Is your child struggling with remembering their times tables? I've helped over a hundred students in the last few years master their times tables within just a couple of hours. Here are my top tips to help your child do the same.
I'm Aadam, and I've been teaching students for over five years. Times tables are the foundation of so much mathematical success, and once children master them, everything else becomes easier.
The Foundation: Understanding What Multiplication Really Is
The first thing your child needs to remember is that multiplication is just repeated addition.
Let's take the seven times table, which I'm choosing because it's normally the most difficult.
We've got 7 × 1, which is 7. If we want the next one, we just need to add seven again. You could add 10 and then take away 3, which gives you 14. Add 10 to get 24, take away 3 to get 21, then 28, 35 and so on.
So you just remember to go up you're adding seven all the time, and to go back you need to take away seven.
My Method for Teaching the Seven Times Table
Here's the way I show children the times tables, using a specific order:
Start with the easy ones:
- 7 × 1 = 7 (obvious)
- 7 × 2 = 14 (double 7)
- 7 × 4 = 28 (double 14)
- 7 × 8 = 56 (double 28)
Then the tens:
- 7 × 10 = 70 (easy)
- 7 × 5 = 35 (half of 70, because half of 10 is 5)
- 7 × 11 = 77 (the 11s are quite easy)
Now fill in the gaps:
- Start with 14 (which we know)
- Add 7 to get 21 (that's 7 × 3)
- Double 21 to get 42 (that's 7 × 6)
- Double 42 to get 84 (that's 7 × 12)
Work out the tricky ones:
- 7 × 7: Take 42 and add 7, which gives you 49
- 7 × 9: Take 70 and take away 7, which is 63
Top tip for nines: With your nine times table, the two digits will always add up to make nine or a multiple of 9. That's a little trick to remember.
The Reading Out Loud Technique
Once you've worked through the times table together, I'd ask your child to read these out loud: 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49, 56, 63, 70, 77, 84.
Read them out loud a couple of times. Then I would slowly start taking away the easy ones and ask them to still read them out.
So I'd take away 7 × 1, 7 × 2, 7 × 10, and then ask them to repeat it again. If they can do that, I'd get rid of a couple more, like 7 × 11, 7 × 4, 7 × 8, and just repeat that process.
The Order to Learn All Times Tables
I wouldn't start with the seven times table. Here's the order I recommend:
First group: 2s, 4s and 8s These are just doubles of each other, so they're good to learn together.
Second group: 10s and 5s If you know your tens, you just half your tens to get your five times table.
Third group: 11s These are quite simple. 3 × 11 = 33, 7 × 11 = 77 and so on. You just need to remember a couple of them after 11 × 10.
Fourth group: 3s, 6s, 9s and 12s These are quite similar to each other.
Finally: 7s But if you know the rest of them, you already know your sevens from the other times tables. So you don't even actually have to learn that separately.
Testing and Building Speed
After your child can recall them by memory, ask them to actually go backwards and read them from back to front. So 84, 77, 70, 63 and so on.
If they can do all of that, then I would start giving them some small tests. First start with multiplication only tests, then move to division tests.
A really good website for this is Times Tables.me.uk. You can choose which times tables you want to test your child on. I would choose the "multiplying by" first, then I would choose a mixture of multiplying and dividing by.
If you have TT Rockstars or anything similar, these kinds of websites are quite good for practice too.
The 90 Second Challenge
I've created a 25 question times table test that your child can try. Your child is aiming to be able to do at least 25 questions within 90 seconds, which works out at around 3 seconds per question.
That's the minimum they should be aiming for before attempting any advanced tests like 11+ or GCSEs.
Normally when I'm teaching someone, they need to reach this minimum requirement before attempting something else, whether it's adding fractions, finding prime factors or anything else. It's the base requirement they need.
Practice with Our Interactive Game
If you want to practise a bit more, check out the Practice Zone on my website where I've created an interactive game. You can test your child on lots of different things in arithmetic:
- Times by powers of 10
- Multiplying by decimals
- Finding fractions of amounts
- Times tables
You can do a little challenge where you answer questions and try to do as many as you can within however long you want. Your child is aiming to complete 25 in 90 seconds. My best time is about 25 seconds!
Building a Strong Foundation
Mastering times tables opens up so much mathematical learning for your child. Once they've got these down, everything from fractions to algebra becomes significantly easier.
The key is making it systematic, using the doubling and halving patterns, and building speed through regular practice.
For more support with 11+ and GCSE maths preparation, visit my website where I offer expert online tutoring tailored to KS2 through GCSE levels.
If you need help structuring your child's overall maths revision alongside their times tables practice, my digital revision planner and tracker helps students map out their learning across all topics whilst tracking progress effectively.
Need personalised support helping your child with times tables or maths in general? Get in touch and let's discuss how I can help.