Improve your Mental Maths

Maths is an alien term for many of us and we commonly relate it to intelligence. Although intelligence is a good quality to have when approaching maths, a bit of practice and a few good techniques is all you need to have a basic understanding of the subject. 

The amount of people who need calculators for basic mathematics is quite surprising, however, the last time the majority of people studied maths was probably in school. 

Mental maths is a useful tool to have and can help in many different scenarios. One of these could be adding up the price of the shopping. Not only can it be useful, but it helps keep your brain active and helps with helps with problem solving; mental capacity and concentration.

Mental maths isn't something you can instantly do brilliantly, unfortunately it does need practice, but you can improve the rate in which you understand with these and many other tips. 

1. Addition 

When adding any single digit numbers up, try to group numbers together that make 10. This makes it a lot easier when doing it mentally and it enhances the time in which you can do it. 

For example: 4+3+8+9+1+6+7. Group together numbers that add up to 10 first. (4+6), (3+7), (9+1). You have three lots of these groups of 10, meaning you have 30. Then you just add on the left over 8 to make a grand total of 38!

I've just shown you how to add single digit numbers, but what about two digit numbers? The concept is really just the same only fractionally harder.

If you have the sum of 10+97+45+12+50+35, you would first start with the numbers in the 10's column, grouping them together into groups of 100. 

For example: (10+90), (40+10+50). This would tell you that you have 200, adding up the left over 30 to make a total of 230. Now add up the units, grouping them into lot's of 10: (5+5). The remaining numbers that don't go into a group of ten, just add them on extra making the total of these 9. Now add 10 and 9 and 230 together. This will give you 249.

This is the same concept for three digit numbers and so on. This does take practice to be able to use it smoothly and I would advise starting with the units. Once you've got those down, move onto the two digit sums. Once you've got those down, move onto the three digits etc...

If you ever have a sum where no numbers can be grouped together, then just split the sum up and add it step-by-step. 

For example: 2567+3418. (2000+3000=5000), (500=400=900), (5000+900=5900), (60+10=70), (5900+70=5970), (7+8=15), (5970+15=5985). Final answer=5985. 

2. Subtraction 

Subtracting is a little bit harder than addition, but isn't too bad. This is where addition plays an important role (strange - addition needed for subtraction). 

When subtracting, start with the smaller number and just count the difference in between, but adding them into units; ten's; hundred's etc.

For example: 924-345. So you would do: (345+5= 350), (350+50=400), (400+500=900), (900+24=924). So you've done: 5+50+500+24= 579. This number you have ended up with, is what you get when you subtract 345 from 924. 

3. Multiplication 

A very simple way to multiply is to split the number up. For example 24x34.(20x30=600), (4x30=120), (20x4=80), (4x4=16), 600+120+80+16=816. 

I find it easier to add them as I go instead of at the end. So I would do this: 24x34. (20x30=600), (4x30=120), (600+120=720), (20x4=80), (720+80=800), (4x4=16), (800+16=816). 

4. Adding and subtracting money 

This is just as straight forward as the other tips. The great thing about adding and subtracting money is that you can it goes into 10's and 100's, making it easier than adding or subtracting time. Whenever you add or subtract money, just ignore the decimal point and use the first two tips to help you come to an answer.

For example: £1.67+£23.89. Firstly ignore the decimal points as I said before, this will make the sum simpler to do mentally. - 167+2389. Then just use tip 1: (2000+0=2000), (100+300=400), (60+80=140), (7+9=16), (2000+400+140+16=2556). Now put the decimal point back in to get a final answer of £25.56.

When you subtract, use the 2nd tip. Make sure to take the decimal points away, adding them back in the end result.