In this article
Every Year 4 child at a state-funded school in England takes the multiplication tables check in June. If your child is in Year 3 or 4, you may have heard about it from school, often alongside a request to practise times tables at home.
The check is short and there is no pass mark. What it measures is worth understanding, though, because that tells you how to practise.
1. What the check involves
| Details | |
|---|---|
| Who | Year 4 pupils at state-funded schools in England |
| When | June |
| Format | On screen, 25 questions |
| Time | 6 seconds per question, about 5 minutes in all including 3 practice questions |
| Tables covered | Up to 12 × 12 |
| Pass mark | None |
Your child's teacher will tell you the score. Schools can use a try-it-out area from April, so children see the format before the real check.
2. What 6 seconds tells you
Six seconds is too short to work most answers out. A child who reaches 7 × 8 by counting up in sevens, or by finding 7 × 4 and doubling it, may get the right answer and still run out of time. The check is measuring recall: whether the fact is already there when it's needed.
That matters well beyond Year 4. Times tables sit inside fractions, division, area, ratio and algebra in every later year. A child who has to work out 6 × 7 each time is spending their attention on that instead of on the new idea in the lesson.
3. The facts that cause most trouble
Most children know the 2, 5 and 10 times tables early. The facts that hold out longest tend to be in the 6, 7, 8, 9 and 12 tables, with a few that come up again and again: 6 × 8, 7 × 8, 6 × 7, 7 × 7, 8 × 8 and 12 × 7.
There are fewer facts to learn than the 144 squares on a 12 × 12 grid suggest. Once a child knows 3 × 8 they also know 8 × 3. Take out the 1 and 10 times tables, count each pair once, and 55 facts are left. For most children, only 10 to 15 of those are the real problem.
4. How to practise at home
- Find the missing facts first. Go through a mixed set with your child and note the ones that are slow or wrong. Practise those, and leave the rest.
- Mix the order. Reciting the 7 times table from 1 × 7 lets a child count along. A question on its own, such as 7 × 8, doesn't.
- Keep it short. Five minutes most days does more than a long session at the weekend.
- Use the gaps in the day. The walk to school, the car or the wait for tea all work for three or four quick questions.
- Go easy on the stopwatch. Speed comes from knowing the fact. If timing makes your child anxious, drop it and the speed will follow.
5. If the score is lower than you hoped
There's no pass mark and no resit. A low score isn't a judgement on your child, and it doesn't follow them to secondary school as a label. It's a list of facts still to learn, and there's plenty of time to learn them. Ask the teacher what they've noticed in class, then carry on with short, regular practice of the facts that are missing.
6. Start with the facts that are missing
Practising all twelve tables evenly wastes most of the time on facts your child already knows. Ivy Maths Year 4 Skill Practice covers multiplication facts, so you can see quickly which ones are slow or wrong. This week, sit down with your child for one Year 4 Skill Practice set on multiplication, write down the facts they hesitated on, and make those the five-minute focus for the next fortnight.