Times Tables: How to Learn Them Fast (Grades 2 to 5)

Learn them in this order

Do not start at 2 and climb to 12. Start with the easy ones and finish with the few facts that are left.

• 2s, 5s and 10s first: counting in twos, fives and tens.
• 3s and 4s next. A 4× fact is a double of a double: 4 × 7 is double 14, which is 28.
• 9s and 11s by pattern (see below).
• 6s, 7s, 8s last. By then only a handful of facts remain: 6 × 7, 6 × 8, 7 × 8 and a few more.

Tricks that really work

• Swap the order. 8 × 3 is the same as 3 × 8, so you only learn each pair once.
• 5s: half of the 10s fact. 5 × 8 is half of 80, so 40.
• 6s: five times the number plus one more of it. 6 × 7 = 5 × 7 + 7 = 35 + 7 = 42.
• 8s: double, double, double. 8 × 6 is 6, 12, 24, 48.
• 9s: for 9 × 7 take 1 from 7 to get 6, then pick the digit that makes the total 9, which is 3. The answer is 63.
• 11s up to 9: repeat the digit. 11 × 4 = 44.

A 10-minute practice routine

Short, repeated practice beats one long session. Mixing in older tables is important: recalling a fact after a gap is what builds long-term memory.

• Warm up (2 minutes) with the multiplication chart: read one row aloud.
• Focus (5 minutes) on one or two tables only, in a game such as Times Tables Duck Race.
• Review (3 minutes) with 5 questions from tables you learned last week.

Common mistakes

• Learning by chanting only. Chanting helps rhythm, but quick questions in random order show what a child really knows.
• Skipping the commutative trick, which makes the job half as big.
• Practising wrong answers. If a child is unsure, show the fact, cover it, and ask again a minute later.