Multiplication Tips: How to Memorize Times Tables Fast
Memorizing the multiplication tables doesn't have to mean endless flashcard drilling. These nine techniques, used by teachers and tutors, help kids build real number sense while they memorize - so the facts stick for good instead of fading a week after the test. Work through them roughly in the order below: the earlier tricks unlock the easiest tables, and the later ones tackle the handful of facts that don't have an obvious shortcut.
Start with skip-counting
Before a child memorizes '7 x 4 = 28', they should be comfortable skip-counting by 7s: 7, 14, 21, 28. Skip-counting turns multiplication into a rhythm rather than an abstract fact, and it gives kids a fallback method any time they forget a fact mid-quiz. Practice counting up and down by the same number until it feels automatic, then connect it explicitly to the times table - four sevens is the same as counting by 7 four times. A number line or a row of physical objects (counters, blocks, even shoes lined up in pairs) makes the connection concrete: each skip is one more group, and the total after a certain number of skips is the times-table answer. Kids who can skip-count fluently in both directions rarely get stuck on a multiplication fact for long, because they always have a way to rebuild the answer from scratch instead of guessing.
The 9s finger trick
The 9 times table has a famous shortcut: hold up both hands, and for 9 times n, bend down the nth finger from the left. The fingers to the left of the bent one are the tens digit, and the fingers to the right are the ones digit. For 9 x 4, bending the 4th finger leaves 3 fingers on the left (30) and 6 on the right (6) - giving 36. It works for every fact from 9 x 1 to 9 x 10 and turns the 'hard' 9s into one of the easiest tables in the set. It's also a good trick to teach first, precisely because 9 looks intimidating on paper - showing a child an easy way through it tends to make the rest of the tables feel more approachable too.
Doubling for 2, 4, and 8
The 2, 4, and 8 times tables are really just doubling, done once, twice, or three times. Once a child knows a number's double, they already know its 2 times table fact. Double that answer again and they have the 4 times table. Double it once more and they have the 8 times table. This turns three tables that look separate into one skill practiced at three different depths, which is far less to memorize from scratch. It also means doubling practice pays off well beyond these three tables - quick mental doubling is useful for estimating, for checking answers, and later for working with fractions and percentages. A simple daily drill (double 3, double 7, double 12, then double that again) builds the underlying skill without ever mentioning 'times table' at all, which is a good option for a child who feels discouraged by the word 'test'.
Master 3s and 6s with a doubling bridge
The 3 and 6 times tables often get treated as two separate, unrelated lists - but 6 is simply double 3, the same relationship that connects 2, 4, and 8. Once a child is confident with the 3 times table (3, 6, 9, 12, 15...), the 6 times table becomes 'double whatever 3 gives you': 6 x 4 is double of 3 x 4 (12), so 24. This bridge is especially useful because 3 and 6 sit right in the middle of the difficulty curve - harder than 2, 5, and 10, but more approachable than 7, 8, and 9 - so mastering this connection early builds momentum before the trickier tables show up. A quick check for understanding: ask for 3 x 7, then ask a child to double it without recalculating from scratch. If they can do that instantly, the 6s are essentially already learned.
Spot the patterns in 11s and 5s
Some tables reward pattern-spotting more than pure memorization. For the 11 times table (up to 11 x 9), the answer simply repeats the digit twice - 11 x 3 = 33, 11 x 7 = 77. For the 5 times table, every answer ends in 0 or 5, and it's always half of the matching 10 times fact (5 x 6 is half of 10 x 6, so 30). Pointing these patterns out explicitly gives kids a shortcut they can rely on under pressure. The habit of looking for a pattern first, before reaching for rote memorization, is arguably more valuable than any single trick - it's the same instinct that later helps with recognizing multiples, simplifying fractions, and spotting number patterns in algebra. Encourage a child to ask 'is there a shortcut here?' before every new table, even when the answer turns out to be no.
Use spaced repetition, not cramming
The single biggest factor in long-term memorization is spacing practice out over days and weeks rather than cramming it into one long session. Ten focused minutes a day for two weeks beats a two-hour session the night before a test. Mix old and new facts in every session, and prioritize the facts a child gets wrong more often - that's exactly how our flashcards review queue works, resurfacing a missed fact sooner than one that's already solid. Spaced repetition feels slower in the moment because progress is less visible day to day, but it's dramatically more durable: facts learned this way tend to stay recalled months later, not just until the following week's quiz. If you only have time for one change to how a child studies, switching from occasional long sessions to short daily ones is usually the highest-leverage change available.
Turn wrong answers into a personal review list
Every child gets certain facts wrong more often than others - often the same handful, again and again. Rather than re-drilling the entire table from 1 to 12 every session, keep a short running list of the specific facts that trip a child up (commonly things like 7 x 8, 6 x 9, or 8 x 7) and review just those more frequently. This is the same principle behind a Leitner-style flashcard system: facts a child gets right move to a longer review interval, while facts they miss come back sooner. It turns a generic 'practice multiplication' session into a targeted one that closes real gaps faster, and it keeps sessions shorter, because a child isn't re-answering facts they've already mastered. Our flashcards mode builds this review queue automatically, so a fact a child got stuck on last week is exactly the one that resurfaces first today.
Check for true fluency with mixed, timed practice
Knowing a fact and being fluent in it are different things - a child who counts on fingers to reach '7 x 8 = 56' technically knows the fact, but isn't yet fluent, because fluency means recalling it instantly, in under two or three seconds, without conscious calculation. The best way to test for real fluency is mixed, randomized, lightly timed practice across the full 1-12 range, rather than reciting one table in order from memory. Reciting a table in sequence lets a child predict the next answer from the previous one, which hides gaps that a randomized quiz would expose immediately. Once a child can handle a shuffled set of facts from different tables with a gentle timer running, that's a much stronger sign of durable mastery than a smooth, in-order recitation - and it's a good moment to introduce a slightly faster pace to keep building speed.
Putting the tricks together
No single trick replaces practice, but combining them cuts the real memorization workload dramatically. Start with skip-counting as the foundation, lean on doubling to connect 2-4-8 and 3-6, use the 9s finger trick and the 11s repeated-digit pattern as instant shortcuts for two tables that look intimidating on paper, and let 5 and 10 stay easy because their patterns already do the work. That leaves 7 as the only fact family without a reliable shortcut - which is exactly why it benefits most from the spaced-repetition and personal-review-list approach above. Most children who follow this order end up memorizing the full 1-12 set faster than they would tackling it as 144 unrelated facts, simply because they're really only memorizing a handful of patterns and one genuinely 'hard' table.