England's national Year 4 check, sat in school every June
Multiplication tables check practice
Built to the real check's rules, with its 6 seconds. Practise with no time limit, or take a full mock scored out of 25.
25 questions 6 seconds each Tables 2 to 12 Free, no sign-up
Practise for the check
Warm up on the tables that need it, with no time limit and no pressure.
Practice 10 or 25 questionsChoose how many questions and which tables to work on. The clock shows the check's 6 seconds, but it never cuts you off, so take the time you need.
Start practisingTake a mock test
As close to the real check as we can make it: the published mix of questions, 6 seconds each, and a score out of 25 at the end.
Mock test Scored out of 25Three warm-ups that do not count, then 25 questions at the published mix. At the end you get your score, with the ones you missed ready to practise.
Take the mockFor grown-ups
If your child is in Year 3 or Year 4, you will hear this check mentioned a lot. Here is what it actually is, what the score means, and how to help without turning June into a worry. Everything on this page follows the Department for Education's published rules for the check: the assessment framework and the information for parents. BrightWren is independent, and not connected with the Department for Education or the Standards and Testing Agency.
What the check is
The multiplication tables check (MTC) is a short on-screen test taken at school in June of Year 4, in all state schools in England. It has 25 questions worth 1 mark each, takes about 5 minutes, and starts with 3 practice questions that do not count. Children type each answer on a keyboard or tap it on an on-screen number pad; it is not multiple choice.
It checks one thing only: whether a child can recall times tables quickly from memory. It does not test understanding of multiplication or problem solving, and it will not tell you which tables your child finds hard, only how many facts they recalled in time.
The rules the questions follow
- Questions come from the 2 to 12 times tables, always as a plain fact like 7 × 8 =. The 1s never appear (except in the warm-up).
- The 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s and 12s come up most: each appears at least twice, because these are the tables children find hardest. The 2s, 5s and 10s appear only a few times at most.
- Each question allows 6 seconds from the moment it appears, with a 3-second pause between questions. When time runs out, whatever is typed is submitted. There is no way to skip a question or go back.
- No fact is repeated in a check, and you will never see it both ways round: if 7 × 8 comes up, 8 × 7 will not.
- Each child is randomly given one of several question sets, all built to these same rules. Our mock builds its checks to the same recipe.
How it is scored, and what counts as good
The score is out of 25, and there is no pass mark. Schools share each child's score with parents, and the Department for Education publishes national figures rather than individual ones: in 2025 the average score was 21 out of 25. So there is nothing to "fail": the score is information for you and the teacher, not a judgement of your child.
The most useful thing a parent can know: a child can know every fact and still drop marks for speed. "Knows it but needs a moment" and "does not know it yet" look identical in a score, and they need different practice. That is why our practice modes time every answer but never cut you off: your child can feel the real pace, and still take the moment they need to get a tricky one right instead of losing the mark.
How to help at home
- Little and often wins. A full mock takes under 5 minutes; two short goes in a week beat one long session.
- Start with Practice on the five hard tables (6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, 12s) rather than mixing everything at once. They carry the most marks.
- Chase individual facts, not whole tables. If 7 × 8 and 12 × 9 keep escaping, those two facts are the homework. "Go again" after a practice puts missed facts back in.
- Once most answers are coming inside the 6 seconds, switch to the mock so the cut-off and the pace of the real thing feel normal before the day.
- The real check is typed on a keyboard or tapped on a number pad, so a phone, a tablet and a laptop all give real practice.
- Near the day, keep it light. Confidence is worth marks, and there is no pass mark to miss.
If your child needs extra support
The real check offers adjustments for children who need them: different colour schemes, larger text, removing the on-screen number pad, a button to control when the next question comes, and an audio version. Schools arrange these, so if you think your child qualifies, ask the teacher well before June. One thing never changes: no child can be given more than 6 seconds to answer, because speed of recall is the thing being checked.
Our practice offers the same four colour schemes, bigger text and, on a computer, a no-number-pad option. They are under "Accessibility" on each start screen, so a child who will use them in the real check can practise with them too.
About the official practice area
The government runs its own "try it out" area, but a school has to let a child in with a PIN, it only opens from late April until the check ends, it uses one fixed set of questions that never changes, and it does not give a score at the end. Ours is here all year, deals fresh questions every time to the same published recipe, and always tells you how it went. Practising the format is entirely allowed and encouraged; the only thing nobody can see in advance is the real check's actual questions, which come from several different sets anyway.