times tables worksheets
Times Tables
I would say without any shadow of a doubt it is a good knowledge of times tables if I were to be asked the most important skill associated with passing external examinations at age 16 or thereabouts. During the 30 years of my teaching career, I have come across numerous students (in schools so when private students) who do not know their times tables at age 16 well enough to be able to calculate things such as a fifth of 45 or even the total duration of 8 ropes, each 4.5 metres long.
Times tables worksheets
I write as a teacher in the UK, so my examples relate specifically to this country, but the points I make have universal relevance across the whole world. There exists a system of examinations now in which there is certainly nearly always a calculator examination paper and a non-calculator paper at every level from age twelve. So, is of great benefit in the calculator paper too, as knowing that seven eights is fifty six is much less time consuming than having to press the appropriate buttons on a calculator, though a good knowledge of tables is definitely needed in the non-calculator paper. In an examination, seconds count.
A moment's thought will reveal lots of the instances where times tables are utilized. Every money problem in any currency involving a multiplication ($12.67 x 9) or division (Get the average of $34.50, $33.60, $59.90 and $46.80) uses times tables. Percentages (Find 17% of 12.50), fractions (cancel 45/75 to its lowest terms), geometry (discover the internal angles of any regular octagon), algebra (expand 7a(3a 6b 9c)) and speed problems (discover the average speed of the car that travelled 960 kilometres in 8 hours) are just some of the various more examples that can be found on examination papers.
Just one way of practising times tables would be to complete random tables squares, i.e. tables squares in which the numbers 1-10 are distributed randomly across the top of the the table and down the left hand side. I am just currently employing a selection of 8 and 9 year olds within a local primary school, a number of whom can already complete this kind of table correctly within five minutes. At sixteen yrs old, the fantastic majority of students will be able to easily beat that point - and obtain them all correct, obviously.
The question of whether times tables from 1 to 10 is plenty often crops up. Should youngsters be aware of twelve and eleven times tables? 1 to 10 is sufficient for all examination work and I would then concentrate on learning the square numbers up to 20 x 20 as these are very useful for Pythagoras' Theorem if you live in a mostly metric country. If you live in a country still using inches and feet for everyday measurements, then you will probably need to learn tables up to 12 x 12.
So, if you or your youngsters are taking external examination some time soon, the one thing you could do to improve your performance more than anything else is to get those tables truly and well in the old brain box!
Alan Young has been a teacher of mathematics for thirty years in both primary and high schools. he has worked within the private and also the public sector and coached a huge number of private students in this subject.
I would say without any shadow of a doubt it is a good knowledge of times tables if I were to be asked the most important skill associated with passing external examinations at age 16 or thereabouts. During the 30 years of my teaching career, I have come across numerous students (in schools so when private students) who do not know their times tables at age 16 well enough to be able to calculate things such as a fifth of 45 or even the total duration of 8 ropes, each 4.5 metres long.
Times tables worksheets
I write as a teacher in the UK, so my examples relate specifically to this country, but the points I make have universal relevance across the whole world. There exists a system of examinations now in which there is certainly nearly always a calculator examination paper and a non-calculator paper at every level from age twelve. So, is of great benefit in the calculator paper too, as knowing that seven eights is fifty six is much less time consuming than having to press the appropriate buttons on a calculator, though a good knowledge of tables is definitely needed in the non-calculator paper. In an examination, seconds count.
A moment's thought will reveal lots of the instances where times tables are utilized. Every money problem in any currency involving a multiplication ($12.67 x 9) or division (Get the average of $34.50, $33.60, $59.90 and $46.80) uses times tables. Percentages (Find 17% of 12.50), fractions (cancel 45/75 to its lowest terms), geometry (discover the internal angles of any regular octagon), algebra (expand 7a(3a 6b 9c)) and speed problems (discover the average speed of the car that travelled 960 kilometres in 8 hours) are just some of the various more examples that can be found on examination papers.
Just one way of practising times tables would be to complete random tables squares, i.e. tables squares in which the numbers 1-10 are distributed randomly across the top of the the table and down the left hand side. I am just currently employing a selection of 8 and 9 year olds within a local primary school, a number of whom can already complete this kind of table correctly within five minutes. At sixteen yrs old, the fantastic majority of students will be able to easily beat that point - and obtain them all correct, obviously.
The question of whether times tables from 1 to 10 is plenty often crops up. Should youngsters be aware of twelve and eleven times tables? 1 to 10 is sufficient for all examination work and I would then concentrate on learning the square numbers up to 20 x 20 as these are very useful for Pythagoras' Theorem if you live in a mostly metric country. If you live in a country still using inches and feet for everyday measurements, then you will probably need to learn tables up to 12 x 12.
So, if you or your youngsters are taking external examination some time soon, the one thing you could do to improve your performance more than anything else is to get those tables truly and well in the old brain box!
Alan Young has been a teacher of mathematics for thirty years in both primary and high schools. he has worked within the private and also the public sector and coached a huge number of private students in this subject.