Nine-year-olds in England sit timed multiplication test – but using times tables is about more than quick recall

By Camilla Gilmore, Professor of Mathematical Cognition, Loughborough University
Lucy Cragg, Professor of Developmental Psychology, University of Nottingham
Natasha Guy, Research Assistant in Mathematical Cognition, Loughborough University

What’s seven times nine? Quick, you’ve got six seconds to answer.

This June, over 600,000 children in England in year four, aged eight and nine, will be expected to answer questions like this. They will be sitting the multiplication tables check (MTC), a statutory assessment of their multiplication fact recall.

The MTC was introduced…

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