Learning Basic Multiplication

Multiplying single-digit numbers (like 8 x 6, 2 x 9, etc.) is a skill so important that for most people, their success or failure at math depends on how well they do it.

There is a general theory that the only way to get good at multiplying is to memorize the tables. But there are some huge problems with that theory. This page deals with one of the biggest problems, and it offers one big solution.

The problem is that no one ever teaches you how to memorize! Can you imagine your teacher assigned pages 10-20 to read in a book, but they never taught you how to read?! That is the same thing they are doing when they tell you to "just memorize" without teaching you any meaningful ways to memorize. And that baloney about "just repeat the tables to yourself" is about as helpful as telling you to "just look at the pages" would be to teach you to read.

For some people, memorization of meaningless "multiplication facts" comes easily. Even for those lucky people it is seldom fun or inspiring.*

If you are not one of those fortunate ones, you are lead to believe that there is something wrong with you. That is a huge, evil crock of horsefeathers!

Pure, rote memory is a "default" method of learning and teaching. What I mean by that is that humans have a built in "memory." How good that memory is, is usually dependent on such things as your genetics, your environment, or other factors over which you generally have no control.

There are, however, things you can do to effect your memory. You have probably never been exposed to any of them. A great part of what Math Mojo is, is to help you develop new, more efficient ways to learn and remember what you have learned.

One of the many things that help you learn and remember well, is to experience the things you have to learn with different senses. The main ones Math Mojo likes to use are sight, sound, and touch.

When you usually learn the dreaded "multiplication tables" you are given a table, or a bunch of examples on paper, and told to "memorize" them, usually with no hints how to do so. Your teacher is simply expecting your default memory to take over. Also, s/he is only exposing one of your senses to the material.

Think about this:
you stare and stare at the tables (usually until you learn to hate them) with only your eyes to learn them. Even "flash cards" (which help some people and annoy others) only use the sense of sight.

The next day, in class, you teacher asks you, "Ragula (if that's your name), what is seven times eight?"
This can be confusing, because now you hear the question with your ears. You learned with your sense of sight, but are tested on your sense of hearing. Why is that often confusing? Because the human brain processes information differently using different senses. It really does.

If you want to test if that is true, ask yourself if you ever heard someone's voice on the phone, but couldn't remember who it belonged to, even though you recognized the voice. Did that (or anything like that) ever happen to you? Or think about this: If you read the words to a song, but never heard the song, do you think you would recognize it years later if you hear the song played? Do you think you would remember it better if you actually heard the song? Of course you would.

This just goes to show that the more senses you use to learn something, the more you "lock" that knowledge into your memory.

*Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with the tables. You should spend some time looking at them. There is something wrong with only using them to learn multiplication. There is something even wronger with insisting that they are the best way, for everyone, all the time.

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How can you use the sense of sound to help you learn basic multiplication? I'm glad you asked that question...

You can have a friend test you by calling off random multiplications. This is not bad, but it may bore your friend, and embarrass you if you don't feel too confident of your basic multiplication skill. Or, you can use the interactive spoken multiplication examples. To access them, click here.

I hope this will help you. It took me four days to learn the skills to put this little program together. It should take you a heck of a shorter time locking in your multiplication skills with it! I think you'll have fun with it, (but I'll bet you won't have as much fun as I did learning how to make it!)

In the near future I will have the same kind of program up for practicing larger multiplications (like 2-digit numbers times 2-digit numbers) with speedmath, in your head. That will be when you reach and advanced level. Which won't take long if you keep coming back here and keep up with the new material.

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It is also true that the more different ways you experience any one sense, the more you lock the information in. That is why flash cards are helpful for some people who can't get the "tables" by just staring at them. Flash cards are not bad, but they are really not enough. They are better than just using "tables", though.

So two things we can learn from this lesson, are: