I recently heard of Vedic mental math. Is this an effective program for calculating quickly in your mind?

a google generated this

Vedic Maths Tutorial

Have not studied it.
Cannot give a meaningful answer.

I learned basic Mathematics through Vedic methods. I wouldn't say that it's any more effective than regular math. I learned how to subtract via ''Nikhilam'' subtraction. I still use the method to this day - it takes me longer to do it the regular way (somthing about carrying over something...).

As for multiplication, Jeez, that was a pain in the butt. Regular multiplication is in my opinion far easier. Vedic methods involved cross multiplying before multiplying staright down - I can't remember exactly. Actually, thinking back on it now, it was probably just a ditorted version of the regular method.

Addition was pretty much the same as your everyday normal method.
To sum up, of the operations I did learn (this was only a few as I was very young and our school decided to teach us ''normal math'' after two years) the only one I still use is subtraction. For me it's more efficient than regular to do in my head.

*Bear in mind that I learned this stuff when I was about seven years old (through 2nd and 3rd grade) and this is just a vague idea of what I remember - we didn't cover any other concepts than the ones I outlined above.*