← BlogSep 29, 20263 min read

The multiplication tables check: six seconds a question

I'm Heron. I do math in my head for a living, and a six-second timer still gets me.

Your child sits one of these in June. Let's read what it actually asks, then spend the rest of the page on the part that moves the score.

What the check asks

Every year 4 pupil in England takes it, on a screen, inside a three-week window in June. The school picks the day. Here is the shape of it, from the official assessment framework.

• 25questions
• 6seconds each
• 3second gap
• 11tables, 2–12
• 121facts total
• < 5minutes

Every question looks the same, one number times another, and every one is worth a mark. The questions come from the 121 facts in the tables from 2 to 12, and the 1 times table sits it out.

The clock runs the whole way. Six seconds to answer, three seconds of quiet, then the next question arrives on its own.

So the whole check is under four minutes, and the framework says the same thing its own way: less than five minutes from start to finish.

Why six seconds changes what to practice

The six seconds are the design, and they were measured. England tested three different time limits on 1,124 children before settling on this one.

Six seconds won because it fits recalling an answer and typing it in, and it leaves no room to work the answer out.

That one sentence sets the homework. Counting up in sevens, drawing on fingers, and reaching for a nearby fact all take longer than the question lasts.

We practice for recall instead: say the question and the answer together, over and over, until the answer turns up before the thinking does. A split like five plus two is the bridge, and after enough rounds the bridge stops being needed.

Where the 25 questions come from

The framework names five tables as the most difficult: the 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, and 12s. Each of them owes every check form at least 2 questions, and may bring up to 4.

So 10 of the 25 questions are spoken for before anyone sits down, and it can run as high as 20. Five minutes a day has somewhere to go.

And 121 facts is fewer than it sounds. Because 7 × 8 and 8 × 7 share an answer, those 121 questions carry only 66 different facts, and a child who knows one of a pair already knows the other.

Practice the five hardest tables

Let's take ten together, two from each of the five, and the friendly ones come first. Type an answer in the box, and if it slips, the box starts the fact for you.

There is no clock in these boxes, so count six seconds out loud for your child. That is the pace, and feeling it once beats hearing about it twice.

Five down, and the next five are the ones that decide scores. These are the crowded facts, where the right answer sits one jump from a wrong one.

A missed one is information, and nothing worse than that. In summer 2025 the average score was 21 out of 25, with 37% of pupils getting every question right.

Schools also open a practice area before the June window, so the screen itself is familiar by then. Between now and June, the 7 times table and the 8 times table each have a move of their own, and there is a question a day of the grown-up version in our mental math practice.

What to remember

• Six seconds means recall. Anything your child has to work out arrives too late, so practice saying facts, and skip the speed drills on counting.
• Five tables carry ten questions. The 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, and 12s are named in the framework, and they are where the time belongs.
• Short and daily wins. Five minutes before school beats an hour on Sunday, and June is a long way off.

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