Bedford High School, Bedfordshire

Over the past five days students attending our summer school 2003 were given the three and the nine times tables to study. Students working individually at each task showed little motivation or enthusiasm and in some cases took too long to complete the work.

However, when placed in pairs to compete with each other, both morale and enthusiasm increased dramatically. Students were keen to learn and determined to beat their opponents throughout the week.

At the beginning of the week the class average time for the three times table was 65 seconds, whereas the class average to complete the nine times table was 1 minute 45 seconds. All students showed significant improvement in both set tasks by the end of the week.

The class average to complete the three times table improved from 65 seconds to 28 seconds. This is an increase of 57%, whereas the class average to complete the nine times table improved from 105 seconds to 50 seconds giving an increase of 52%.

Overall I believe Crazy Tables is an excellent mathematical tool if given to the students with set targets and an incentive for completing the task.

I would like to see the Crazy Tables game used more frequently at Bedford High School, since most students arrive at our school with weak times table skills.

I will be reporting my views and reasons for purchasing CrazyTtables to our next mathematics department meeting.