Research-informed, not "scientifically guaranteed"

Methodology behind our Multiplication Tables Check practice

Every choice — from typed answers to the speed ladder — can be traced back to published research about how children build fact fluency. We don't promise miracles. We do try to make sensible defaults the easy ones.

Four principles

The model behind daily practice.

Principle 01

Recall, not just recognition.

Children type the answer instead of picking from a menu. A wealth of research on the testing effect shows that effortful retrieval — actually generating the answer — produces stronger memory than recognising it from a list.

This is also why we don't show "near-miss" multiple choices. The job is to remember 7 × 8, not to spot 56 amongst three distractors.

In the product. Numeric keypad on phone, full keyboard on laptop. The same answer format every time, so the routine becomes invisible.
Principle 02

Spaced short practice.

Spaced repetition outperforms massed practice across decades of memory research. For times tables, that means short sessions a few times a week — not a 40-minute push the night before.

MathsGrip schedules each fact on a spacing ladder that lengthens as the child gets it right consistently, and shortens after a slip. You don't have to remember which fact is due — the product does.

In the product. A simple Leitner-inspired schedule with five intervals: same session, next day, 3 days, 7 days, 2 weeks.
Principle 03

Repair after mistakes.

A wrong answer is a moment to fix something, not a red cross to file away. Research on error-correction in fact learning suggests that immediate, structured repair — see the answer, copy it, try it again — outperforms unmarked errors by a wide margin.

So in MathsGrip, an error triggers a short repair: the correct fact is shown, the child re-enters it, and the same fact returns two or three questions later for a clean re-test.

In the product. The phrase used on screen is "let's repair this", not "wrong". The colour for repair is muted, not alarming.
Principle 04

Speed built gradually.

The MTC is a timed check, but children don't need to start at MTC speed. Building accuracy first, then speed, is consistent with research on automaticity — fluency comes from confident accuracy, not from racing.

The timer scales through four stages: calm (none), gentle (10s), build (8s), and MTC (6s). The child only progresses when accuracy is high at the current stage.

In the product. The Mock screen always uses MTC speed. Daily practice uses whichever stage suits the child — usually one or two below.
Honest framing

What we don't claim.

This isn't a clinical intervention.

MathsGrip is not a peer-reviewed intervention or a scientifically guaranteed programme. It's a careful application of well-established findings to a small, focused task. Results depend on the child, the routine, and the support around them.

This isn't a replacement for teaching.

Times-table fluency is a piece of the puzzle. Conceptual understanding of multiplication, problem solving, and reasoning still come from the classroom and from being genuinely curious about numbers. We try not to crowd those out.

Sources

Where we drew the principles from.

A short, opinionated list — not a literature review. We've kept it to widely cited work and the official MTC guidance.

Retrieval Roediger & Karpicke (2006) — Test-enhanced learningThe act of retrieving information from memory strengthens it more than restudying. Psychological Science, 17(3), 249–255. View →
Spacing Cepeda, Pashler, Vul, Wixted & Rohrer (2006) — Distributed practice in verbal recall tasksSpread practice across days, not minutes, for durable fact retention. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380. View →
Error correction Metcalfe (2017) — Learning from errorsImmediate corrective feedback after a mistake outperforms unmarked errors. Annual Review of Psychology, 68, 465–489. View →
Automaticity Logan (1988) — Toward an instance theory of automatizationFluency emerges from many successful retrievals, not from forced speed. Psychological Review, 95(4), 492–527. View →
MTC format GOV.UK — Multiplication tables check administration guidanceOfficial format: 25 questions, around 6 seconds each, up to 12 × 12. View →

See the principles in motion.

Open Daily Practice and feel the difference between calm building and timer pressure.

Start practice For parents & teachers