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.

For 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.