Algebra. How About Addition?

A whole lot of years ago I bought a book called "How to Calculate Quickly: Full Course in Speed Arithmetic," by Henry Sticker.

As I got into my latest Math Quest, I tracked the book down and looked it over. It is made up of a series of exercises that supposedly train you to add, subtract, multiply, and divide, quickly and in your head. The sort off thing that people's parent's and grandparents used to be able to do before the days of $2 calculators.

I noticed that the last time I tried this (yes, I've had an approach-avoidance relationship with numbers for a long time) I made it up to exercise 7. There are 382 of them, each harder than the last.

Right now, I am on number 13. It should be simple. It consists of adding columns of six double digit numbers in your head with techniques I have already practiced. It's just addition. Don't second graders do addition double digits?

There are 25 sets of numbers in this exercise. I forced myself to add up all of them before checking my answers. I missed 11. To figure out how pitiful my performance was, I wanted to know my percentage of correct answers. I figured, in my head that each answer was worth 4 percent. OK, that gave me 54 percent, right? Except it didn't. As I was sitting here typing, I checked that on a calculator, and yes, the answers are worth 4 percent each, but missing 11 and getting 14 correct gave me 56 percent.

I am in more trouble than I imagined.