Should my child learn one times table at a time?

Learning one table at a time seems logical: master it, then move on. It's how most workbooks and apps are structured, and it's how most parents remember being taught. The research tells a different story.

What the research says

The intuition behind learning one table at a time — master it, then move on — is understandable but inconsistent with the evidence. A study comparing interleaved practice (mixed questions from all tables) with blocked practice (one table at a time) found that blocked practice produced higher scores immediately after learning, but interleaved practice produced significantly better retention one month later: 61% vs 38% (from a randomized controlled trial with seventh-grade students, Rohrer, Dedrick & Stershic, 2015).

The reason is well understood: drilling one table at a time allows children to use the pattern of the sequence rather than retrieving individual facts. 7×1, 7×2, 7×3 can be navigated by counting — the actual memory for each fact is never fully tested. Mixed practice forces true retrieval for each question individually.

Separately, research on interference between multiplication facts shows that even within a practice session, grouping similar facts together (such as 6×7 and 7×7) makes learning harder because the facts compete with each other in memory. Both effects — interleaving and interference management — point in the same direction: mixed practice, carefully sequenced, produces better long-term recall.

What this means in practice

The MTC itself is interleaved — 25 questions from all tables, in no predictable order. Preparing for it by drilling one table at a time creates a mismatch between practice and test conditions.

Try this

• Introduce new tables one at a time, but always practise them in mixed sessions that include previously learned tables.
• If your child scores well on a single-table drill but struggles with random questions, that’s a sign the fact isn’t truly memorised.
• Accept that mixed practice will feel harder to your child. That difficulty is the learning.

Last reviewed: 2026-08-01