 held recently at Ahmedabad, Gujarat. The competition was hosted by Universal Concept Mental Arithmetic System (UCMAS) India.

10 year old Aarush Gupta, Pet Oxford, Ulhasnagar clinched the Group Champion award while 7 year old Mhd. Farhan Ansari from St Teresa High School, Bandra emerged as the second runner-up in C category.

The event witnessed around 6000 students from across India between the age group of 4-14 years. More than 315 students from Mumbai participated in the competition out of which 42 students won the competition.

The competition was held in two parts – in the first part, students had to solve 200 mathematics questions in eight minutes depending on the students’ level using only an Abacus or mental arithmetic and in the second part, students had to solve the sums flashing on the screen within seconds.

Ananya Desale secured the highest marks in both the parts of the competition to emerge as the champion. A Class 4 student of Holy Cross School, Kalyan, Ananya is originally from an inconspicuous hamlet from Shahapur Taluka. Both her parents are teachers and she has been inspired by them.

Chandrakant Mishra and Mira Mishra, directors of CBS Education Pvt. Ltd and her teacher Varsha Chavan had guided her during her preparation.

Speaking about the competition, Chandrakant Mishra said, “It is a very proud moment for us, our main objective behind organising this competition is to find an Abacus genius and to develop a healthy competitive spirit among the children while giving them an opportunity and platform to showcase their talent.”

Universal Concept Mental Arithmetic System (UCMAS) is an international educational organisation globally recognised as a leader in whole brain development and mental arithmetic training. It trains children of 4-14 years in arithmetic and enhances concentration, creative and listening skills and photographic memory.

Promoted in 2010, CBS Education Pvt. Ltd, Master Franchisee of UCMAS for State of Maharashtra (Mumbai Region) is a unique concept based on Chinese system of Abacus for computation.