They rattle out numbers without racking their brains

BANGALORE: It took UKG grader Nikhita Vimal as much time to add up seven single digits as for her examiners to read out the question. And she came up with the correct answer - 25.
She was one among 1,200 wonder kids who came together for the 44{+t}{+h} Regional Brainobrain Karnataka Fest at the Nimhans Convention Centre on Sunday.
For Disha, a level-8 Brainobrain candidate, it was multitasking at its best as she did three things at one time -- Solving a set of division problems, speaking about the ozone layer and answering multiplication questions.And she managed to finish all in less than a minute.
Geetha Shree S, another level-8 participant, tackled four addition sums that she had to convert, keeping in mind their alphabetical value which was being read out to her. And what made the task challenging was the four questions being dictated simultaneously.
"The idea at Brainobrain is to sharpen youngsters' mind and hone their creative skills. This will help them in their academics too," said M Ramakrishnan, regional director, Karnataka, Brainobrain.
Earlier in the day, the participants were given 75 questions to solve in three minutes where they could score up to 750 marks. Based on that, they were divided into groups and competitions in various levels were held.
Brainobrain offers a 10-level course for children aged between 5 and 14 to sharpen their mathematical skills. Every Sunday, the group holds classes for children in 650 centres across the country. Participants had come from Belgaum, Bagalkot, Bijapur and Dharwad, among other places.
"My classmates think I have good speed to solve mathematical problems. The multiplication tables fascinate me. I am more drawn towards double digit with single digit multiplications," said Supreet Shridhar T, a sixth-grader from Belgaum, who is currently at level 6. On Sunday, he could solve 52 questions in three minutes.
Last year's national championship winner Arjun Krishna, 12, a level-9 participant, loves Mathematics. "Addition, subtraction and multiplication improved by concentration and confidence levels," he said.