How to Learn Times Tables

Updated 7 October 2026

Knowing the times tables by heart makes everything else in math faster — division, fractions, percentages and every mental-arithmetic shortcut lean on them. The good news is that you don't have to grind through 144 facts. Most of them come free.

Which times tables facts are actually hard?

Only six facts in the 12 × 12 grid are truly hard: 6 × 6 = 36, 6 × 7 = 42, 6 × 8 = 48, 7 × 7 = 49, 7 × 8 = 56 and 7 × 9 = 63. The grid holds 144 facts, but most come free. The ×1 and ×10 rows follow rules, ×2 is doubling, and ×5 and ×9 have patterns. Every fact also has a twin, since 3 × 8 = 8 × 3, so learning one fact learns two. What is left is the middle of the grid, with no pattern to lean on. If a learner does not yet know the 5s, start there: the quickest route to 6 × 7 is 5 × 7 + 7 = 35 + 7 = 42, so learn the 5s first. To check, build a hard fact from an easy one: 7 × 8 is 7 × 4 = 28, doubled to 56.

Start with the full 144 and take away everything that isn't really memorization:

• ×1 and ×10 are rules, not facts. That's 36 gone.
• ×2 is doubling, which almost everyone can already do. And ×5 and ×9 have patterns so strong they barely need learning (below).
• Every fact has a twin. 3 × 8 and 8 × 3 are the same fact. That halves whatever is left.

What survives is a small core — roughly 6×7, 6×8, 7×8, 7×9, 6×6 and 7×7. They are highlighted in the grid below.

The tricks worth knowing, table by table

×9 — on your fingers

Hold up ten fingers. For 9 × 4, fold down the 4th finger: 3 fingers to the left (30) and 6 to the right $\left(6\right)\to$(6) → 36.

×5 — halve, then ×10

$5\times 8\to$5 × 8 → half of 8 is $4\to$4 → 40. Every answer ends in 0 or 5, and the ×5 trick page does odd numbers too, with figures.

×4 — double, then double again

$4\times 7\to 14\to$4 × 7 → 14 → 28. Similarly ×8 is double, double, double.

×11 — repeat the digit

For single digits, just double it up: 11 × 7 = 77. For two digits, add the digits and drop the sum in the middle: $11\times 23\to 2\left(2+3\right)3\to$11 × 23 → 2 (2+3) 3 → 253. The ×11 trick page handles digits that add past 9, and three-digit numbers.

×3 — double it, then add one more

$3\times 7\to$3 × 7 → double 7 is 14, plus $7\to$7 → 21. Useful while the 3s are still settling.

×6 — the ×5 you already know, plus one more

$6\times 7\to 5\times 7=35$6 × 7 → 5 × 7 = 35, plus $7\to$7 → 42. This is the fastest route into the hard middle of the grid, because the 5s are easy.

What does the times-table grid show?

The times-table grid shows every product in one square: the number where a row meets a column is the row number times the column number. Find row 4 and column 6, and the cell holds 24, because 4 × 6 = 24. Each product is also a rectangle of squares, 4 rows of 6, and that is why the grid is symmetric: turn the rectangle on its side and it becomes 6 rows of 4, the same 24 squares. So 6 × 4 = 4 × 6, and every fact on one side of the diagonal repeats on the other. For the tables from 3 to 9, that cuts 49 cells down to 28 different facts. The diagonal is the case with no twin: 7 × 7 = 49 is a square number, and it appears only once. To check a cell, count along its row in steps of the column number: 6, 12, 18, 24 reaches 4 × 6 in four steps.

A useful one to hold on to: 56 = 7 × 8 reads as 5, 6, 7, 8.

Times tables practice

Pick a table and answer as many as you can in sixty seconds.

How do you practice times tables so they stick?

Practice times tables in mixed order for a few minutes every day, and bring each fact back sooner when you miss it and later when you get it right. A good session is five minutes of questions such as 7 × 8, then 3 × 9, then 6 × 4, never one table in order. Mixed order works because each answer has to be pulled from memory, and every time a fact is pulled out it becomes easier to find the next time. Spread over days, they last longer than a crammed hour. A fact that keeps going wrong, such as 7 × 8 = 56, gets its own plan: take it out of the timed questions, build it from a fact you know, 7 × 4 = 28 doubled, and put it back once it comes right three times running. Speed comes last, after accuracy. To check that a table has stuck, ask its facts in random order a week later.

Mix the order

Reciting "3, 6, 9, 12…" builds a chain, not recall: asked 3 × 7 cold, a chain-learner counts from the start.

Short and daily

Five minutes a day beats an hour on Sunday: ten retrievals spread over ten days are worth more than fifty in one sitting.

Let the gap grow

The growing gap is called spaced repetition, and it is why a good practice app beats a paper worksheet — the worksheet asks everything equally, whether you needed it or not.

Chase speed only after accuracy

Timing a fact that isn't secure teaches guessing. Get it right reliably first, then let it get quick — which it will, on its own.

What does a four-week times tables plan look like?

A four-week plan learns the easy tables first and saves the six hard facts for last, with five minutes of mixed practice a day. Week 1 covers the ×1, ×2, ×5 and ×10 tables, which follow rules: 7 × 10 = 70, and 7 × 5 = 35 is half of that. Week 2 adds the 9s on your fingers and the 3s by doubling and adding one more, so 3 × 8 = 16 + 8 = 24. Week 3 adds the 4s and 8s by doubling: 8 × 6 is 6 doubled three times, 12, 24, then 48. Week 4 is the six hard facts, such as 6 × 7 and 7 × 8, one a day. Each week leans on the one before, and earlier tables stay in the mix so nothing fades. If a week's facts are still slow, repeat that week. To check the plan worked, ask twenty mixed facts at the end.

• Week 1: the free ones — ×1, ×2, ×5, ×10.
• Week 2: ×9 and ×3, with week 1 still in the mix.
• Week 3: ×4 and ×8, with weeks 1-2 still in the mix.
• Week 4: the hard core — six facts, one week.

The Daily Challenge is free and needs no account. Related guides: Arithmetic Methods, Division and 36 Math Tricks and Number Shortcuts, and Why Each One Works.

Once recall is automatic, the shortcuts in mental math tricks are the natural next step — nearly all of them assume the tables are instant.