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My child gets 6×7 right at home but wrong in the test. Why?
It's one of the most frustrating things when preparing for the MTC: a child answers confidently at home and then freezes during the test. It's not vague performance anxiety: there's a precise neurological explanation.
What the research says
Maths anxiety has a precise, well-documented mechanism: it takes up the working memory needed to remember. Ashcraft and Krause’s research showed that the effect is real, measurable, and hits hardest the most capable children, the ones who care about getting it right.
A study of middle school students found that those with high maths anxiety were at a disadvantage specifically on timed tasks, not untimed ones. The timer, not the maths, set it off. Another study confirmed that maths anxiety interferes specifically with recall, not with other mental processes.
What this means in practice
The gap between how it goes at home and how it goes on a test doesn’t mean your child doesn’t know the tables. It means recall isn’t automatic enough yet to hold up under stress. The answer is to practise recall in calm conditions until it becomes a reflex.
Try this
- If your child is already anxious, don’t recreate test pressure at home. Build recall first, then gradually make them aware of time.
- Celebrate fast answers instead of focusing on wrong ones. Before adding pressure, the goal is speed in calm conditions.
- If the anxiety is strong, talk to the class teacher: the MTC has access arrangements for some children.
Sources
- Ashcraft & Krause (2007) — peer-reviewed study
Last reviewed: 2026-08-01