TablesThe times table facts children get wrong most
Teachers see the same handful of facts missed again and again. They sit in the middle of the tables of 6, 7, 8 and 9, where there is no easy pattern and the answers sound alike. This page lists them, with a sure route to each. Work on one or two at a time, not the whole list.
The hard dozen
| Fact | Answer | A route to it |
|---|---|---|
| 6 × 7 | 42 | 5 sevens are 35, and one more 7 |
| 6 × 8 | 48 | 5 eights are 40, and one more 8 |
| 6 × 9 | 54 | 6 tens are 60, less 6 |
| 7 × 7 | 49 | 5 sevens are 35, and 2 sevens are 14 |
| 7 × 8 | 56 | 5 eights are 40, and 2 eights are 16. Or remember 5, 6, 7, 8: 56 = 7 × 8 |
| 7 × 9 | 63 | 7 tens are 70, less 7 |
| 8 × 8 | 64 | double 8 three times: 16, 32, 64 |
| 8 × 9 | 72 | 8 tens are 80, less 8 |
| 9 × 9 | 81 | 9 tens are 90, less 9 |
| 4 × 7 | 28 | double 7, and double again: 14, 28 |
| 4 × 8 | 32 | double 8, and double again: 16, 32 |
| 3 × 8 | 24 | double 8 is 16, and one more 8 |
Why these are hard
Small facts get asked thousands of times in daily life. Large ones, such as 7 × 8, come up less often, so they get less practice. They also arrive late: by the time a class reaches the table of 8, many children are tired of tables. And several answers sound close when spoken quickly, such as fifty-four and fifty-six, or sixty-three and sixty-four.
Mix-ups to watch for
- 54 and 56. 54 belongs to 6 × 9. 56 belongs to 7 × 8. A check: 54 has digits adding to 9, so it must be in the table of 9.
- 63 and 64. 63 is 7 × 9 and its digits add to 9. 64 is 8 × 8, an even number made from doubling.
- 42 and 48. 42 is 6 × 7. 48 is 6 × 8. Six times an even number ends in that number: 6 × 8 ends in 8.
- Adding instead of multiplying. A child who writes 6 × 7 = 13 has slipped into addition. Go back to rows of beans for a minute.
- One row off. Writing 7 × 8 = 49 or 63 means the child is counting along the table and has stopped a row early or late. A direct route, such as 40 + 16, fixes this better than recounting.
How to fix a stubborn fact
- Pick one fact. Say it, write it, and say its route aloud.
- Ask it again after two other questions, then after five, then at the end of the sitting.
- Ask it once the next morning before anything else.
- Ask its turn-around (8 × 7 for 7 × 8) and its two division facts (56 ÷ 7 and 56 ÷ 8).
Four small askings spread over two days do more than twenty repeats in one go. The practice page has a "hard facts" set that asks only these.
A quick check for any answer
- An odd number times an odd number is odd. Anything else is even. So 7 × 7 cannot be 48.
- A multiple of 5 ends in 5 or 0.
- A multiple of 9 has digits that add to 9.
- The answer must lie between the two nearby easy facts: 7 × 8 is more than 7 × 7 = 49 and less than 7 × 10 = 70.