Math Bridge: Unlock Math

Unlock mathematics through mastery of accurate mental arithmetic skills. The school curriculum stresses problem-solving and guided, discovery-based learning, but what if the other skills that these depend on have not been learned properly, or taught? Too many learners are muddling through Math with poor skills, cut off from higher learning. They're at risk for giving up on goals that depend on Maths and Science. Many students also report increasing anxiety: the confidence that comes from being competent in Math escapes them.Too often this problem is a case of cognitive overload. Instead of doing real Math, a learner gets trapped counting, listing and sorting numbers instead. Neuroscience shows that such a learner is depending on working memory in the prefrontal area of the brain. That working memory becomes quickly overloaded. What should be fast, easy and automatic remains slow, over-thought and frustrating. Cognitive effort is being hijacked again and over again. Or as Nobelist Daniel Kahneman puts it, the person is stuck using slow, analytic System 2 thinking when he or she should be using the fast, 'automatic' System 2 thinking.Arithmetic facts and algorithms need to be encoded in long-term memory so the learner can automatically call them up as he or she gets on with the 'real' Math. Practice and repetition are essential to make arithmetic skills transfer to long term memory. Having those strong mental arithmetic skills removes cognitive obstacles, speeds up reasoning, and efficiently optimizes effort so a learner can get on with, or get back to, learning Mathematics.Unfortunately, class time is already crowded. Math in Primary and Junior schools especially has become much more 'wordy' and story based. Students who are already behind in Math continue to accumulate deficits and become even more Math-avoidant. The answer is home practice. Companies like Kumon have stepped in to fill this gap between home and school. These programmes are expensive and time consuming, however. Math Bridge is a collection 20,000 + structured 10 minute arithmetic exercises for learners of different ages and abilities. It's routine, portable, flexible, accessible and done quickly with clear results. Maybe real homework has gone out of fashion but only 10 minutes a day of Math Bridge makes a world of difference - for life.