Times tables to 4x4

Kim! What’s 6 times 8?? 48 3 times 9? 27 5 times 5? 25.

Don’t you have any hard questions?? For Kim, questions like these are as simple as that. The answers come at once, automatically. This is because they don’t calculate. They retrieve the knowledge from their memory.

The reason is simple: Kim has practised. They have learned tables for over a hundred different multiplications. These are the times tables. They have learned all the times tables by heart. Kim repeated, and repeated and repeated them so that the answers come to them automatically.

And when you know something this well, the knowledge is there forever. Here are the tables again. There are loads of digits! How can you even begin to memorise all of them? Well, by practising a few of them at the time.

Let’s start in the upper left corner. The numbers in each box of the times tables correspond with a calculation. One number times another number. One number flies in from the left. And the other one drops down from above.

In this box it becomes: 2 times 2. This is 4. In the next box: 2 times 3. This is 6. 2 times 4 is 8.

And in the next row: 3 times 1. This is 3. 3 times 2. 6. 3 times 3.

9. One calculation for each box, and gradually the table appears. Now it is time to practise. Look to the right. Here are some tasks.

Look at them, one by one, and if you know the answer, say it aloud to yourself. If you don’t know the answer, don’t try to calculate it. Don’t use your fingers. Instead look at the tables to the left. The point is to retrieve the answer from your memory.

If you cannot retrieve it from your memory, get it from the table. Now: pause the film and go through all the tasks. The more you do this, the more you’ll notice that you can get the answers from memory instead of the tables. Pause the film again, and read the tasks on the screen. Answer as quickly as you can.

You can pause again. Do you know the answers by heart now? If so you can test yourself without checking the tables. We’ll remove them from the screen. And here are the tasks, in a new order.

Pause the film again, and try to answer. Do you need some more practice? Practise some more! Keep the table at hand, and check again if an answer doesn’t come automatically. Did it go well?

Then you know the start of the one, two, three and four tables. Well done! Practise for a few minutes at a time. Try it every now and then. Take a break and then practise again.

This will soon pay off. Perhaps it’s more fun if you and a friend help each other? 3 times 3? 9 2 times 4? 8 3 times 4?

12 3 times 1? 3