Times Tables

Times Tables is a game for primary school children: first they see what multiplication means, then they learn the times tables by heart and recall them quickly. You play Deniz, who looks after the till at Grandma Saniye's stall in the neighbourhood market while her back is aching. Every crate holds the same number of fruit; a customer asks for "3 crates of plums" and Deniz works out 3 × 7.

This guide covers the stalls, the four learning steps, the practice modes, the Market notebook, the Beat the clock score and the Whiteboard mode for teachers.

The Market screen has 9 stalls, from the 2s to the 10s (switch on Tables up to 12 in Settings and the 11s and 12s appear too). Each stall sells its own goods: apples at the 2s, oranges at the 3s, eggs at the 6s, plums at the 7s, walnuts at the 10s and so on. All stalls are open from the start; the one with the gold frame is next in the recommended order (2, 5, 10, 3, 4, 9, 6, 8, 7).

Every stall has four steps:

1. Count: the crates are open and the fruit is visible; you tap the right answer out of three.
2. Skip: you fill the gap in a skip-counting strip (7, 14, __, 28, 35).
3. Find: the crates are closed, with the number of fruit written on top; you type the answer on the number keys.
4. Speed up: the facts come in a mixed order; a fast, correct answer earns a gold sparkle.

Earning 2 stars on a step unlocks the next one. If you already know a table, the I know this, skip ahead button takes you straight to the Speed up test; get 2 stars there and the earlier steps count as done too.

A round is 10 questions. Getting 6 right on the first try earns 1 star, 8 right earns 2 stars and 10 right earns 3 stars. Time does not affect the stars.

A wrong answer costs no lives and brings no penalty. The answer is shown with the crates: they light up one by one and a running total appears under them, 7, 14, 21. Then the game says "Now you type it" and the child enters the correct answer. The same fact comes back two or three questions later. At the end of the round you see the facts that have just settled and the tricky ones that will return soon.

In the Find and Speed up steps, the Open the crates button shows what is inside the closed crates. It is free and part of learning, but that answer does not count as fast.

• Mixed: 10 questions from the tables you pick. This is where spaced repetition works best.
• Missing number: ? × 7 = 42 or 6 × ? = 42. Good preparation for division.
• Sharing: 42 ÷ 7 = ?. The hint shares 42 fruit equally into 7 crates so you can see how many land in each.
• Beat the clock: 60 seconds of mixed facts from the 2s to the 10s. This score goes on the leaderboard.

For Mixed, Missing number and Sharing you choose which tables to include before you start, and the game remembers your choice.

The game tracks every fact on its own (7 × 8 and 8 × 7 are separate but linked). A fact answered quickly and correctly moves up a box and is asked again days later; a wrong one goes back to the first box and returns soon. The waiting times are the same day, the next day, 3 days, 7 days and 21 days.

The fast limit is not the same for everyone: the game measures how quickly the child types the easy facts (1s, 2s, 10s) and sets the limit to match, somewhere between 2.5 and 7 seconds. A fact counts as Known when it has been answered correctly on two different days and quickly at least once, so a single lucky guess never turns it green.

The Market notebook is a 10 × 10 progress chart. Each cell is one fact and its colour shows its state: grey Not yet, red Tricky, yellow Learning, green Known, gold Known and fast. For children who find colours hard to tell apart, each cell also has a small mark in the corner.

Tap a cell to see how many times that fact has been asked, the latest answers and a Practise this button. Below the chart are the five trickiest facts with a Practise these round, and at the very bottom how many questions were answered in the last 7 days and roughly how many minutes were spent. The Times, Missing number and Sharing tabs are tracked separately.

Answer as many facts as you can in 60 seconds. Each correct answer earns points by difficulty: facts with 1, 2, 5 and 10 are worth 10 points, facts with 3 and 4 are worth 15, and facts with 6, 7, 8 and 9 are worth 20. Every 5 correct answers in a row add a streak bonus (+10 at the 5th, +20 at the 10th ...). A wrong answer does not cost points, but it resets the streak and the right answer is shown for a second.

For a fair leaderboard everyone gets the same range of questions (2s to 10s), whatever the settings. Your record and your longest streak are kept in Statistics.

Whiteboard mode is made for an interactive whiteboard or a projector in the classroom. Open it with the button on the Market screen or by adding ?tahta=1 to the end of the game's address; no account is needed. The teacher picks the tables (1 to 10 or up to 12), the question type (Times, Missing number, Sharing) and an optional timer (5 or 10 seconds).

The sum fills most of the screen. The class calls out the answer and the teacher presses Show; the Crates button shows the same question with fruit. The space bar reveals the answer and moves on, the left arrow goes back, and G opens the crates. Sound is off by default, no ads appear and the progress of the child who uses that computer does not change.