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You may not like math, but you will undoubtedly use it in your day-to-day life. As such, it is important to have a degree of mental arithmetic skills. In fact, having these skills will make you feel more confident and empowered, and, in the long run, you may end up moving up the career ladder as a result.
Having mental arithmetic skills is therefore a vital life skill. But don’t panic if you find yourself worrying about your own ability, as there are simple ways to help you improve this. You just have to commit to working on it over time. It’s a cliché, but practice really does make perfect.
How to improve your mental arithmetic?
Make use of technology
From apps through to YouTubes and even TikToks, there’s plenty of content out there to help you improve your mental math. Some even use games in order to help you learn whilst having fun. From Star Dash Studios and King of Maths through to SumQuest, mental math has been gamified by many, helping you to learn in a way that doesn’t feel too much like returning to school.
There are also plenty of content creators on YouTube and TikTok whose entire channels are dedicated to helping you improve your mental arithmetic. Have a search and find an individual or channel that you feel best works for you. And dedicate yourself to working on the problems and challenges that they publish.
Mnemonic tips and other tricks
Thankfully, there are plenty of tips, tricks, and techniques that you can use to help your mental math. In fact, there are so many that it would be impossible to list them all here. But the most popular include tricks such as multiplying in parts and using the ‘9 trick’ technique.
If you’ve never heard of these before, it’s time to get searching online, and start to integrate these tricks into your daily practice of mental arithmetic.
Gamble
If you’re a world-renowned gambler, you’ll have serious mental arithmetic skills. Sure, you’ll also be adept at reading the body language of opponents and picking up on subtle shifts in emotions, but having the ability to swiftly perform mental math is a huge plus.
As such, if you’re looking to improve your mental arithmetic, gambling could help. Some of the biggest casino games like Blackjack and Baccarat require players to understand basic mathematical principles, and being fluent in shooting dice rules could consequently help you up your game – both mathematically and literally.
Online courses
If the gamification of mental math isn’t for you, and you’d prefer to learn in a more traditional way, then you’re probably an ideal candidate for an online course. These will be more structured than apps and other learning techniques, and they’ll help you to stay on track with regular practice and skill development.
Plenty of world-leading universities offer online math courses, and Khan Academy are a non-profit that provide world-class education for everyone, with personalized content. They’ve even partnered with institutions like NASA in creating their content!