The multiplication tables check, explained

What it is

The multiplication tables check exists to find out one thing: whether a child can recall their tables rather than work them out. That is why the clock is so tight. Six seconds is enough to say an answer you know and not quite enough to count up in sevens, and the Standards and Testing Agency chose the figure after trialling three of them.

It is not a test of mathematics, and it is not diagnostic. The framework says so plainly: the check tells a school which children need more help with tables, and nothing beyond that.

Who sits it	Every eligible year 4 pupil in a maintained school, special school or academy in England, including free schools. It has been statutory since the 2021/22 academic year.
When	Schools must administer it within the two-week period from Monday 7 June 2027. They choose the day.
How long	Under standard administration, less than five minutes.
The questions	25 questions, each a single multiplication and nothing else. Three practice questions come first.
The clock	Six seconds to answer each one, then a three-second pause before the next.
Where	On screen and online, at school, on a computer or tablet. It is marked automatically.
The result	A score out of 25, given to the school. There is no expected standard and no pass mark.

There is no pass mark

This is the part worth reading twice, because almost every conversation about the check gets it wrong. The framework states that there is no expected standard threshold. Schools receive a score out of 25 for each child and that is the whole of it — no grade, no expected standard, no line that separates one group of children from another. Results are not published in performance tables either.

A child who scores 19 has not failed anything. They know six facts less fluently than the child who scored 25, which is useful to know in June of Year 4 and is the entire point of asking.

Which tables actually come up

Every check contains 25 questions drawn from the 121 facts in the 2 to 12 times tables, and they are not drawn evenly. The assessment framework sets a minimum and maximum for each table, and the effect is a check weighted towards the ones children find hardest.

Times table	Per check	Why
6, 7, 8, 9 and 12	2 to 4 questions each	The STA determined these to be the hardest tables, so every form leans on them.
3, 4 and 11	1 to 3 questions each	Taught earlier, still KS2 content.
2, 5 and 10	3 to 7 questions between them	KS1 content, deliberately kept to a minimum.
1	None	The one times table is not in the check at all, though it may turn up in a practice question.

Two more rules shape a check: no fact appears twice, and neither does its reversal, so a form containing 3 × 8 will not also contain 8 × 3. Schools use several different forms, and a child who has to restart gets a different one.

If you only have a week, spend it on the 6, 7, 8, 9 and 12 times tables. Between them they account for at least ten of the twenty-five questions and often more.

Practise the real thing

Our check is built to that specification — the same table weightings, the same 25 questions, the same six seconds and the same three-second pause — so it feels like the one your child will sit rather than a times tables quiz with a timer bolted on. It is free, there is no sign-up, and nothing about your child is stored.

What actually helps at home

The official advice to parents is that you need do nothing special, and that is honest advice. If you want to help anyway, these are the things that work.

• Six seconds is the target, not the answer. A child who gets there by counting will run out of time. Practise the handful of facts that come slowly rather than reciting whole tables they already know.
• Use the near miss. Almost every hard fact sits next to an easy one. Eight sevens is double seven three times; nine sevens is ten sevens less a seven. Our check shows a route like that for every question missed.
• Little and often beats a session. Five minutes in the car does more for recall than half an hour at a table.
• Keep the stakes where they belong. Nothing follows from this check. A child who is anxious about it will do worse at it, and for no reason.

If your child needs adjustments

Access arrangements exist and your child's school arranges them before the check — the framework covers pupils who need them, and the guidance to parents says to raise any concern with the school. Our version lets you extend the six seconds or turn the timer off entirely, which is worth using first if the clock is the obstacle rather than the tables.

Where this came from

Every date and figure above was read from these pages on 23 September 2026, and describes the June 2027 check. Assessment arrangements are re-published every year, so check them against GOV.UK before you rely on them.

• GOV.UK — Multiplication tables check: assessment framework
• GOV.UK — Multiplication tables check: administration guidance
• GOV.UK — Multiplication tables check: information for parents
• GOV.UK — Primary assessments: future dates

Contains material developed by the Standards and Testing Agency for national curriculum assessments and licensed under Open Government Licence v3.0.