How to learn multiplication facts: a 6-week practice plan

How long it takes to learn multiplication facts

Many children can make strong progress on the facts up to 10 × 10 well in about six weeks of short daily practice, as long as they already understand what multiplication means. Some need longer, especially for the 6s, 7s and 8s, and that is normal. What makes it fast is not drilling harder but cutting down how many facts need to be memorized and practising in a way that sticks.

Expectations vary by province. British Columbia, for example, expects students to recall the 2s, 5s and 10s by the end of Grade 4 and many more facts (such as the 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s and 10s) by the end of Grade 5, with fluency growing from there. Check your own provincial curriculum or ask your child's teacher what is expected this year.

Before starting, make sure your child can show what 4 × 3 means with objects: 4 groups of 3, or an array of 4 rows and 3 columns. If that idea is shaky, spend a week on arrays and skip counting first. The skip counting guide is a good place to begin.

Why there are fewer facts than it looks

A 10 by 10 table has 100 facts. Because 6 × 8 and 8 × 6 have the same answer (the commutative property), there are only 55 different ones. Take away the facts with 1, 2, 5 or 10 in them, which most children learn quickly, then the 9s, which have a neat pattern, and the square numbers such as 7 × 7. What is left is ten facts:

Showing a child this short list can be motivating: the job is much smaller than it looked.

Multiplication strategies that make facts easier

Each strategy links a new fact to one the child already knows. The goal is to use the strategy for a while and then let it fade as the answer becomes automatic.

The 9s also have two patterns children enjoy spotting. For 9 × 2 up to 9 × 10, the tens digit is one less than the number you multiply by, and the two digits add up to 9. So 9 × 6 starts with 5, and 5 + 4 = 9, giving 54. Ask your child to check the pattern for themselves on 9 × 3 = 27 and 9 × 8 = 72 rather than just taking it on trust.

The 6-week multiplication plan

Each week adds new facts and keeps all the earlier ones in the mix. If a week's facts are not mostly in the instant pile by Friday, repeat the week. Moving on too early is a common reason children stall at the 7s and 8s.

In week 6, connect each fact to division. If 7 × 8 = 56, then 56 ÷ 8 = 7 and 56 ÷ 7 = 8. This is not extra work. Seeing the family of facts strengthens all of them. If your child's class covers facts up to 12 × 12, add a week 7 for the 11s and 12s; 12 × n is 10 × n plus 2 × n.

What ten minutes of daily practice looks like

Research on learning consistently favours two habits: spreading practice out over time and practising by recalling answers rather than rereading them. A widely cited review of study techniques by Dunlosky and colleagues rated practice testing and distributed practice as the two most useful strategies it examined. An earlier United States Institute of Education Sciences practice guide on struggling maths students recommended about ten minutes in each intervention session on building fluent recall of basic arithmetic facts. A daily ten-minute routine fits both ideas.

1. Warm-up (2 minutes). Five or six facts from earlier weeks, said aloud.
2. New strategy (3 minutes). Build two or three of this week's facts as arrays or say the strategy out loud: 6 × 7 is 5 sevens and 1 more seven, 35 + 7 = 42.
3. Recall quiz (4 minutes). About 20 mixed facts on paper or cards, answered from memory. Mix this week's facts with older ones.
4. Check and sort (1 minute). Mark with the answer key straight away and move cards between piles.

Keep it short and keep it daily. Five days of ten minutes beats one fifty-minute session. Printable mixed practice is in the Grade 3 arithmetic worksheets and Grade 4 arithmetic worksheets, and our times tables guide explains the patterns in more depth.

How to track which facts your child knows

Use three piles of cards or three columns on a chart: instant, strategy, and not yet. A fact is instant when the answer comes from memory without counting or skip counting from the start. A fact in the strategy pile is answered correctly but with some working out, which is a perfectly good stage. Not yet means wrong or no answer.

• Move a card up one pile only after it has been right on two different days.
• Spend most of the quiz on the strategy and not-yet piles, with a few instant facts so nothing is forgotten.
• Colour in a 10 by 10 grid as facts become instant. Children like seeing the grid fill, and colouring a fact also colours its turnaround.
• Write the date at the top of each quiz so you can see progress over the weeks, not just today's score.

If you use timed sheets, keep the focus on a child beating their own earlier score rather than a class ranking. Speed comes from knowing the facts well, so accuracy is the thing to watch first.

What to do when a child gets stuck

Many children hit a plateau around week 4 or 5. A few changes usually help.

• Shrink the set. Practise only three tricky facts for a few days, mixed with easy ones so the session still feels successful.
• Go back to the picture. Draw 7 × 6 as an array and split it into 5 × 6 and 2 × 6. Seeing why the strategy works helps it stick.
• Say the fact as a sentence. Seven sixes are forty-two. Some children remember the sound better than the written form.
• Check the basics. If the 2s and 5s are slow, the strategies that build on them will be slow too. Strengthen those first.

If progress stays very slow for many weeks despite steady practice, talk to the classroom teacher. A short Grade 4 maths check can also show whether the trouble is with facts alone or with earlier number skills.