Digital Standard Abacus-20 cm-Professional 13-Column Soroban Calculator (Functional and Educational Tool)

good for hands on learning in a good price range.

Fun to use and sturdy

Good beginner abacus bought this for a second grader that has an interest in mathematics and we love it. I thought that the abacus pieces were wooden and would stay more in place but other than that it serves it purpose.

My son loves this product. It is easy to use and already started learning mental math using this tool.

Well made plastic construction. It's a little small for adult hands but should work well for a child. The thing I don't like is that the beads slide way to easily on the rods; If the abacus is not on an absolutely flat surface, they will slide out of place, and if you bump it, the beads go every which way (and so does your calculation). Also, the instruction booklet is for the traditional Chinese abacus, not the Soroban.

I don't know the first thing about an abacus, but I sincerely want to learn. A friend of mine who attended boarding school when he was a child used one in school and today he doesn't even own an abacus, he just imagines one in his hand and flips his fingers back and forth and computes complicated math in his head.I'm pretty good with math, but I want to further my abilities by learning the abacus and then learning how to do math without it. Adding, subtracting, multiplication and division to 13 digits, based on ancient math, that's pretty cool.The Digital Standard Abacus is pretty basic. It's small, it is rigidly framed and made entirely of plastic. That aside, it is well made and if you want to adventure into the abacus, this $12 investment would be a great place to start. A nicer made or higher quality abacus won't allow you to learn any faster than this model will. Perhaps this Digital Standard Abacus won't dazzle the experts, but beginners and even moderate users would get a benefit from starting here.Yes, this model does slide around on a smooth, flat surface. I knew that going in and I grabbed a pack of those rubbery dots at the dollar store. (I got the flat ones that come in a variety of sizes). They work great so far, but since I just peeled and stuck them on, I can see them coming off again. If that happens, I'll hot glue them on. Easy fix.Honestly, if you're looking at an abacus at this price range means that you're not interested in style, just basic function. Here it is. And for $12, that's a good bargain. Think about how investing $12 today makes your tomorrows better. If you get good with the abacus and want to upgrade, pass this one along and get a statement piece and dazzle those who are less familiar how the abacus works.I haven't spent a lot of time with the abacus, but I will carve out some time from my busy schedule to start learning how to use it. Once I have learned a bit about how it works and how well/easy it was to start picking up, I'll come report back.My thanks to Black long Di fang for their participation in the Amazon Vine program and for supplying this nicely crafted abacus. Thank you.

I never really learned to use an abacus until we picked this up for our family to learn something new together.The main determinant in getting this was its size. We could have used a digital abacus, but that defeats the lesson of howe people created and used technology before the modern era of electronics.Like some of the others recommended, we created some rubber feet to fit the back so it was easier to manage the beads and not have it slide around on our granite counter.The unit itself is built out of a very solid and dense plastic that feels good in the hand.The beads slide very easily on the metal bar, so easily I had some issues using it in hand on occasion. You just really have to pay attention to the orientation is all. Sitting on the counter.. haha.. the counter on the counter is what worked best for us.Overall, an easy compact purchase to help learn and teach others about how to use an abacus.

This came a little bigger than I expected and for some reason I thought it would be sturdier than it is. It is very lightweight and made out of plastic. I prefer mine a little heavier so the beads stay where you put them more easily. Also take note that this one has only 1 bead on the top and 7 on the bottom, versus the other style which has 2 beads on the top and 5 on the bottom. I learned on the latter so I was a little disappointed this abacus didn't come with a little note on the basics of how to use it. I was disappointed in the quality so I definitely wouldn't consider this giftable and because it is so light and the beads don't seem to stay where you put them, I wouldn't recommend this for a 7 year old or younger.