Hi folks, My 16-year-old daughter is on home leave studying for GCSEs in a few weeks. Bright kid with no problems and works hard BUT… seems to have a huge mental block with maths tables. 3 x 3 = 9 is fine but 7 x 8 = ? or 9 x 6 = ? just doesn’t stay in the mind. Fine for a day and then a blank in 24 hours. Or a guess. This really holds her back not only in maths but other science subjects as well. Anyone been in a similar situation and got any (sensible) suggestions or memory/learning tricks please. Many thanks – David

 

Here's a trick I used when I was a kid. Just keep adding the number with the number of times that number is multiplied.

i.e.
2 x 4 = 2+2+2+2 = 8

or 3 x 5 = 3+3+3+3+3 = 15

Worked for me..

 

You might want to try spliting it into two bits, just learn tables upto 5. then work out the other value and add them together. So 7x8 becomes 7*5 + 7*3. Sometimes people get confused when then see something like 3 x 68, best thing to do is 68 x 3 which is much easier. Take 9 X 6, so 6 * 10 - 6.

Simon

 

Thanks K & S - much appreciated. D

 

Katana -- that's not a trick, that's exactly what multiplication is

Learning tables is just short-cutting the addition process.

 

Yeah I know, but thats the easiest way to explain to a child (in my case anyway). I used to be confused myself about memmorizing these tables. Once you're able to see a pattern, it would become second nature to you.

 

You can try increasing one of the numbers to 10 then doing a bit of mental gymnastics:

6*9, change the 9 to 10 so 6*10 = 60 then reduce by that extra 6 = 54.
6*8 ..... 6*10 = 60, subtract the two extra sixes = 48.

Like I said, it does require a bit of mental gymnastics but it does also give you a gross error check in the process (e.g. 6*9 can't be more than 60 etc etc)

 

I don't know of any techniques to make learning the tables themselves easier, sadly. However, I'm a fan of the trick of changing one of the numbers to an easy one, then adding or subtracting the difference afterwards. For example, 7x8 becomes 7x10 minus 7x2, 70 minus 14, 56. It still takes a bit of working out, and it'll never be fast, but it does reduce the risk of silly mistakes.

I remember having trouble with the 6, 7, 8 and 9 times tables, but I ended up with an engineering degree anyway. Much as I'm against the idea in principle, if learning tables is the only problem, and the basic understanding of the problems being solved is there, then is using a calculator really so bad?

Andy.

 

I'm poor at mental arithmetic - Still got an A in maths though. IMHO it doesn't matter too much as they allow calculators in the exams these days - I think you just have to learn the tables parrot fashion if you want to know 7x8 in a split second there is no measure of ability at maths involved, just memory. It never held me back in maths or physics and I have studied biology/chemistry to pretty much the highest level. I was used to coming somewhere near top of the class so I always felt a bit divvy when we had mental arithmetic tests and I didn't do too well. The only other pain in the butt is trying to work out splitting restaurant bills or converting currency on holiday in my head (or fuel economy calculations - I can never make that add up for the Scooby!!!.) In the real world you always have a calculator on your desk or you are working at a PC anyway with a calculator on it.

The only one with a trick I think is 11 times tables. Up to 10 is easy then for double digit numbers add the two digits together and put the number you get between the 2 digits

eg for 27 x 11
do 2 + 7 = 9, then put the 9 between the 2 and the 7
so 27 x 11 = 297

 

I think the problem is there is no way of learning the tables without memorizing them parrot fashion. The trouble is that 'parrot fashion' is not in vogue in 'nu-teaching' so that's not how multiplication is learnt any more

(Don't get me started on the science experiments with no clear goals at the outset....)

 

Thanks for input everyone. Boring I know but important to me and my gal! In fact calculators are banned from some exams. I didn't know the 11 times trick so I have learnt something. I very much agree with the "rounding" up idea i.e. 14 x 9 is much easier if you do 14 x 10 and take away 14 (although it is easy to take away 9 instead by mistake!). I don't think there is any getting away from the parrot type learning and just sticking at it. As it happens I was a parent governor at a small primary school and moaned that the 7-year-olds were leaving without knowing their tables as I think it is easier the younger you are. Thanks from sad old dad.

 

The 9 times table is relatively easy as each side goes up or down by one in sequence.

9
1 8
2 7
3 6
4 5
5 4
6 3
7 2
8 1
9 0

9 9
10 8

 

At the end of the day you just have to get used to the numbers involved.There are tecniques around for memorising peoples names but ask your daughter how she remembers all her class mates? She just does because she knows them all. The problem is she probably wants to just get the hang of it and then get through her exams... and never bother with mental arethmatic again!!!!

 

I'm kinda interested in this as my math skills are well, to be blunt, very bad. hell my handwriting aint that good either (why do you think I work with computers )

 

Like I said farmiliarity and practice. I bet all the people on here will say there hand writing has suffered because of using computers, I know mine has

 

You can also "check" that a multiplication by 9 is correct by adding the digits of the number together - they should come to 9 or a multiple of nine.

i.e. 3 * 9 = 27 (2 + 7 = 9)