Multiplication tables

The tables

• 1 times table
• 2 times table
• 3 times table
• 4 times table
• 5 times table
• 6 times table
• 7 times table
• 8 times table
• 9 times table
• 10 times table
• 11 times table
• 12 times table

Half as much to learn

Order doesn’t matter: 7 × 8 = 8 × 7. If you know 6 × 7, you already know 7 × 6. Of the 100 results from 1 × 1 to 10 × 10, only 55 are left to remember, and far fewer once the 1 and 10 times tables are set aside.

Lean on the easy tables

• × 2 is doubling; × 4, doubling twice; × 8, three times: 8 × 6 is 12, 24, 48.
• × 5 is half of × 10: 5 × 8 = 80 ÷ 2 = 40.
• × 9 is × 10 minus the number once: 9 × 7 = 70 − 7 = 63.

The squares, then their neighbors

Squares are easy to remember: 6 × 6 = 36, 7 × 7 = 49, 8 × 8 = 64. Their neighbor follows: 7 × 8 is 7 × 7 + 7 = 56.

The hardest ones

6 × 7 = 42, 6 × 8 = 48, 7 × 8 = 56, 7 × 9 = 63, 8 × 9 = 72: these are the ones that resist the most. Review them on their own, a few minutes a day.

Practice

Recite a table, then quiz yourself out of order: that’s what counts in mental math. The Multiplication mode chains multiplications, divisions, additions and subtractions: the tables keep coming back.