Mental Arithmetic Classes in Malaysia: Abacus or Maths Tuition for Your Child?

A mental arithmetic class in Malaysia teaches children aged about 4 to 12 to calculate on an abacus and then in their heads, usually in weekly group lessons at a centre. It builds speed with sums. It does not cover the rest of primary school maths, such as word problems, fractions or explaining an answer. If your child loses marks there, maths tuition or a live online class fits better.

What does a mental arithmetic class actually teach?

A mental arithmetic class teaches a child to add, subtract, multiply and divide with an abacus, and later to picture the beads and calculate without one. In Malaysia you will see it sold as abacus, sempoa or mental arithmetic, by chains such as UCMAS and CMA and by many independent centres.

Courses run in levels. A child starts with the physical abacus and moves bead by bead through addition and subtraction. Later the teacher reads numbers aloud and the child works from a mental picture of the frame. Each level ends with a grading test, and many centres also enter children for competitions.

A 7-year-old a few levels in hears "35 plus 48 minus 19" and says 64 within seconds, with no paper.

What the class does not try to teach is the reasoning side of school maths. A child can be quick with beads and still freeze on a Year 2 word problem about change from RM 10, because that task asks which operation to use, not how fast to do it.