MathJong: A Fun Way To Practice Mental Math Skills

Mathjong is a very entertaining game that tests math skills while the player attempts to clear the tiles from the playing board. It requires skills in multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction. Any child who has a basic knowledge of math can play the game. The concept is to do the math mentally, rather than to use paper and pencil.

Game play is very similar to the popular game of Mahjong. At the start of the game, a board is shown with light and dark tiles. Only the light tiles can be used to make a math equation in the empty boxes below the playing board. Points are scored based on how difficult the math equation is, and it must be correct or the system will not accept it.

Some tiles are stacked as high as four deep, and the tiles beneath cannot be viewed until the ones above are removed. A dark tile will turn light when the tile directly adjacent to it is selected to go into the equation.

The trick is to keep the operation symbols where they can be chosen as needed. The equal sign is very important to have because no equation can be completed without it. There are also a limited number of all operation symbols.

There are only nine spaces for tiles to be placed below the game board. As numbers and symbols are chosen, they start on the left side in the first box and go across to the right. Here is a sample equation:

8 X 8 / 4 - 8 = 8 (the / denotes division)

This is a correct equation because 8 multiplied by 8 equals 64, which is divided by 4 to equal 16. When 8 is subtracted from 16, the answer is 8.

It is important to note that the equation calculates based on order of operations, meaning multiplication and division precede addition and subtraction.

As all the top tiles are cleared away, wild card tiles are exposed underneath. These are either a wild number or wild symbol to be used as the player sees fit.

The object of the game is to clear the board of all tiles and to score as many points as possible while doing so. Making equations that are a full 9 tiles long on each play provides a better opportunity to complete the game and achieve a higher score.

Another condition to be mindful of is to use as many numbers in equations as possible. Nearing the end of the game it will be impossible to finish without an operator and an equal sign to make an equation.

Two buttons on the left side of the nine-digit equation box are "Undo" and "New Game." If you start an equation wish to change it, click the undo box and the tiles will go back to where they were moved from. Selecting "New Game" clears your score and starts another game.

On the right side of the equation box is the red "Submit" button you click when you have completed your equation, and the "Clear" button beneath does the same thing as the "Undo" on the left side.

The running score is shown on the top left, and the highest score achieved on the computer is displayed in the top center. Are you ready to play Mathjong? Let's get started!