Monday, March 02, 2009

Otak Berkarat

Haziq was selected to represent his school for Grade 6 in the Mental Maths Challenge. I went to see the quiz. There were from grade 5 up to grade 11. In his grade alone, there were 20 students from the numerous international school in Doha. I stayed from the qualifying round till the final.

From the 20 students in the grade 6, they narrowed down to three. And I listened to the rounds of questions and made mental calculation myself. The children need to answer mentally within 10 seconds.

Haziq managed to be among the three.

haziqFor the finals, they now had to go the hall and stand on stage answering in front of everyone. What is worse, I think, was there was no podium. I hate it when I had to stand bare on stage without a podium for me to hide behind (I am short. The podium can cover nearly the whole of me). It is nerve wrecking. Let alone you have to be quick answering the questions.

For the finals, everyone get to watch from the grade 5 up to 11. I suppose everyone would also be calculating all the questions in their head. The question ranges from
what is 23 add 39? to 0.68+3/5 (give answer in decimal). There were also questions on percentages like decrease 60% out of 50. An easier one like 62 take away 28. Multiplication like 12x12 or try answering 33x52 in ten seconds. And many more I can't remember what.

I did the calculation in my head, sometimes uttering the answer slightly loud under the breath and the person next to me said, yeah I got that one too. By the end of one hour concentrating and doing hard calculation, I got a headache. To be under the pressure of 10 seconds made it even worse.

There was this guy (really cute. Year 11), probably under the pressure of the stage fright and 10 seconds to answer and all that, or perhaps the presence of some eager cute girls at the side of the hall, he could not even answer what is 1000 divide by 50.

Seriously makcik pening kepala dah balik tu. Dah berkarat dah otak ni dik non oiii.

Haziq didn't win. He got second place.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh kacang je! pakai la phone calculator.

hahaha adeh. I count on firhad to calculate the price of sabun daia after 15% discount. Hopeless.

but hey hey... haziq did extremely well! Give him 2 thumbs up and gosok2 kepala dia on my behalf eh.

butterflutter said...

Tumpang bangga anak kawan kita naik pentas kat Doha sana. Boleh jadi role model for Afiq nih.

Alamak kita kan bila check maths exercise Afiq pun kita guna itu phone calculator. Must polish lah my brain nih.

famyGirl said...

aihhh makcik pun otak berkarat jua. mcm roti, i pun hv trouble calculating discounts hahahaha. kalu rajin guna fone calculator, if not tanya famyBoy jelah.

tahniah to Haziq. wakil sekolah lagi tuuuu... :)

Anonymous said...

tahniah haziq. maths is fun. crap! i just gave myself out as a geek.

Lollies said...

rotidua - oohh ko pakai sabun daia ya? teringat-ingat aku iklan dia yang colourful itu.

bf - you know what? i bought some maths exercise books from msia and aske haziq to do it. somehow buku2 exercise ni suka pakai nombor2 besar. pengsan jugak haziq membuatnya. pastu i jadi cikgu and check. sat aje i pulangkan kat dia and suruh betulkan or something. dia amat heran how i calculate so fast. little does he know that i tengok jawaban di belakang. :D

famy - kalau discount maknanya it is cheaper than the original price. boleh tak kita kira camtu aje? :P

jo - people..look! look! ada geek kat sini

Anonymous said...

actually mental maths did us good. kids now days are dead without calculators. i try to keep up by calculating in my head (of course without the glare and pressure) especially buying groceries - telling the cashiers the total before he presses the equal sign; sigh all slipping away slowly

Lollies said...

azgrowlen - wehei! something in common. I do that too. calculate the amount before the guy finish punching in his calculator. In Malaysia I would add up the plate numbers..but over here tak kuasa because the fonts are arabic (the roman one is smaller) and there are 6 numbers. malas. :P

Anonymous said...

salam. u must be proud of him. to be in top three is a win already. wish my daughter, who is 11, can be smart in maths too. Cheers! Rozi

NJ@Goboklama said...

WOW & congrats to both mother & son! I do mental calculation masa shopping je,hihi..

zan said...

errr i pun otak karat :P but i still do mental cal for discounts sebabnya saya malas nak guna phone *blerghh*

pandailah haziq!! yay!! but pesal u tak cheer up...macam takde mood jer??

Lollies said...

anon - I am. Alhamdulillah. He has been good. Smart can be in many ways too, Insya Allah. Everyone has something.

gobok - itulah masanya maths betul-betul apply dalam kehidupan harian. Syabas!

Zan - eh mana ada tak ada mood. Saje je tulis macam itu untuk menyorokkan rasa lonjakan di hati. Macam ala-ala serpraaaiiiss gitu.

Mulan said...

waahhh.. kudos to haziq..!!! bravo to ibu..!!! moga sentiasa cemerlang & terbilang..

Anonymous said...

congrats to haziq!

wah, pressure tu kena kira without calculator...;-))

I Do

KakNi said...

Tahniah tahniah tahniah... tu kira menang lah tu, cuma bukan tempat pertama... wah wah wah...

Nina @ BabyBoon said...

hi lollies, your blog's always a refreshing read to me. congrats to your boy for going so far! what a huge achievement! :)

Lollies said...

mulan - dan gemilang. Insya Allah. :D

i do - under pressure tu yang senang pun macam susah aje.

akuni - to enter itself is a win kan?

baby booned - thank you thank you. please do enjoy this mango lassi and some baklava. Tafaddhali (silakan)

Diah said...

pandai lah abang haziq nih... nanti boleh lah tunjuk ajar pasha yeek.. :P

Anonymous said...

Mabrook to Haziq...wah bangga aunty...tu yg aunty nak cop wat menantu tu hehehheh....even my mom still dok sebut2 nama yr son sampai la nih hehehheh....

anggerik merah said...

lollies,

congratulation to haziq! Teringat masa sekolah dulu..