Tables From 1 to 20 - Tricks, and How to Learn

Quick Answer:

• Result: Tables 1 to 20 cover every product from 1 × 1 = 1 up to 20 × 20 = 400

• Notation: $a \times b$, where $a$ and $b$ are whole numbers from 1 to 20

• Method shown: Read the grid, then learn the high tables by decomposition

• Pattern: The grid is symmetric, so $a \times b$ equals $b \times a$ and you learn half, getting the rest free

The Master Grid: Tables 1 To 20

This single grid is every table from 1 to 20 at once. To find any product, pick the row for one number and the column for the other; where they cross is the answer. So row 7, column 8 reads 56 — and so does row 8, column 7.

How To Read And Use The Grid

The grid is a lookup table, and the single most useful thing to notice is that it is symmetric, meaning $a \times b$ equals $b \times a$. The number where row 6 meets column 13 (78) is identical to where row 13 meets column 6. That mirror line runs along the diagonal of square numbers — 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, all the way to 400 — and it means you never have to learn a fact twice. Master the upper half and the lower half comes free.

The next thing to use is the easy anchors. Columns 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 are almost no work: ones stay the same, twos double, fives end in 0 or 5, tens add a zero, and twenties double-and-add-a-zero. Lean on those columns to triangulate any product near them.

Tables 1 To 20 In Words

Young learners often meet a table as a spoken chant before they read it off a grid, and saying a row aloud is one of the fastest ways to lock it in. Each row of the grid above can be read as a sentence — "one times the number is the number, two times the number is …" — all the way to ten.

For example, The 7 row reads "one times 7 is 7, two times 7 is 14, three times 7 is 21," and so on to "ten times 7 is 70." Pick the table you find hardest, read its row aloud in this spoken form a few times, then test yourself against the grid. Each individual table page linked below sets out its own table in words in full.

The Fast Tricks, At A Glance

You do not learn twenty tables one fact at a time. A handful of patterns rebuild most of the grid:

• Doubling. The 2, 4, 8, and 16 tables are each double the one before — learn the 2s, and the rest follow by doubling.

• Add a zero. The 10, 20, and 30 tables are the 1, 2, and 3 tables with a zero appended.

• Ends in 0 or 5. The 5, 15, and 25 tables all land on products ending in 0 or 5.

• Split into a ten and a units digit. Any teen or higher table — 13, 14, 17, 24 — breaks into an easy tens part plus a small remainder, multiplied separately and added.

• The 9s digit pattern. In the 9 table the digits of each product sum to 9 (18, 27, 36 …), which makes it self-checking.

The full mechanics of each live on the individual table pages below.

Where Tables From 1 To 20 Show Up

Strong recall of tables 1 to 20 quietly powers most everyday arithmetic. Splitting a restaurant bill, scaling a recipe up for guests, working out unit prices in a shop, reading a bus timetable, estimating travel time — each is a multiplication or division that runs faster when the facts are automatic. The reach goes well beyond school: long division, fractions, percentages, and ratios all sit on top of fluent times tables, which is why teachers treat them as the bedrock of number sense rather than as a memorisation chore.

Why Learn Tables Past 12?

This is the question students and parents ask most, and it is worth answering plainly. Tables up to 12 cover the school basics, but the 13-to-20 range builds genuine fluency. Someone who has stretched their recall from 12 to 16 or 20 reports a real shift — multiplication algorithms feel lighter, estimation gets sharper, and mental arithmetic stops being a bottleneck.

You are not memorising for its own sake; you are removing the small pauses that otherwise interrupt every bigger calculation. And you do not learn the high tables one fact at a time — you learn the patterns that generate them, which is the whole point of the next section.

How To Learn The Higher Tables (13 to 20)

The low tables are worth memorising outright. The high tables are better learned by decomposition — breaking a hard number into easy pieces you already know, multiplying each, and adding.

Split into a ten and a units digit

Any teen table splits cleanly into the 10s and the remainder.

For 14 × 6: that is (10 × 6) + (4 × 6) = 60 + 24 = 84.

For 17 × 8: (10 × 8) + (7 × 8) = 80 + 56 = 136.

Build the round-ten tables from their roots

The 20 table is the 2 table with a zero; extend the same idea and the table of 30 is the 3 table with a zero. Round numbers are always the easiest entry points.

Use the factor links between tables

Many tables are just doublings or triplings of smaller ones: 16 is double 8, 18 is double 9, 24 is double 12, and 25 is a quarter of 100. Learn one table and you get its relatives at a discount.

Every Individual Table, Broken Down

Each table below has its own walkthrough — the chart, the fastest method, the patterns, and the common mistakes. Start with whichever one you find hardest.

• 2 times table — doubling, the foundation table

• 3 times table — the root of 6, 9, 12, 30

• 4 times table — double-double

• 5 times table — ends in 0 or 5

• 6 times table — double the 3 table

• 7 times table — the one most worth drilling

• 8 times table — double the 4 table

• 9 times table — the finger trick and digit-sum-9 pattern

• 12 times table — dozens, split into 10 + 2

• 13 times table — split into 10 + 3

• 14 times table — double the 7 table

• 15 times table — half of 30, ends in 5 or 0

• 16 times table — double the 8 table

• 17 times table — split into 10 + 7

• 18 times table — double the 9 table

• 20 times table — the 2 table with a zero

• 24 times table — split into 20 + 4

• 25 times table — a quarter of 100

• Table of 30 — the 3 table with a zero

What Students Get Wrong With Tables 1 To 20

Mistake 1: Trying to brute-force the high tables

Where it slips in: When a student treats 17 × 8 as a brand-new fact to memorise instead of a sum of two facts they already hold.

Don't do this: Staring at 17 × 8 and guessing.

The correct way: Split it: (10 × 8) + (7 × 8) = 80 + 56 = 136. The high tables are decomposition, not memorisation.

Mistake 2: Learning each fact twice

Where it slips in: Students drill 8 × 13 and later drill 13 × 8 as if they were separate, doubling their workload.

Don't do this: Treating $a \times b$ and $b \times a$ as two facts.

The correct way: They are the same fact — the grid is symmetric. Learn 8 × 13 = 104 once and 13 × 8 = 104 comes with it.

Conclusion

• Tables from 1 to 20 sit in one symmetric master grid, so you learn each fact once.

• The low tables (up to 9) are worth memorising; the high tables are best built by decomposition.

• Easy anchor columns — 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 — help you triangulate any nearby product.

• Every individual table from 2 to 30 has its own detailed walkthrough linked above.

A Practical Next Step

Print or screenshot the master grid, then cover everything except the header row and column and try to rebuild a few rows from the patterns. When a particular table fights back, click straight through to its own page above — the 7 Times Table and 8 Times Table tables are the usual culprits — and work the method there before returning to the grid. For classroom-tested approaches to building this fluency, Bhanzu's guide on how to teach multiplication is the place to go next.