Parents’ Guide to the Multiplication Table Check

The Multiplication Table Check (or MTC) is a relatively new initiative, introduced in June 2022 for all children at the end of Year 4, to see how fluently they can remember their times tables up to 12. It comes on the back of research identifying the value in times table competence for other, more complex maths skills. Security in the basics is essential to unlocking success as children progress through school.

Professor Ruth Merttens gives some helpful advice to get children ready for the Year 4 multiplication test. Strategies for the tables check are discussed to help children understand multiplication.

Multiplication tables are a fundamental maths skill, on which much mathematical knowledge and ability is built. Indeed, in the highest performing education systems around the world, memorising and knowing the times tables is a cornerstone of primary education. The MTC provides just that – a check, on where students are at the halfway point of Key Stage 2 in terms of times tables mastery, what areas of challenge persist, and where support should be targeted. It’s not about passing or failing but identifying areas of need and providing for that need so that every child has the potential to succeed in numeracy by the time they get to secondary school.

Administered at school, on a computer or tablet, the check consists of three practice questions and then 25 marked questions, with children given six seconds to answer each one, and one mark allocated per question. Because of the premise behind the check there’s no expected standard or threshold to reach – it’s more about measuring fluency and implementing support than anything else. The whole check doesn’t take more than five minutes, and children don’t all need to take it simultaneously. Schools have a two-week window in which to carry out the test, so different schools and even different classes may do it on different days.

It’s hard to make times tables feel fun – they’re something that just have to be learnt, and the best way to do that is practise, practise, practise. However, making all maths (including multiplication tables) feel relevant and meaningful in everyday life can be a really useful way of bringing concepts to life and making the learning feel more impactful.

Simple multiplication challenges in relation to daily tasks like shopping, cooking, costing things or spending money can all be good ways to practise times tables in less of a rote learning fashion. However, rote learning (at least to some extent) is inevitable. There are various digital programmes that facilitate this, adding an element of competitive fun, which are worth a try. These are especially useful for identifying the specific sums which your child is struggling with, the programme then presents those sums more frequently until the knowledge is secure.

Once you know which sums are a challenge, you can target them in your own way at home as well. They can be addressed in any day-to-day maths tasks, or written out and put up in specific places around the house – near the toilet, by the coat rack on the back of the front door, to ensure they’re seen regularly, every day, to increase familiarity.

Probably the most important thing to remember at home though, is that the ambition of the MTC is to provide children with the tools they need to succeed in their mathematical education – it’s not to put them off maths forever! So it’s worth remembering that it’s hard, a bit boring, and at times – demotivating. Little and often is critical, and try not to push it…when it's time to stop, stop.