The Dojo
Twenty methods, six tiers, one ladder. You learn a technique with no clock running, practise it until it is right, and only then does the timer start.
Every drill scores you on accuracy first and speed second — because that is how real competitions score you. Earn stars, climb the ranks, and finish in the Arena where everything comes at you mixed together.
Everything you earn saves in this browser. Use ← and → to move between sections — but inside a drill, just type.
How the dojo works
Five minutes of reading, and then you will not need to read anything again — the whole system is three ideas.
Idea one · every skill has three stages
1 · Learn
The sutra, the method in four steps, and two worked examples. No clock, no score. Read it once properly and you will not need it again.
2 · Practice
Real questions with no timer at all. Get one wrong and you may try again; get it wrong twice and the method reappears. Five correct unlocks the drill.
3 · Drill
Now the clock runs. A fixed set of questions, a countdown on each one, a streak counter, and stars at the end. This is where the skill actually gets built.
Why you never meet the clock cold
Time pressure on a method you have not settled does not build speed — it builds guessing, and guessing is very hard to un-train. That is why the drill stays locked until five practice questions are right. It is not a formality; it is the single most important rule here.
Idea two · stars, and how you earn them
| Star | What it takes | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| ★☆☆ | Finish a drill at 70% accuracy or better | The method is in your hands. Speed does not matter yet. |
| ★★☆ | 85% accuracy, under the silver pace | You are reliable. Now you are working on the clock. |
| ★★★ | 95% accuracy, under the gold pace | Competition standard. This skill will hold up under pressure. |
Each skill sets its own silver and gold pace — the briefing screen tells you the exact numbers before you start. Stars never go down, so a bad run costs you nothing.
Idea three · the ladder unlocks itself
One star on everything opens the next tier
Tier 2 opens when every Tier 1 skill has at least one star. Tier 3 opens when every Tier 2 skill does, and so on. You never have to hunt for what to do next — the ladder always shows you.
The later methods stand on the earlier ones
Base multiplication is complements plus one small idea. Squares near 100 are the same again. If complements are slow, everything above them is slow, and no amount of drilling the top of the ladder will fix a problem at the bottom.
And then · the Arena
Drills build methods. The Arena builds competitors.
A drill asks one kind of question over and over, so you always know which method to use. A real competition does not. The Arena mixes everything you have starred and asks you to choose — under a clock, with lives, or in a five-minute twenty-five-question simulation of the real thing. Star a skill and it joins the pool automatically.
The Ladder
Twenty skills, bottom to top. Tap any unlocked card to open it — it will start you at the right stage.
Trainer
Speed Arena
Everything you have starred, mixed together, under three different kinds of pressure. This is the part that looks like a competition.
Your Records
Not a trophy cabinet — a diagnosis. The bottom of the skill table is your training list for this week.
The Sixteen Sutras
The whole of Vedic mathematics is traditionally set out as sixteen short aphorisms. They are not formulas — they are instructions for noticing.
Read them as habits, not as rules
"All from 9 and the last from 10" is not an equation you apply; it is a way of looking at a number that turns subtraction into reading. Most of these sutras describe a pattern worth spotting, which is why the same one turns up in multiplication, division and algebra alike. You have already used four of them.
This system was set out by Bharati Krishna Tirthaji in the twentieth century, drawing on the Sthapatya Veda. Historians differ on how ancient the individual methods are — what is not in dispute is that they work, which is the only claim this dojo makes for them.
Competition Handbook
Eight things that decide places at a mental-arithmetic competition, none of which are about knowing more methods.
A four-week plan, if you want one
Week 1 — Tiers 1 and 2 to at least silver. Fifteen minutes a day. Week 2 — Tier 3, and re-run Tier 1 for gold; the foundations should be effortless by now. Week 3 — Tier 4 and 5, plus one Sprint 60 every day. Week 4 — Tier 6, then the Competition Simulator daily, and gold on anything still at silver. If you can score 20 in the simulator, you are ready to enter something.