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Best fast mental math techniques


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I'm asking this on behalf of my dh.  He's a 4th year med student and has decided that he needs to learn how to be much quicker about mental math before he starts residency next year, specifically addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  Do you guys know any particularly successful techniques that will help him do math faster in his head?  Even better if there is an app or online game that helps practice the method.

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I am attempting to start Anzan (mental Soroban or Abacus) method with my child for faster mental math. There is another thread for this here:

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/493238-anyone-taught-their-kids-anzan-mental-sorobanabacus-math-and-vedic-math/

I believe that it is a great method for grown ups too and I plan to learn it along with my child. This method is very successful with a lot of scientific papers talking about it if you google it. Also check out youtube for videos of soroban math. There are a few apps for it too ...

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Just curious, why does he think he needs to be faster at mental math for residency? I’m a pediatrician and we probably do more math than most (all those gm/kg doses) and I’m pretty slow with mental math. I never had anyone care if we used a calculator (available on most phones and all hospital computers). As you get more used to doses you kind of memorize the most common. I can tell you the dose of Amoxicillin for any weight of kid in about 2 seconds. :) We’d get all the surgeons who would consult on a patient of ours and always comment that they needed the pediatricians to follow the patient too to “check my mathâ€. 

 

I think it’s great if he wants to self-educate but not sure it’s really all that necessary from my experience. 

 

The thing that has helped me the most is working through Singapore with my kids. Maybe have him do some teaching. :) Kill two birds with one stone. 

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Just curious, why does he think he needs to be faster at mental math for residency? I’m a pediatrician and we probably do more math than most (all those gm/kg doses) and I’m pretty slow with mental math. I never had anyone care if we used a calculator (available on most phones and all hospital computers). As you get more used to doses you kind of memorize the most common. I can tell you the dose of Amoxicillin for any weight of kid in about 2 seconds. :) We’d get all the surgeons who would consult on a patient of ours and always comment that they needed the pediatricians to follow the patient too to “check my mathâ€. 

 

I think it’s great if he wants to self-educate but not sure it’s really all that necessary from my experience. 

 

The thing that has helped me the most is working through Singapore with my kids. Maybe have him do some teaching. :) Kill two birds with one stone. 

 

He's going into IM and wants to be able to do a lot of the computations in his head as much as possible.  He recently worked with a doctor who was able to do that and found it very impressive and helpful.  I don't think it is a massive priority, but he does have an easy schedule for the next few months and the time to devote to it.  He did spend a few hours playing around with some of those abacus apps mentioned in the other thread linked to and really enjoyed it.  We'll see how far he takes it, though. :)

 

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