Times tables speed test

How the speed test works

There are two formats. The 1-minute sprint gives as many facts as you can answer in 60 seconds, and the score is how many you get right. The 20-question race gives a clock on each question, 3, 6 or 10 seconds, or no clock at all, and the score is how many you get right and how long they took.

Facts come in a shuffled order and don't repeat until every fact in your chosen tables has come up. A wrong answer shows the right fact for about a second before the next question, so the last thing seen is the correct one. Answers can be typed on a keyboard or tapped on the big on-screen keypad, which works well on phones and tablets.

Division facts are the same facts turned around: 56 ÷ 7 = 8 is the partner of 7 × 8 = 56. Mixing them in shows whether a fact is really known, not just remembered as a chant.

Reading the results

• Right answers and accuracy: how many were right, and what share of the answers given.
• Facts a minute: right answers scaled to one minute, so a sprint and a race can be compared.
• Time per right answer: the average time taken on the facts that were right.
• The fact map: a 12 × 12 multiplication grid colored by this test. Green means right in under 3 seconds, yellow means right but slower, and red means missed or out of time. A fact and its turnaround share a square, so 7 × 8 and 8 × 7 both show on 56.
• Facts to work on: the missed facts first, then the slowest, each with a way to work it out from an easier fact.

Your best score for each set of choices is remembered on this device, along with the facts that have been tricky over several tests. Nothing is sent to us or anyone else, and there are no ads.

What counts as fast?

There is no official speed for every age, so the best comparison is with your own last score. One useful marker: England's Year 4 multiplication tables check gives 6 seconds a question. Six seconds is plenty for a fact known by heart and not much for one worked out by counting, which is why the 6-second race here is a good check.

Under 3 seconds usually means a fact is recalled rather than worked out, which is why the map marks that as quick. Facts in yellow are worth a strategy: they are known, but still being calculated.

How to get faster

• Get it right first, then get it quick. Use the race with no clock until most facts are right, then add a clock.
• Work on a few facts at a time. "Practice my tricky facts" runs a short set of just the missed and slow ones, with no clock.
• Use a strategy for each tricky fact: times 9 is ten groups take away one, times 6 is five groups and one more, times 8 is double three times.
• Short and often beats long and rare: one or two tests a day for a few minutes, then stop.
• Mix in division once multiplication is quick. It builds the same facts from the other side.
• Compare only with your own earlier scores, never with friends or siblings.

In the classroom

The test works on a projector or interactive whiteboard: the big keypad can be tapped, and the class can call out answers. Students on their own devices need no accounts or logins. The certificate at the end prints the score, the tables tested and the date, with a name typed in on the page and never stored.