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Primary school pupils find 9 x 6 the most challenging multiplication among all the times tables they learn, analysis reveals.

Data comprising 249 million times-tables answers from over 300,000 pupils over seven years shows that children struggle with multiplications by nine the most.

The findings come just before the statutory multiplication tables check (MTC) window opens for Year 4 pupils on 1 June.

Nine-times table poses the most problems

The average error rate in the analysis is 13 per cent, yet 9 x 6 produced the highest proportion of incorrect answers at 27 per cent, followed by 6 x 9 (26 per cent). Despite these answers being identical, the analysts said the difference in the error rate suggested that the order of the question “may influence a child’s confidence and recall”.

The third most challenging multiplication was 9 x 7, which was answered incorrectly a quarter of the time.

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The analysts behind the findings, shared by education platform EdShed, said pupils may struggle with 9 x 6 because of its placement in the “less familiar middle-to-upper-times tables”, where reliance on simple counting patterns is less helpful.

“Facts in the four-times table, for example, can feel more accessible because pupils can double and double again,” they noted.

The analysts also identified a “clear pattern” where pupils struggled most often, with questions involving the numbers six, seven, eight and nine “dominating” this list.

In contrast, pupils appeared to find questions demanding multiplications by 10 or 11 the easiest.

The most common correctly answered question was 11 x 8, with 96 per cent of pupils answering this question correctly.

Fewer ‘obvious patterns’

Dr Martin Saunders, CEO and co-founder of EdShed, said the hardest questions “aren’t random” and that they “cluster” in times tables where children have fewer “obvious patterns” to rely on.

According to data published by the Department for Education, Year 4 pupils’ average attainment in the MTC has improved in each of the past four years.

Individual pupils’ MTC results will be available for schools from Monday 22 June.

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