What this worksheet is for
The timed drill is a ritual in American elementary schools and a fluency check everywhere else: sixty facts, a few minutes, a box for the time at the top. It works because it is short and because it is repeated — which is precisely why the sheet has to be different every time, or pupils start recognising the order rather than recalling the facts. Choose the tables, choose whether they come shuffled or in sequence, and press New set for a fresh page whenever you need one.
Who it suits
Grade 3 to Grade 5, ages eight to eleven, once the tables have been taught and the goal is speed rather than understanding. It is a poor sheet for teaching a table for the first time — the grid on the times tables page is the one for that.
How to use the settings
List the tables being drilled and leave the count at sixty unless you have a reason to change it. Shuffled is the version to use for testing recall; in order is gentler and useful the first time a class is timed at all, because it lets them fall back on counting up. The score box is switched on by default here so there is somewhere to write the result, and the time goes on the same line. Print two versions when the same class will be tested twice in a week.
What goes wrong
Speed exposes which facts are recalled and which are being worked out, and the pattern is usually the same: the early questions are right, the last third is blank or wrong, and the errors sit on the sixes, sevens and eights. Marking for which facts were missed rather than how many is what makes the drill useful; the total on its own says only that the pupil was quick or slow.
Questions
- How long should the test be?
- One to three minutes for sixty facts is the usual range, depending on the year group. The page does not enforce a limit — it prints a box for the time so that whatever you use can be written down.
- Will the same pupil get the same sheet twice?
- Only if you print the same link. Pressing New set draws a new seed and a different order, so weekly testing does not become an exercise in remembering the page.
- Can I drill just one table?
- Yes — put a single number in the tables field. Sixty questions on one table is repetitive by design and is exactly what a pupil who is stuck on the sevens needs.
- Why is my sheet shorter than the count I set?
- In ascending order the page prints each fact once, so a single table with a highest multiplier of twelve gives twelve problems however high the count goes. Add more tables or switch to shuffled.