Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

In this paper, a symmetrized two-scale finite element method is proposed for a class of partial differential equations with symmetric solutions. With this method, the finite element approximation on a fine tensor product grid is reduced to the finite element approximations on a much coarse grid and a univariant fine grid. It is shown by both theory and numerics including electronic structure calculations that the resulting approximation still maintains an asymptotically optimal accuracy. Consequently the symmetrized two-scale finite element method reduces computational cost significantly.