If the times tables feel like 144 separate things your child has to memorise, the real picture is kinder than that. Almost all of it is easy, repeated, or both. Clear those away and the genuinely hard part is astonishingly small.
It comes down to six facts. The same six, for almost every child.
How 144 becomes six
Follow the subtractions. The 2s, 5s, 10s and 11s run on patterns a child can see at a glance, so they go first. The 3s, 4s and 9s come quickly with a little daily practice, so they go too. And because order doesn't matter, every fact you learn one way you also know the other: 6 × 7 hands you 7 × 6 for free.
Keep crossing them off and a small, stubborn core is left standing:
- 6 × 7 = 42
- 6 × 8 = 48
- 7 × 8 = 56
Three facts. Their reverses (7 × 6, 8 × 6 and 8 × 7) are the same three, which is where "six" comes from. That is the whole hard part of the times tables: three sums.
Your child hasn't got 138 facts left to learn. They have got three. The reverses come free, because 6 × 7 is the same sum as 7 × 6.
Why these three, and not others
They share the worst possible combination. Both numbers are big and neither has a pattern to lean on. They also sit a long way from the 5s and 10s children anchor off. 7 × 8 is the famous one, and plenty of adults still pause on it. I still feel the half-second catch on it myself, decades on. There is no shame in a fact being hard, and no reason at all to treat the other 141 as if they were hard too.
How to beat the six
A trick can help here as a bridge, but the finish line is the same as ever. The fact has to become automatic, fast enough to beat a six-second clock. A few ways in:
- 7 × 8 = 56: read it as 5, 6, 7, 8, so "56 = 7 × 8". The digits run in sequence, and it is surprisingly hard to forget once you have seen it.
- 6 × 8 = 48: think of it as 8 × 6, which is 8 × 3 (24) doubled to 48.
- 6 × 7 = 42: anchor off 6 × 6 = 36, then add one more 6.
Use the bridge to reach the answer, then drill it the proven way, asked at random, a few minutes most days, until the bridge is no longer needed.
When you want to drill only these, the multiplication practice questions and the interactive times tables grid let you focus on the stubborn corner instead of grinding the whole grid again.
Picture the times tables as a short walk with three steep steps: 6 × 7, 6 × 8 and 7 × 8. The rest is flat ground. Spend your time on the steps and leave the rest alone.
Sources: Standards & Testing Agency, "Multiplication Tables Check" guidance (DfE); Dunlosky et al. (2013), "Improving Students' Learning With Effective Learning Techniques".
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