Times tables tricks that actually work: one trick per table for the 3s, 4s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, 11s and 12s, the 21 facts that are all that is really left to learn, how the Year 4 check works, and a free one-page PDF

"Times tables tricks" is typed by parents in the UK in Year 3 and 4, mostly in the run-up to the June check, and by parents everywhere on the evening a child in tears says the 7s are impossible. Some tricks are real (the 9s finger trick works every time), some are noise (a rhyme for every fact is 144 rhymes). This page gives one reliable trick per table, then does the arithmetic on how many facts are actually left to memorise once the tricks are known (21), explains the Year 4 check, and ends with a two-week plan and a one-page PDF for the fridge.

Download the one-page tricks sheet (PDF) (A4, every trick below plus the 21 hard facts, free).

First, the rule that halves the job

6 × 8 and 8 × 6 are the same fact. A child who knows that (the commutative law; call it "the turn-around rule" at seven years old) has half as many facts to learn. Then take out the 1s (the number itself), the 10s (add a zero), the 2s (doubling), the 5s (half of the 10s; or "odd number, ends in 5, even number, ends in 0"), the 11s and 12s (rules below). What is left is 21 facts, listed at the bottom. Twenty-one is a fortnight's work. One hundred and forty-four is why children cry.

One trick per table

3s: the digit sum. Every answer in the 3 times table has digits that add up to 3, 6 or 9 (3 × 7 = 21, 2 + 1 = 3; 3 × 8 = 24, 2 + 4 = 6). It is a check rather than a method, but it catches nearly every wrong answer. To get the answer: double the number and add the number once more (3 × 7: 14 + 7 = 21).

4s: double, then double again. 4 × 7: double 7 is 14, double 14 is 28. Children who can double can do the whole 4 times table in two steps.

6s: for the even numbers, the answer ends in the number. 6 × 2 = 12, 6 × 4 = 24, 6 × 6 = 36, 6 × 8 = 48: the units digit is the number you multiplied by, and the tens digit is half of it. For the odd numbers, use 5 times plus one more (6 × 7 = 35 + 7 = 42) or the 3s doubled (3 × 7 = 21, doubled is 42).

7s: the honest answer. There is no clean pattern. What works: the turn-around rule covers 7 × 2, 7 × 3, 7 × 4, 7 × 5, 7 × 6, 7 × 8 (all known from other tables once those are learnt), 7 × 9 is on the 9s finger trick, and 7 × 10 is a zero. That leaves 7 × 7 = 49 alone, plus "5, 6, 7, 8" (56 = 7 × 8) as a memory hook. Two facts, not twelve.

8s: double three times. 8 × 6: 12, 24, 48. Or "double the 4s". The 8s also have a units pattern going down: 8, 16, 24, 32, 40 (units 8, 6, 4, 2, 0), then it repeats: 48, 56, 64, 72, 80.

9s: fingers, then the digit check. Hold up ten fingers. For 9 × 4, fold down the fourth finger from the left. Three fingers to the left (tens), six to the right (units): 36. It works for 9 × 1 to 9 × 10. The check: the digits add to 9 (3 + 6), and the tens digit is one less than the multiplier (4 − 1 = 3). Or: 9 × n is 10 × n minus n (9 × 7 = 70 − 7 = 63).

11s: write the digit twice. 11 × 4 = 44, 11 × 9 = 99. For 11 × 11 and 11 × 12, split: 11 × 12 = 10 × 12 + 12 = 132.

12s: the 10s plus the 2s. 12 × 7 = 70 + 14 = 84. Every 12s fact is a 10s fact plus a doubling.

The 21 facts that are actually left

Once the tricks above are automatic, these are the only facts a child has to hold in memory with no pattern to lean on:

Several of these still have a trick (the 9s row, the 4s by doubling), so the truly bare facts are about a dozen: 3 × 7, 3 × 8, 6 × 7, 6 × 8, 7 × 7, 7 × 8, 8 × 8, and the squares. Say those seven out loud twice a day for a fortnight and the table is done.

The Year 4 check, and why speed matters now

In England every Year 4 child sits the Multiplication Tables Check in June: 25 questions, drawn from the 2 to 12 times tables with the 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s and 12s weighted more heavily, six seconds to type each answer. There is no pass mark, but the school sees the score, and it is the first time a child's tables are measured on speed rather than accuracy. Six seconds is enough to recall, not enough to count up in threes. The tricks on this page are for getting a fact into memory; the practice below is for getting it out in under six seconds.

Elsewhere the same skill is assumed without a test: US Grade 3 standards expect fluency in all products up to 10 × 10 by the end of the year; CBSE Class 3 and 4 expect tables to 10 and then 12 to 15; Dutch schools teach the tafels in groep 4 and 5 and test them for automatisering (the Dutch way versus the Indian way is here).

A two-week plan, ten minutes a day

The order matters: the easy tables first so the turn-around rule does most of the work before the child ever meets a 7.

The mistakes that keep tables from sticking

1. Learning the tables in order, 1 to 12. The 7s land in the middle of the child's energy. Do 2, 10, 5, 4, 8, 9, 3, 6, 7, 11, 12.
2. Reciting the whole table each time. "Seven sevens are 49" recalled cold is the skill; chanting from 7 × 1 to reach it is counting, and it fails at six seconds.
3. Only asking forwards. Ask "what times 7 is 56?" too. Division facts are the same facts, and the Year 6 long division depends on them (long division is here).
4. Stopping when the child gets them right once. Right once is learnt; right on three different days is remembered.

Download the one-page tricks sheet (PDF)

Where to get help

A 1-on-1 online maths class from Year 2 or Grade 2 upwards, with a tutor who teaches tables as patterns and arrays first and speed second, five minutes of timed tables at the start of every class and the wrong ones tracked week to week. The KS2 SATs page covers what Year 6 assumes; the free 30-minute first class is a real lesson, and if the child is seven and stuck on the 7s, that is exactly what it will be about.

Questions parents ask

See how we teach this, 1-on-1 online →