epotli

Times tables practice

Tables from 2 to 12, plus the two forms that catch children out long after they can recite the row: missing factors, and the division fact hiding inside every multiplication.

Which class?

20 questions. No timer, no score, nothing to lose.

What this practice is

Times tables are the one part of primary maths that has to become automatic. Everything built on top of them assumes the facts arrive for free: long multiplication, division with a remainder, a bracket with a product sitting inside it. A child who reaches 7 × 8 by adding eights is not doing anything wrong, but they are spending attention on the part that was meant to cost nothing, and there is less of it left for the rest of the sum.

Practice here covers 2 to 12 and asks for each fact in four forms rather than one: the product, the division hiding inside it, and the missing factor from either side. Answers are typed on a number pad, so nothing can be reached by elimination.

  • The easy rows first — 2, 5 and 10 — then 3 and 4, then the ones that need real recall.
  • Missing factors, where the gap moves: 7 × ? = 42 one time, ? × 8 = 56 the next.
  • Division facts read straight off the table, so 48 ÷ 8 stops being a fresh calculation.
  • Mixed recall across all four forms, drawn at random so nothing can be pattern-matched.

Why children find it hard

Reciting a row and producing a single fact are different skills, and school gives far more practice in the first. Ask for the seven times table and it comes out fluently. Ask for 7 × 8 on its own and you can often watch the row start playing silently from the beginning. That works, and it costs a few seconds every single time the fact is needed.

The other half of the difficulty is that one fact wears three disguises. 6 × 8 = 48, 48 ÷ 8 = 6 and 6 × ? = 48 are the same piece of knowledge, but a child who has only ever met the first form treats the other two as unfamiliar questions and starts calculating again.

What each step fixes

  1. Step 1 · The 2, 5 and 10 tables

    ×2, ×5, ×10

    The rows with a visible pattern. These are the confidence rungs, and they are quick to clear.

  2. Step 2 · The 3 and 4 tables

    ×3, ×4

    Doubling as a crutch. Working out 4 × 7 by doubling 2 × 7 is fine as a check and slow as a method.

  3. Step 3 · The 6 and 7 tables

    ×6, ×7

    The middle of the table, where there is no pattern to fall back on and reciting from the start begins to show.

  4. Step 4 · The 8 and 9 tables

    ×8, ×9

    The two rows most children are still counting out long after the rest have gone automatic.

  5. Step 5 · The 11 and 12 tables

    ×11, ×12

    Rows that run past what fingers or a number line can help with.

  6. Step 6 · All tables, mixed

    mixed recall 2–12

    Facts arriving out of order, so a row cannot be recited from the beginning to reach one of them.

  7. Step 7 · Find the missing factor

    missing factor — 7 × ? = 42

    Reading 7 × ? = 42 as a multiplication and multiplying, when what it asks for is a division.

  8. Step 8 · Division facts

    division facts — 42 ÷ 7

    Treating 42 ÷ 7 as a fresh calculation instead of a fact that is already known from the other side.

  9. Step 9 · Missing factor, either side

    missing factor, either side — ? × 8 = 56

    Knowing 7 × ? = 42 and stalling on ? × 8 = 56, because the gap has moved to the front.

  10. Step 10 · All four forms, mixed

    mixed recall, all four forms

    Pattern-matching the screen rather than reading the question. It is the last thing to go before a fact is really solid.

How to practise it

Ten minutes is plenty. Tables respond to short and frequent far better than to a long Sunday session, and a child who has been told to learn two rows by Monday will get more out of four short sittings than one long one.

Sit near your child rather than over them, and resist supplying the answer while they are still thinking. When they do slip, the screen shows the working itself and queues two more of the same kind, which means the correction does not have to come from you. That matters more than it sounds, because a correction from a parent is the one a child takes personally.

Worked examples

  1. 7 × 6 = 42

    Straight recall — the row most children learn last.

  2. 9 × 8 = 72

    The one fact that stays slow the longest.

  3. 56 ÷ 7 = 8

    Same fact as 7 × 8, asked from the other end.

Those steps are not written by hand. They come out of the same evaluator the practice screen uses, which is how every generated question can be explained.

Common questions

Which tables does it cover?

2 to 12. Practice starts with the rows that come easily and moves on once answers are steady, so a child is not sitting through 2 × 4 when their gap is 7 × 8.

Why typed answers instead of four options?

A four-option question is one-in-four guessable, and guessing is what makes a table look learnt when it is not. Typing also shows us what the wrong answer was, which is often more useful than the fact it was wrong.

Is it free, and does my child need an account?

It is free and there is no account. Nothing is typed in except answers, progress stays on the device you practise on, and no gameplay is recorded.

Is there a timer or a score?

Neither. A countdown is the last thing a child who already dreads maths needs, and a score turns practice into a test. A session is 20 questions, and a wrong answer adds two more of the same kind rather than taking anything away.

What happens when my child gets one wrong?

The ring turns amber, never red. Then the screen asks which part of the sum comes first, and once that is settled it folds the expression down one line at a time until the answer is left standing.

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