UPDATED 3 Oct 2009 – Added tab to drill 0-9
If you want to drill your kids on their multiplication tables and you feel that repetition and testing is the best way to do it, then this Excel sheet may be what you are looking for.
There are programs available that will quiz kids on the computer, but most teachers that my children have encountered test by giving a written test that is usually timed. Sixty seconds is the usual time. If you think it is a long time, you fill one of these sheets out and see how much time out of the 60 seconds you have left! So, I decided to quiz my kids like they are tested. Once I started quizzing my children in this manner, they did a lot better on their tests at school.
Test description: Each row contains no repeat problems. Any given page will focus on one number multiplied by ten numbers in random order. If you give your child 60 seconds to complete the page it is not possible ( in my experience ) to scan the page and answer all the problems in any other way than simply going row by row as opposed to answering all the 3 times 0, then three times 1, then three times 2, etc. This forces rote memorization of the problems.
Under the hood ( for excel geeks only ) : This sheet was a puzzler till I discovered a technique to present 10 numbers in random order. To do this, I start with the 10 numbers, randomly pick one and remove this number from the list of possible numbers. The next cell to the right has one less number to select from and so on. The numbers are stored in a string and removed one at a time. To be honest, I have been writing Excel spreadsheets for 20 years and I am more excited about this sheet than any other one I have written. If there is an easier way to do this, shock the heck out of me and let me know!
Sample Output. Above is an example of what the test generator will produce. It contains 10 rows of 10 problems. One operand is constant ( 3 in this case) There are no repeats in any given line across. This is the exact format that my children were expected to complete in 60 seconds in their school. Until I started using this printed page to quiz them at home, they consistently were unable to complete the page in the prescribed time.
Instructions
If you would like to use this quiz maker for your children, please download the spreadsheet by clicking the link below to purchase and save to your computer in a location that is convenient. Open in Excel. If no numbers appear in the test then you need to install the Analysis ToolPack. This is a standard feature of Excel that is sometimes not installed when you setup Excel on your computer. If this is the case start Excel and press F1 or use the help feature and enter Analysis Toolpack. Excel will tell you how to install the toolpack. It takes only a few seconds, but you might need to have the installation disk handy.
If you don’t want to try the Excel spreadsheet but want to see some example worksheets, you can download a PDF file of a complete set of tests, either from a set that goes up to 10 times 10 or 12 times 12. You can print the entire 10 or 12 page set, or just the page that is associated with the number your child is testing for.
This is the spreadsheet that can create as many tests as you have kids and paper!
These below are PDF Files suitable for printing, but will not regenerate new quizzes. You might want these if you don’t have Excel or just want a better look at what the output of the spreadsheet is like.
I hope this helps your kids like it has mine – Paul
Thanks for the worksheets! My 4th grader spent much of the summer forgetting what she had mastered, so it’s great to have some extra home exercises to get her back to the level she (and we) are used to. It’s great of you to share what obviously took quite a bit of time to make! Thanks again.
Thank you so much! This is exactly what I needed. No more time wasted downloading documents from the internet, and worrying about viruses attached to them. This will save me time and be a great review for my students.
Jeff and Darrell, you are welcome. This was the best way for us to drill our kids. To drill 100 problems with flashcards takes a lot longer. Repetition is good, and this seemed to be the fastest way to get a lot of repetition experience under their belts. Your thanks is the only compensation I want or need. Thank you! Paul Jaruszewski
Just want to say thank you sooo much for sharing this with us, it has made things so much easier for us
blessings
Darrell
Thank you! This multiplication worksheet generator is just what I was looking for. The worksheets look nice and now my wife doesn’t have to get on the internet each morning to print them.