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In grade school, I decided to learn the times table by just referring to one as needed while doing the exercises, and expecting it to soak in implicitly. Worked

• ElliotH 16y ago
  Exactly how I learned mine. My times tables were abysmal until I did A level maths, there's only so many times you can use your calculator for 6x7 before you just remember it as 42.
  • jleader 16y ago
    That's a funny coincidence that you'd mention that particular multiplication "fact". I never successfully memorized the whole 10x10 times table in elementary school. I memorized a subset initially, and did the others by factoring and re-grouping them into combinations of the ones I'd memorized. Gradually I memorized most of them simply from seeing the answer so many times, but 40 years later, 6x7 is about the only one I haven't yet memorized. I still work it out by factoring and re-grouping: 6x7 = 2 x 3x7 = 2 x 21 = 42. Though at this point I'm not sure if perhaps I've actually memorized it, and I recite that little sequence to myself out of habit rather than necessity. (I don't recommend this approach; long division was quite painful until I got quicker at multiplication)