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Should my child learn one times table at a time?
Learning one table at a time seems logical: learn it well, in order, then move on. That's how most workbooks and apps are organized, and how many parents remember learning. Research tells a different story.
What the research says
The idea of learning one table at a time is understandable, but research says otherwise. Research on mixed practice points that way, though most of it comes from older students. In a randomized trial with seventh graders learning math (not times tables), those who practiced with mixed problems scored 61% on a test a month later, against 38% for those who practiced one type of problem at a time (Rohrer et al., 2020). During practice, the one-type-at-a-time approach often looks better; the difference shows up later.
The reason is well known: practicing one table at a time lets children follow the sequence instead of remembering each fact. 7×1, 7×2, 7×3 can be worked through by counting, and the memory of each single fact is never really tested. Mixed questions force your child to truly remember every answer.
On top of that, research on interference shows that introducing similar facts in the same week (like 6×7 and 7×7) makes them harder to learn, because they compete in memory (Dotan & Zviran-Ginat, 2022).
For times tables specifically, the evidence is thinner: a 2025 study, still a preprint, found no advantage in practicing in random order over practicing one table at a time. So the safest approach is a middle path: introduce tables one at a time, then practice them mixed with the ones already learned.
What this means in practice
Most timed fact checks are mixed by nature: questions from all the tables, in no predictable order. Preparing one table at a time means practicing differently from how the test will be.
Try this
- Introduce new tables one at a time, but always practice them together with the ones already learned.
- If your child does well reviewing a single table but struggles with random questions, those facts aren’t truly memorized yet.
- Expect mixed practice to feel harder to your child. That difficulty is the learning.
Sources
- Agarwal & Agostinelli (AFT) — expert commentary
- Rohrer et al. (2020) — peer-reviewed study
- Dotan & Zviran-Ginat (2022) — peer-reviewed study
- Boutros, Müller, Prado & Thevenot (2025) — preprint
Last reviewed: 2026-10-17