The Maths GCSE exam includes a whole sec­tion where you are not allowed to use a cal­cu­la­tor. It really helps, if you not only know your times tables, but are also very quick.

Many peo­ple learn times tables up to the 5 times table and then strug­gle with the 6, 7, 8 and 9 times tables. This is a blind spot. You just need to use a few facts and tricks to make it a lot eas­ier.

This video is only about 2 min­utes and after watch­ing it you will feel a lot more confident:


 Just by read­ing this post, and under­stand­ing the logic behind it,  you will real­ize that there is noth­ing to fear about times tables. You will gain con­fi­dence and know that you can become a times table expert in about 1 hour.

Did you know that, once you have learned times tables up to the 5 times table (and the 10 times table), you only need to learn 6 more sums to con­quer all the times tables up to the 10 times table?

These 6 key sums are:

6 x 6 = 36

6 x 7 = 42

6 x 8 = 48

7 x 7 = 49

7 x 8 = 56

8 x 8 = 64

How can this be so? Break­ing it down:

1) Every­one should learn a trick to deal with the 9 times table. There are a num­ber of tricks.

Per­haps the sim­plest is:

Using 6 x 9 = 54 as example

First digit of answer = Mul­ti­plier (in this case 6) = 6 — 1 = 5

Sec­ond digit of answer = 9 — first digit of answer = 9 — 5 = 4

Answer = 54

Using the same method for 9 x 9 gives:-

9 — 1 = 8

9 — 8 = 1

There­fore 9 x 9 = 81

This works all the way from 1 x 9 to 10 x 9.

Just prac­tice using this rule a few times and you will have the nine times table beaten.

2) Now you know:

a) The times tables up to the 5 times table

b) The 10 times table

c) The 9 times table

d) The 6 key sums (6 x 6 = 36 , 6 x 7 = 42, 6 x 8 = 48 , 7 x 7 = 49 , 7 x 8 =56 , 8 x 8 =64)

All the other sums are worked out by revers­ing one of the sums cov­ered by (a),(b),(c) or (d) above.

For exam­ple: 5 x 9 is the reverse of 9 x 5 (from the five times table) and 7 x 6 is the reverse of 6 x 7 (one of the 6 key sums).

You will find that if you read through this post a few times the logic, tricks and even the 6 key sums will stick and you will become super fast with all your times tables.

What do you think? Do you have any tricks or advice that helped you learn your times tables?

Please do share in the below comments