The secrets of mental math: Everyone can do it in a flash!

If you have any skill in math, then do not buy this book. It is way over priced for what it is. Instead of reading this book, you can just spend an hour reviewing some of your old high school math skills or go on a site like khanacademy.Pros:Good book for someone who is terrible at math.Has a few decent tricks (but are they quicker? Maybe slightly).Has exercises ( CON = But only like 2 or 3 per section. Each trick is so short that you'd think Pascal could write a few more practice problems).Cons:Overpriced.Many similar tricks between operators (+,-,/,x).Many obvious tricks that are already used by most people I know.In short, I regret my purchase. It's probably easy to just google "mental math tricks" and find something free.

love it

The author of this book contacted me as I've previously read similar ones about improving my mental maths. I'm always keen to learn new tricks to make sums simpler to do, and give it a go.This is a short book, only an hour or two to complete from cover to cover. And boy, did I get a surprise! Some tricks I've never seen before but so simple it's crazy. Suddenly some rather long sums are achievable mentally in a just a couple of seconds.In my edition were a few errors that the author assures me are now corrected, but even these didn't detract from the mental tricks he explains.The language does sometimes require a re-read as it can be a little wordy (translated from the author's first language I believe).But the maths is so astonishingly easy in the majority of chapters that you feel instantly buoyed up by how simple maths can be.I admit to having my favourite parts, and did skim a few tricks in division and multiplication. The long sums there I have no need of in my everyday life, whereas addition and subtraction and selection tricks in mult/division would be useful.The chunking method was brilliant, multiplying by 11, left to right and digital roots, decomposing. Each is explained with a few examples (more would help retention though) and I could see a use for this in my work and home dealings.The use of Euros didn't really bother me, it's still the same number.I think the book could have been longer though, the book I got a lot from (Rapid Maths Tips and Tricks) was more thorough in its approach. But this book will give confidence in just a few minutes.And you'll get a party trick or two out of it as well.With thanks to the author for the review copy.

Quite useful and interesting; however, it seems there are various different methods to do mental maths; its a case of finding a method with which you're comfortable.

Thought it may improve my innumeracy, but beyond me

Simplifies math calculations younger people should read to get a general approach to maths instead of completely relying on calculators

I'm only a few pages in and have already found maths errors such as, 17 x 10 = 180. I'm really not impressed, the writing is huge, the pages few, too many errors and the price too high.