Times Tables Trainer

How to use it

Step 1: choose your tables. Tap the numbers you want to work on, tap a quick pick such as 2, 5 and 10, or tap All for 1 to 12. If a table is new to you, start with just one or two.

Step 2: choose a mode.

• Practice has no timer. You get 20 questions, one at a time. If you get one wrong, the answer appears with a picture of the fact as rows of dots, and that fact comes back a few questions later so you can lock it in.
• Speed Round gives you 60 seconds to answer as many questions as you can. Your score, and your best score, are kept on this device.
• Mastery Grid is a 12 × 12 chart of every fact. Each square is coloured by how well you know that fact on this device. Tap any square to practise it.

Step 3: type your answer. Use the big number pad or your keyboard. The answer is sent as soon as you have typed all of its digits, or you can tap ✔ (or press Enter). Backspace takes a digit back.

On the grid, grey squares are facts you have not tried yet. The colours then climb from needs practice through getting there and good to a ⭐ for known. A fact moves up a step when you answer it right and down a step if you slip, so the grid shows how you are going right now.

Why it works

A times table is not a list to chant. It is a picture. 3 × 4 means 3 rows of 4. Turn the picture on its side and you get 4 rows of 3, with the same number of dots. That is why 3 × 4 and 4 × 3 always match, and it is why the Trainer shows a wrong answer as an array of dots. Seeing why a fact is true helps it stick.

Trying to remember an answer, and then checking it, builds memory more strongly than looking at the answer again. Researchers who study memory call this retrieval practice. Practice mode asks first and shows the answer afterwards for exactly that reason.

Facts you miss come back after a few questions, and then once more a little later. Spreading practice out like this usually works better than going over one fact ten times in a row, and it is a simple version of what is called spaced repetition.

There are 144 squares on the grid, but 3 × 4 and 4 × 3 are the same fact, so there are really only 78 different facts to learn. Better still, if you know the 1, 2, 5 and 10 tables, only 36 of those 78 are left.

Speed comes last. Quick recall matters because it frees your mind for bigger problems such as long multiplication, area and fractions, but speed only helps once you know the facts. That is why the Speed Round is a separate mode and why Practice has no clock.

For parents and teachers

The Trainer is written for Years 2 to 6. Many schools introduce the 2, 5 and 10 times tables first and work towards all of the facts up to 10 × 10 or 12 × 12 over the next few years, so ask your child's teacher which tables are the current focus and choose those.

Short and often beats long and rarely. Five minutes a day is a good habit. Choose one or two tables, use Practice until the grid squares for those tables show a ⭐, then try a Speed Round for fun.

Some tricks to share. Each one is true for every fact it covers:

• Doubling: the 4 times table is the 2s doubled, and the 8 times table is the 4s doubled again.
• The 5s always end in 5 or 0, and the 10s always end in 0.
• The 9s: from 9 × 1 up to 9 × 10, the digits of the answer add up to 9. For example, 9 × 7 = 63, and 6 + 3 = 9.
• The 11s: from 11 × 1 up to 11 × 9, just repeat the digit. For example, 11 × 7 = 77.
• Build from a fact you know: 6 × 7 is 5 × 7 (which is 35) plus one more 7, which makes 42.

Ask How did you work that out? as often as What is the answer? A child who can explain a strategy has understood more than a child who has only memorised a number.

Progress is stored only in this browser, on this device, and is not sent anywhere. Children who share a device share the same grid, and clearing the browser's site data starts again from scratch. The Trainer works with touch, mouse and keyboard, and its buttons are big enough for small fingers.