What the multiplication tables check is
The multiplication tables check — the MTC — is the statutory times tables check every Year 4 pupil in England takes in June. It is 25 questions on screen, with 6 seconds for each, drawn from the tables up to 12 × 12, and it checks one thing: whether a child can recall the facts fast enough not to need to work them out. The national curriculum expects every multiplication and division fact up to 12 × 12 by the end of Year 4; the check asks the multiplication half.
How this practice check works
Hand the screen to your child for about five minutes. They answer 3 practice questions, then 25 questions one at a time, typing on the number pad or the keyboard, with a 3-second pause between questions — the format of the real check. Nothing is marked while they work, and the score is shown to you, at the end.
The results list the facts to practise from this attempt: the ones missed, and the ones that were right but much slower than the rest, which were probably worked out rather than remembered. One button makes a printable sheet of exactly those facts — each two or three times, both ways round, mixed with others from the same tables — with an answer key.
Six seconds is the real check. You can give 12 seconds or switch the clock off, and choose the tables yourself; those are practice settings rather than the check, and the results say which you used. Setting it for a class? Choose the settings, then Copy a link with these settings: every pupil who opens that link starts the same check, and still nothing is saved or sent. For paper practice of every table, use the Year 4 times tables worksheets.
What happens to the answers
Nothing leaves this page. The questions are made in your browser and the answers are marked in your browser, and all of it is gone when you leave or reload. Nothing is stored on the device. We count only that a check was finished and which settings it used — never the score or the answers; the privacy policy sets out exactly what that count records.
Using this with a class?
Some teachers have started using this check with their classes, and I'd love to know how it's going. If you're one of them, a line or two is plenty:
- How did you find it?
- How did you use the results, if at all?
- What would make it better for your class?
Email hello@tickedpractice.co.uk. You don't need to name your school, and please leave out pupils' names and scores.
Questions parents ask
When is the Year 4 multiplication tables check?
In June. The check runs over a three-week window and each school chooses its own day inside it. Every Year 4 pupil at a maintained school, special school or academy in England takes it, and it takes a child less than five minutes.
Is there a pass mark?
No. The Standards and Testing Agency sets no pass mark and no expected standard: each child simply gets a score out of 25. Children are not shown their score when they finish, and the school reports it to parents in the summer term. In 2025 the national average was 21 out of 25, and 37% of children scored all 25.
Which times tables come up most?
Every table from 2 to 12 can appear, but not evenly. The 6, 7, 8, 9 and 12 tables, which the STA found hardest, have two to four questions each in every check; the 2 and 10 tables have at most two and sometimes none. No fact is asked twice, either way round. This practice check follows the same limits.
My child knows the tables but panics at the timer. What can we do?
It is the worry parents raise most about the check. Take the clock away first: set this check to 12 seconds or no time limit, and practise on paper, where there is no clock at all. Short, mixed practice most days is what makes the answers come without counting up, and once they do, six seconds stops feeling short. Move to the 6-second setting when the answers are coming easily.
Is this the official multiplication tables check?
No. The official check runs in school, on the STA’s own service, and its practice area is for schools. This is a practice check built to the rules the STA publishes for making one: 25 questions from the 2 to 12 tables, the same limits on each table, no fact twice either way round, 6 seconds a question, a 3-second pause and 3 practice questions first. Real checks are also balanced for difficulty using test data that is not published, which no practice check can copy.
Do I need to sign up?
No. There is no login, and nothing from the check is saved — not even on your device.