Number Rounds....

[Katherine Birkett]

As a follow-on from my dyscalculia thread, can any past contestants tell me if they adopt certain mental strategies that help them get the answer right? Do you organise them a certain way on the paper for example? What happens when the brain gets stuck?

In fact, before I commit to applying, would anyone be willing to provide me with some practise number rounds in this thread?

[Paul Howe]

Create an account on apterous.org and do some numbers games in "practice mode", which means there are no timers so you can practise in a stress free environment. You might want to wait until morning as the site appears to be down right now.

There is another recent thread with good tips for solving numbers games, but the main thing is just to build confidence by practising a lot. I don't know how your dyscalculia affects things, but hopefully you'll get faster at mental arithmetic and the main techniques will get embedded into your subconscious so you don't get "mentally stuck" anymore.

It might sound silly but I find making a conscious effort to breath slowly and deeply can help your concentration and relieve pressure (with anything, not just numbers games). I'm still in the habit of taking a breath just before the round starts and not exhaling until close to the end (I remember Kirk accusing me of letting out a deep breath after I'd solved a numbers game at COLIN, this is what I was doing!)

Of course you could try writing the numbers down in a circle with the target in the middle. I never actually tried this on TV, but I'm convinced it would help thanks to some sort of magical circle power.

[Katherine Birkett]

I'm convinced it would help thanks to some sort of magical circle power.

Magical circle power............ hmm......... would that mean sacrificing a small goat too?

[Kirk Bevins]

I'm still in the habit of taking a breath just before the round starts and not exhaling until close to the end (I remember Kirk accusing me of letting out a deep breath after I'd solved a numbers game at COLIN, this is what I was doing!)

Ha. Was this the instance where you breathed deeply and relaxed, telling me the numbers game was easy in effect and I still (embarrassingly) hadn't solved it and that put so much more pressure on me, but also told me to look for an easier method than I was doing.

[Ian Volante]

My strategy is to basically look for the most obvious way, just to get close at least, details can come later. If it's obviously a bit tougher, I suppose I just try whatever first comes to mind. Panic never helps though!