TimesX Times Tables Tester

TimesX is an app type that most teachers will have already encountered - a multiple-choice times table quiz.  In the main exercise, a question appears and children must tap one of the four numbers presented as possible answers.  The selection of 'possibles' are sensible and don't leave a single number standing out as the correct answer.  

The app's presentation is driven by a skeuomorphic theme of chalk numbers on a chalkboard.   It looks attractive and the methods of interactions are easy to work out and use.  The sound effects are limited to a few confirmation effects but the questions are read out loud by the app.

There is not a huge amount of options to shape the user's experience but the ones there are show an awareness of what children need to learn and where they might need to use the app.  

Sound can be toggled on and off from within the game itself.  This is a welcome feature for any teacher who has had to wait while a class of children finish their current exercise before they can mute the sounds in an options screen.  The exact times tables to cover can be selected, as can  whether they go up to 10x or 12x.  Finally, it is optional whether the exercise is timed by the app.  This isn't a countdown, however, but purely a reporting feature of how long it took to complete the exercise.

Teachers get a better report of a child's performance than with many apps of this type.  Each attempt at the exercise has every single question recorded and whether it was answered correctly or not.  A historic record of the attempts is maintained by the app.   Once enough attempts have been made to make it worthwhile, a new option appears in the app.  This 'Error Counts' option tailors a challenge to a child's performance and exposes them to more of the questions they get wrong than ones they get right.

This is a useful function and one that the app could do with making more explicit within itself.  How it works is only made clear on the app purchase page.  In the app, it is just greyed out until it has enough data to activate.  The ability to allow multiple users would also make this more useful for teachers as, at the moment, only a single child per device can be supported.

As a teacher, you do face a choice of apps that work in a similar way to this one.  Aside from the fact that a few different apps avoid student boredom, the straightforward nature of this app and its excellent reporting and ability to account for a student's performance make it well worth considering.

You can download TimesX Times Tables Tester on your iOS devices from the Apple App Store.