Answers to the most common questions about the soroban, mental math and learning it.
The soroban is the Japanese abacus used to do arithmetic quickly. It is taught to develop mental math in children and adults. Learn more in this article.
You can usually start from ages 5 to 7 after mastering basic numbers. The most important thing is consistency with short daily practice.
No. You can practice for free with the interactive abacus on our site before getting a physical one.
It depends on consistency; a short daily session of 10–15 minutes brings faster progress than long, infrequent sessions.
Yes. It builds focus, memory and calculation speed at any age — it is not just for children.
The soroban is a physical abacus you move by hand, while anzan is mental calculation by visualizing it, after mastering the soroban.
Yes. All lessons and quizzes are completely free and available in several languages.