Like many other fields, abacus has its own graded exam and verification system. Currently, there are at least 100 organizations or countries that are promoting abacus education and they have their own system.

Abacus and mental arithmetic start at level 10 (abacus and mental arithmetic have their respective levels).

(A) The beginner levels are Level 10, 9, 8 and 7.

(B) The intermediate levels are Level 6, 5 and 4.

(C) The high levels are Level 3, 2 and 1.

(D) The advanced levels for instructors and contestants. The advanced level start from Advanced 1 and go up to Advanced 15.

Students learn abacus first before they learn mental arithmetic. Abacus paves the road to mental arithmetic by building mathematic foundations and images. The teachers then instruct students to turn the images into mental arithmetic.