In the age of tablets and smartphones, students may ask why they have to practice their math facts. Why take up space in your brain memorizing facts when you can just use the calculator on your phone? But because all math concepts build on each other, the faster and more fluently students can recall math facts, the easier it will be for them to engage with more complex math topics.

Today, we’ll examine why memorizing math facts is important and how you can help your students learn them without making the process dull. 

• What are math facts?
• Why does learning math facts matter?
• Why do some students struggle to learn math facts?
• How can teachers help students practice math facts?
• Help students practice math facts with Formative’s independent student practice sets

[What are math facts?](id-what)

Math facts are the basic arithmetic calculations taught in early elementary math classes. They include:

• Addition: 1 + 1 through 9 + 9
• Subtraction: 2 - 1 through 18 - 9
• Multiplication: 1 x 1 through 10 x 10
• Division: 1/1 through 100/10

Basic math facts in these four areas are the foundation for more complex math with multi-digit numbers, like long division, fractions, or algebraic expressions.

In what order should students learn their math facts?

Math is a cumulative subject, and learning math facts is no exception. Students typically start by learning their addition facts, followed by subtraction, then multiplication, and finally division. But why?Learning how to add things together is typically easier for younger students to understand. Once they understand how to combine numbers, they can apply what they know about addition while using subtraction. Once they understand addition and subtraction, they have a foundation for understanding the basic rules of multiplication and division.

Should students learn specific math facts in specific grades?

Generally, students learn their math facts in the following grades:

• Addition: First grade
• Subtraction: Second grade
• Multiplication: Third grade
• Division: Fourth grade

This general recommendation is to prepare students on time for the more complex math they’ll learn as they enter middle and high school. But the goal isn’t “meeting the deadline.” It’s ensuring your students know their facts.For example, if a fourth-grader needs more help with their addition and subtraction facts, don’t rush them through just to learn their division facts “on time.” Include additional practice in the areas where they’re less sure of their facts—potentially alongside the grade-level facts they need to learn—to give them a better foundation as they progress through their math education.

[Why does learning math facts matter?](id-why)

Even with technology at their fingertips, it’s still essential for students to learn and master basic math facts. They help students:

Build fluency

The more students practice and repeat math facts, the more fluent they’ll become. This is true for the foundations of any subject. For example, when students learn to read, they must first learn the alphabet. Then, they must learn how sounds make letters and how to read words on a page. The more they do each of these things, the more fluent readers they become.

The same concept applies to math. Students must first learn their numbers, then how to combine them and take them apart to make new numbers. Brain science—explicitly working and long-term memory—helps explain why this works.

Math is an acquired skill. When we’re born, we don’t instinctively know how to count, add, or do any other mathematical operations. We need explicit instruction, guidance, and practice to master them. Since everything about math is brand new when students start learning it, you have to make sure not to overload their working memory.

Working memory is a part of the brain that processes new information. It has a limited capacity and can get overloaded and shut down if it tries to take in too much information at once. This makes it more difficult—if not impossible—for students to learn new math skills until the load on their working memory decreases.

That happens with repeated practice, which helps move the new information to long-term memory, where it’s chunked, stored, and more easily accessible for future use. Once all the new information moves to long-term memory, students are considered fluent and can take the next set of brand-new information into their working memory.

Improve efficiency

When students are more fluent in math facts, they’re more efficient at recognizing numbers and solving equations. Fluent is a synonym for easy or effortless. When something comes easily, you can do it faster. When you do something faster, you’re more efficient.

In the real world, there may not be many scenarios where it matters if it takes someone one minute or five minutes to add two numbers together. But the faster students can do it, the more time they can save doing tasks like paying a cashier or calculating the tip at a restaurant when they get older.

Prepare for higher-level math

Moving math facts to long-term memory, encouraging fluency, and becoming efficient with recall help prepare students for higher-level math in upper elementary, middle, and high school. When students can recall their basic facts easily, that frees up their working memory to learn new concepts like problem-solving or memorizing complex equations.

As math becomes more complex, students have foundations and basics to fall back on when they try to learn something new.

Decrease math anxiety and improve confidence

Math anxiety typically starts when students fall behind and can’t keep up with what they’re learning. It can start as early as elementary school with basics like counting. Repeated practice of math facts can help students catch up. When they get back on par with their peers, they become more confident, and their math anxiety decreases.

Meet grade-level standards

Many state standards require students to be able to add, subtract, multiply, and divide before the end of a specific grade. The standards require this so that students go to the next grade level prepared for what they’ll learn in those math classes. By teaching and practicing math facts, you ensure all students meet those standards and can confidently move to the next grade level.

[Why do some students struggle to learn math facts?](id-struggle)

Learning math facts doesn’t come easy to every student. Just as some may have challenges when learning to read, write, or speak another language, other students struggle to learn math facts. Some common reasons students may struggle with these concepts include:

Learning differences

Students with learning differences like dyscalculia and dyslexia may have more difficulty learning math facts than others. Students with dyscalculia may take longer to master counting, which delays the next step: Memorizing math facts. Students with dyslexia may reverse digits or change the order of numbers when reading or writing equations.

Students with these and other learning differences can get additional support or accommodations to make the math facts memorization process easier. For example, students with dyscalculia may use calculators as an assistive tool while practicing.

Processing differences

Students with visual processing disorders or slower processing of information, in general, may encounter difficulties when learning math facts. Those with visual processing disorders may have difficulty making sense of numbers and symbols on the page. Students who process all information more slowly may struggle to simultaneously hold multiple pieces of information in their memory.

