Times tables and TT Rockstars

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School has introduced TT Rockstars for all children from last term, with the idea that the children have a go every day for a few minutes. In theory this seems great but it's not working for either of my kids. Both turn into rabbits caught in headlights when faced with the time counting down and they are consistently getting the answers wrong because they panic and read the question wrong.

Is this just a case of practice every day? How can I help it seem less traumatic? We have tears which is silly because when the time element is removed they can answer well enough.

I know they have to get to the point of answering quickly but it seems like the app is knocking their confidence and we are going backwards.

Totally agree that kids shouldn't be stressed out by times tables!!! There's a brand new Oxford University games app for learning times tables called Edplus. It's completely free. My son loves the games and actually enjoys the questions. No countdowns and no pressure. You can search for Edplus on Google play or whatever... or use this link which I was sent - edplus.app.link/pb

You can hide the clock!!! Go to their profile and 'my account' and you can hide practise clock. Or you are able to extend the time to 3 minutes to give them a little bit more time. It may be worth practising in Garage first (as the computer will taylor the tables to their level if they have been set on Automatic Training Mode by their teacher or manually set tables by their teacher)if their tables are not secure for Studio but depending on their age and gearing up for the Tables Check, Soundcheck is a great resource to prepare them.

Hope this helps!

Times Tables Rockstars are wile and pointless.

My son knows his times tables but is now addicted to the stupid game and this is now all he does in maths mostly so that the teacher can concentrate on preparing the less fluent kids for SATS.

I think the game has its place but not nearly to the extent it is done in his and other schools.

Teach them to just put a 0 if they don't know the answer - it isn't about getting all of them right, it's about getting them to recall the ones they do know fluently. It's better for them to answer 20 questions with 10 of them being '0' (and wrong) and 10 right, than answering 3 questions correctly because it took 40 seconds to work out one of them.