Times tables to 7x7

Repetition is the mother of learning. Maybe you have heard this expression before. It's a bit of a complicated way of saying something quite simple: Repeating, practising, is a good way to learn. A soccer player who wants to be good at free kicks needs to practise. The very best players in the world have kicked many thousands of free kicks.

It’s not enough to watch skilled players on TV and decide to do it the same way. You have to put in the time and the effort. You have to practise actively. A saxophone player who wants to learn a difficult tune has to practise it, again and again. Listening to the song can be inspiring, but it’s not enough to learn.

You have to practise actively. And the same goes for anyone who wants to learn the times tables. You have to repeat the answers many times, practise actively. Repetition works especially well when you retrieve a piece of knowledge from your memory, as opposed to reading it again. To retrieve knowledge from memory is to practise actively.

Every time you retrieve a memory from your brain, the connections which build the memory are strengthened. The memory becomes more obvious, and when you have repeated it enough times that it becomes knowledge and gets stuck forever. The knowledge pops up automatically when someone asks for it. You don’t need to think or calculate anything. Repetition is the mother of learning.

Hopefully you have repeated all the multiplications with the number 1 to 6. You might have learned these 36 multiplications so well that the answers come automatically! In that case, it’s time to move on. We’ll continue with the start of the seven’s table and practise the same way as before. Let’s place the tables on the left, and fade out all the boxes except the one we will practise.

The tasks will appear to the right. Pause the film and read the tasks one by one. Retrieve the answer from your memory, and say it out loud. If you don’t find the answer, don’t calculate. Retrieve the answer in the table instead.

Remember to say it out loud! You can do this as many times you wish. Take a break now and again. Do something else for a few hours, or wait until the next day. Letting the brain rest for a while helps learning.

When you know everything so well that the answers come automatically, it’s time to practise without the support of the tables to the left. Let’s remove the table. Here are the tasks again, in another order. Repetition is the mother of learning, and now you have repeated, practised, all the multiplications with the numbers 1 to 7. How many is this altogether?

Well, 7 times 7 multipl … - 49 Yes. 7 times 7, that is 49 multiplications. Almost half the times table. Well done!