These students may benefit most from differentiated math facts practice. For example, students with visual processing disorders may memorize math facts by listening to them spoken aloud rather than reading them off flashcards.

Math anxiety

Students without learning or processing differences may struggle to learn math facts because of math anxiety. Students who think they’re not good at math or fear failure may struggle to learn math facts due to mental blocks.

Alternatively, students with test or performance anxiety may know their math facts but have difficulty showing what they know on formative or summative assessments because they’re afraid to take a test.

Building students’ confidence in their learning and test-taking abilities can help them learn their math facts and show what they know.

Lack of context

Some students may selectively choose not to learn or memorize math facts because they don’t understand why they have to do it. This is the group of students we discussed at the beginning of the post: The ones who think using the calculator on their phone is enough.

To help these students learn math facts, make the practice fun and show students how math applies to real-world situations.

[How can teachers help students practice math facts?](id-how)

Need help deciding the best ways to help your students practice their math facts? Here are a few tips to help you get started:

Use standards as a guide

Your standards can help you determine what math concepts students need to learn at their grade level. For example, Common Core State Standards for second-grade math state that students should be able to add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies.

Since you know your students need to be able to do this by the end of the year, you can focus on helping them learn these particular facts during guided and independent math practice.

Adjust practice windows

Should students practice their math facts every day? Or should they take breaks between practice sessions to soak up the information? Unfortunately, there’s no magic formula for determining the exact days, times, or windows you should use to practice math facts.

Short, frequent practice windows, using tools like flashcards, can help strengthen long-term retention. But spaced practice, which has students revisit concepts over time while taking breaks in between, has roots in learning science.

You can use a combination of both methods in your classroom to try to maximize retention without burning students out with skill-and-drill methods. For example, you may do 10 minutes of rapid-fire multiplication fact flashcards daily for a week. Then, you take a week off before you do it again. Finding a balance that’s frequent enough to build fluency but doesn’t burn students out while they practice is essential.

Work toward mastery in smaller chunks

Standards may require your students to learn multiple sets of math facts in the same year. But trying to brain dump all of them at once would be too overwhelming for everyone involved. It’s helpful to work toward mastery in smaller chunks and then revisit and review groups of facts they should already know.

For example, when teaching multiplication tables, it’s beneficial to work on counting by 4s or by 7s up to 12s table as a group. Then, when students have mastered or nearly mastered one table, they can move on to the next. During specific practice windows, you can pull facts from tables they’ve already mastered to help encourage recall, review, and fluency while learning new material in smaller chunks.

Provide different tools and strategies

Even for learning basic math facts, it’s helpful for students to make meaning out of what they’re doing. Why should they care if 2 + 2 = 4? Providing different tools and strategies can help them understand what these numbers represent and support them in figuring out math facts before they become fluent. Some examples of tools and strategies include:

• Using manipulatives like blocks or groups of straws
• Counting on fingers
• Coloring in spaces on worksheets
• Thinking of numbers as physical objects

Giving students other ways to look at or think about their math facts creates additional brain connections that help them with memorization and recall.

Consider how to incorporate timed practice

Timed exercises are a popular way to determine if students know their math facts. If they’ve committed the facts to memory, students should be able to spit them back out automatically when prompted. In theory, this sounds like a reasonable assessment. If you can’t recall all the 5s times tables in a minute, you must not know them well enough. In practice, this isn’t always true.

As we mentioned, in the real world, there are very few situations where you’ll be put on the spot and asked to answer 5 x 9 on demand. If it takes 10 seconds to do it instead of five, that won’t matter. So why does it matter in class?

For students with test anxiety, these timed activities could cause them to blank or freeze up—even if they know the answers. Their brains focus more on failing or getting a bad grade than showing off their knowledge. Studies have also shown that math and test anxiety can even affect working memory, blocking students from learning new math concepts in the first place.

Timed exercises can still be a good pulse check for fact memorization and recall, but they shouldn’t be the only way you track students’ progress in learning math facts.

Make it fun

Skill-and-drill approaches can effectively teach math facts but aren’t necessarily fun. If students get bored with the delivery method, they may tune out and avoid trying to learn or practice the material. There are other ways to help them memorize math facts without flashcards or timed quizzes. For example, in addition to these traditional methods, you could try:

• Variations on the card game “War”
• Dice games
• Dominos
• Math bingo
• Online apps or games, like Math Fact Basketball

[Help students practice math facts with Formative’s independent student practice sets](id-formative)

Want to help students learn their math facts the fun way? Try one of Formative’s premade independent student practice sets! Introduce students to fundamental math skills using simple concepts for each grade, like:

• Kindergarten: Counting and sequencing
• First grade: Counting, sequencing, and number representations
• Second grade: Addition and subtraction
• Third grade: Rounding and multiplication
• Fourth grade: Place value, division, and standard form

For custom practice that fits your classroom needs, Formative makes it easy for you and your students to create independent practice sets. Build them from scratch, use existing content, import any .CSV or .TSV file into the builder, or generate sets with AI.

Choose from four practice modes—flashcards, matching, quizzes, and writing—to study. Plus, encourage friendly competition among students with the practice leaderboard, or let them customize their practice experience by personalizing the background on each practice set!

Teachers also have the opportunity to see data about student usage for each practice set they create and assign, like:

• Total practice time
• Total sessions
• Last practiced
• Last performance percentage

Ready to see our student practice sets at work? Log into your Formative account to get started.