I wrote this app for my nephew. He went from an ‘F’ (50%) to an ‘A’ (100%) on his multiplication timed test in a week and his total study time was 2.5 hours. You can do the same thing, but you have to follow the instructions below!
There are two steps.
1. Know the Tips: First make sure the student knows every tip on the initial screen well enough to explain it to someone else. If they don’t know ALL the tips it will be very difficult when they study.
I think the app is worth the download just for the tips. If you learn these tips you can easily figure out 90% of the multiplication table.
Green cells are covered by a tip and white ones are not. Just because there is no tip does not mean its difficult. I believe most students already know some of the white ones. It would be great if all students just learned the tips!
2. Practice: Complete a deck (144 problems) of Smart Flash Cards Online at least once a day every day for a week. Do not skip a day. If they skip a day they forget too much and it’s more difficult. We want to make it as easy as possible for the student.
The first 144 problems should take less than one hour. If it takes longer they don’t know the tips or something else is wrong. If they are not typing they are not learning. They should use paper, pencil and a calculator if needed. This is practice, not a test.
It should take 15 to 20 minutes by day three and less than 10 minutes on the seventh day. Most schools give students 5 minutes to complete 100 problems on the multiplication timed test, so if you can complete 144 problems with the app in less than 10 minutes you should ace the multiplication timed test.
When I went to school, my teacher taught me what multiplication was, but my mother helped me memorize the multiplication table.
My mother would shuffle a deck of flash cards and hold one up. If I knew the answer, we would put it in a “Don’t need to study” pile. However, if I struggled or did not know they answer she put it in a “Need to study pile”. We repeated the ones I didn’t know until I knew them.
Smart Flash Cards Online does the same thing. It builds a virtual deck of cards for each student. Then randomly picks a problem and displays it. The student inputs the answer. The app records every answer and how long it took to input the correct answer in my database.
If the student provides the correct answer in less than 8 seconds, they will not see that problem again. They continue until they complete all 144 problems in less than 8 seconds each.
There is a progress report a teacher can use to track an entire class. If someone gets stuck their name goes to the top of the list. When the student completes a virtual deck of cards it provides a “Tough Ten” report that shows which problems are difficult for each student.
Note to parents: When my nephew was failing we thought about grounding him, but that would not solve the problem. He would have been failing and mad at us too. Instead we said, “We love you, but failure is not an option. So no entertainment after school until this is done.” That was enough to motivate him.