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At what age do children learn times tables?
Children are expected to know their times tables by the end of Year 4, but it's worth understanding when to start, and what "ready" looks like, before investing a lot of practice time.
What the research says
Soltanlou and colleagues followed children through Year 3 (ages 7 to 8), watching them move from calculating to remembering times tables. They found that this shift usually speeds up around age 8 to 9: exactly when times tables teaching intensifies in the English curriculum, and when the MTC takes place (Year 4).
Younger children (Year 2) can form times table memories too, as the Ophuis-Cox classroom study showed with 7 to 8 year olds. But making recall fast and automatic, fast enough for the MTC, usually takes steady practice across Year 3 and Year 4.
What this means in practice
Starting early helps, but the most important window is Year 3 to early Year 4. Children who start regular practice in Year 3 usually have enough time to build reliable recall before the MTC. Children who start in Year 4 can still prepare well, but the timeline is tighter.
Try this
- If your child is in Year 3, start practising recall regularly now, even informally. The first months are the most valuable.
- If your child is behind, first find out where they are. You can make sessions a little longer, but no more than 15 to 20 minutes: beyond that, tiredness makes things worse. TabTabTab tells you when it’s time to stop.
- Understanding what multiplication means comes first, and that’s the school’s job. Memorising and fast recall come afterwards, once that foundation is solid: that’s where practising with TabTabTab helps most.
Sources
- Soltanlou et al. (2015) — peer-reviewed study
Last reviewed: 2026-08-01