Tabuk governor honors Saudi student for top two finish in international competition

Tabuk Gov. Prince Fahd bin Sultan honored Itizaz Alnefaie, the primary school pupil from Tabuk International Schools who won second place in this year’s Worldwide Mental Arithmetic Competition, recently held in Egypt’s Sharm El-Sheikh.
He congratulated Alnefaie for this achievement, wishing her more success, noting the Saudi leadership’s support for outstanding students in all scientific fields.
“I’m pleased to meet you and everyone is proud of your achievement,” Prince Fahd said, praising the efforts made by Alnefaie’s parents and teachers, who created the environment for her to reach excellence, and who supported her talent. He also wished her and all of Tabuk’s students future success.

The prince then offered Alnefaie his personal pen as a gift. The head of Tabuk International Schools, Maram Al-Atwi, praised Prince Fahd for the achievement, which comes as a result of his great support for the education sector in Tabuk, noting that this success is an extension of the local and international achievements made by public school students from all Saudi regions.
Hundreds of talented pupils representing more than 25 countries, including Saudi Arabia, participated in this year’s competition.
Alnefaie broke the world record by solving 100 maths problems, testing herself against the clock.
Solving a math problem might take most people a few minutes. However, Alnefaie takes just a second or two.
“I joined the little genius program at first, and I finished the first level. Then I moved to the second level, and I started to train on mental (arithmetic) and abacus,” she told local media.
The abacus system of mental calculation involves people visualizing an abacus to solve a math problem. No physical abacus is used during the calculation as the exercise is done at great speed, and the answers are written down.