Contests to boost mental literacy

Participants working on their mind mapping test during the event.

ABOUT 1,500 participants, comprising the public and students put their brain power to work in the Mind Competitions.

Held last Saturday, the competitions were jointly organised by the Malaysia Mental Literacy Movement (MMLM), Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) and Tunku Abdul Rahman University College (TAR UC).

The one-day event was aimed at boosting mental literacy among Malaysians.

With RM60,000 in cash prizes to be won, the competition consisted of three main categories, namely the Memory Competition, Mind Mapping Competition and Mental Calculation Competition.

The main categories were further divided into sub-categories such as random words, numbers, letters of the alphabet, dates & events, note making on given topics, note taking from speech and text and mental calculations (additions and multiplications).

A teacher from SJK(T) West Country Timur, Vijaya Lekshmi Govindasamy, said the students can use the skills they have acquired in the competition to memorise science and mathematics terms, which is helpful for their exam.

Her two students Dvivaniya Suthagar and Lakwin Thanoarasu took part in both the random words and mental calculation competitions.

Another participant, Michelle Lam Wye Yan said she loved taking part in the competitions.

Her mother Melinda said the events helped her daughter to gain more experience.

Ragavan Arumugam who joined the mind mapping competition, said he initially thought he was too old to join.

He has been practising mind mapping for a long time and stressed that it is a good technique that everyone should learn to utilise.

Desmond Koh, a memory teacher from Melaka, said he found out about the competition in 2015. He has consecutively won the consolation prize for the mind mapping competitions since he joined the competition in 2016.

His daughter Vikki Lim Koh Bing who also took part in the competition, said she hoped to get a better result this year.

Universiti Sains Malaysia student Fashareena Roslan said the competition was good especially for school-going children.

They can gain experience and get to know people from other schools.

“The competition helps students to perform better in their studies,” she said.

Besides local participants, some international contestants also took part in the competitions.

Rose Adeh from Nigeria, who is currently pursuing management studies at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia said: “This is my fifth year taking part in this competition.”

“The competition is both challenging and motivating. I saw children trying their best to memorise the numbers and alphabets. Although the competition is very challenging, I like it,” she said.

One of the event highlights this year was the 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube competition, which was organised by MMLM, WBS Dynamic Workshop (WooBrainSystem) and Kids Station Marketing Sdn Bhd. This competition was held to challenge the participants’ visual thinking and solving skills.

Student Hemawaty Marar, 15, from Seremban, said she managed to solve the Rubik’s cube in less than one minute at the competition.

“I have been practising for the past three months and hope to take part in more competitions in the future,” she said.

In conjunction with the Mind Competitions, two science workshops and an exhibition were also organised to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) to school children and their parents.

Instructor Pua Gaik Hong demonstrated a mini rocket experiment at the event.

A mini hands-on workshop which included a series of science experiments and design activities was also held.

The results of the Mind Competitions will be posted on the MMLM official website on July 18. Participants can view the results until Nov 9. The prize-giving ceremony will be held on Nov 4 during the 14th Malaysia Festival of the Mind in conjunction with the Kuala Lumpur Engineering Science Fair. For more information, visit www.utar.edu.my/mmlm.