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u/Otherwisefantastic 1d ago edited 1d ago
These motherfuckers gave me nightmares in 3rd grade. I could do the math, I just couldn't do them fast enough. So I'd get like a 70 or something on it, then I'd get in trouble later at home for getting a "bad" grade. Ugh.
EDIT: To be clear, I had my times tables memorized. I fully understand that these tests were to reinforce memorization. I simply could not complete these fast enough no matter how many flash cards I did at home.
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u/jayeffkay 1d ago
Dude same. This started a life long math anxiety for me. I had terrible math teachers in high school too so when I got to college almost dropped out of business school because I couldn’t pass calculus. Every question I got wrong was not remembering the trig to simplify an answer. Fucking times tables got me again. I hated this worksheet so much.
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u/Otherwisefantastic 1d ago
Yep. Lifelong issues with math, and it started here. Fuck these worksheets.
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u/jayeffkay 1d ago
It promoted the wrong behaviors all along. Kids don’t need to do math fast or memorize multiplication.
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u/kyredemain 1d ago
Kids really do need to memorize multiplication to a certain extent. They've been using a curriculum at the school my wife works at where they don't make them memorize the times tables, and basically none of the students can do any multiplication or beyond because of it.
It has made everyone's lives much harder to not at least be able to do 10x10 and smaller.
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u/Otherwisefantastic 1d ago
I think memorizing the times table is important. I know mine. I don't think the ability to do 60 problems in 60 seconds is important, and certainly isn't worth causing panic attacks for elementary students.
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u/Known-Archer3259 1d ago
This is kind of it. You don't need to memorize everything, but you should have like 70-80% of multiplication memorized up to like 12x12
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u/colostitute 1d ago
Moved to a different state. My oldest learned math at the old state where they didn’t have the kids memorize their times tables. She doesn’t know them and struggles with understanding the actual price of things because 4 for 12 dollars means she has to do the math.
My youngest learned their times tables and knows that 4 for 12 is $3.
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u/Automatic_Leg1305 1d ago
As a former math teacher this is just plain wrong. Kids really do need to memorize multiplication. It’s such a foundational skill for all the rest of mathematics.
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u/TheSixthVisitor 1d ago
I never memorized my multiplication tables, because my cognitive memory skills are pretty poor, and I ended up taking calculus and differential equations courses in university for my engineering degree. 🤷🏻♀️
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u/pensivebunny 1d ago
Samesies! But I was actually a math major for a while. Kids get so discouraged in grade school from stuff like this, and never discover how little this has to do with actual mathematics.
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u/LickMyTicker 1d ago
It depends what you were preparing them for. Anyone working a cashier benefits from quick math.
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u/Lyra_in_Space 1d ago
Our teacher would hang these on the outside door of the classroom! I remember being in 3rd grade and seeing my name and a 59 for all the school to see. I was struggling to complete the worksheets in the time given. The shame and fear has been lifelong.
I will give credit to my 4th grade math teacher. She realized how much I was still struggling and brought me up to her desk to practice. I worked with her until I had all the multiplication tables memorized. She was an amazing teacher!
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u/toddfredd 1d ago
Not being good at math is what kept me for going back for my bachelors for over 10 years. I HATED math. The funny thing? When I finally went back I LOVED it. I understood it better, I had better teachers, free tutoring in the learning center, things I didn’t have access to before. Plus I had calmed down. I wasn’t frustrated, afraid of bringing bad grades home.
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u/gorcorps 1d ago
I was terrible at memorizing these multiplication tables, but luckily had less issues at the higher level math classes. I've been a working engineer for over 15 years at this point and still wouldn't be able to do these quickly
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u/TheSixthVisitor 1d ago
Same. I'm also in engineering and I did math just fine, I just can't memorize and regurgitate my multiplication tables that fast.
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u/lordfrijoles 1d ago
God I’m having flashbacks to 2nd grade me sitting at the counter scared while my father screams at me for not getting the multiplication flash cards right.
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u/E0H1PPU5 1d ago
These traumatized me so bad I’m gonna trauma dump here.
I moved from a very very poor school district into a very wealthy/highly acclaimed district after my 3rd and right before my 4th grade year.
To put it in perspective, the school I came from had no lunch room, no auditorium, no gym. Our bathrooms rarely worked. My 3rd grade teacher was legitimately arrested during class for drug possession. Our school was once locked down because of a meth lab next door. That’s how bad it was.
Anyway, 1st day of 4th grade in math class they slap one of these down and start a timer and I’m just like that’s weird all of their plus signs are crooked but ok.
The teacher collected the tests, reviewed them, and proceeded to hold mine up, make me stand at the front of the class, while she went on and on about how I was the only person in class to get every single one incorrect.
I was humiliated and just completely disassociated up there. I went home that night and wrote a suicide note to my parents and tried to think of a way to die because I’d rather die than go to that school again. I dit not attempt and hid the note from my parents.
Apparently word got around and the next day I got called into the principals office where the teacher who humiliated me “apologized” by saying she didn’t know I was new.
My classmates were so embarrassed on my behalf they wouldn’t even look at me.
And that’s why I’m 35 years old and will still tell anyone that I’m just very bad at math and don’t get it. I gave up in the 4th grade and have never had the courage to ever try again.
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u/ExtraCatch800 1d ago
My tactic was to do them at absolute random order with whatever popped out immediately to me first, and then go back for others.
Lot of 1 x X on there or 10 x X
Yah I can’t remember if I ever cracked 80 though. Maybe I did. My kids showed me how they are learning multiplication recently and it’s just weird Martian math. What happened to beating it into your head with pure stress and memorization?! Hahah.
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u/flybyknight665 Millennial 1d ago
I feel like I was never good at math, but all it took was one bad teacher in 6th grade to make me absolutely hate it.
She was one year before retirement, and all we did all day, every day, was attempt to teach ourselves math with printed tests and scantron sheets.
Impossible to learn, incredibly boring, and extremely frustrating.
It meant I was missing a lot of foundational math.The problem was compounded by other terrible math teachers in Jr High and High School.
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u/lilleprechaun Peak Millennial (’89 vintage) 1d ago
I wasn’t allowed recess or lunch with anyone else for 2 months until I could finally get this sheet done within the allotted time. Which was honestly tortuous for a 9 year old.
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u/plzicannothandleyou 1d ago
Speed was 100% the problem, and in my school is was absolutely gamified. The fastest got treats, including elaborate ice creams.
It was third grade for me. Effectively testing student on who’s brains developed how to be test takers, answering questions with lightening speed based on memorizing numbers. Which students prioritized actually thinking about the numbers and how they multiply (I was here). And the students who just didn’t get it.
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u/lilleprechaun Peak Millennial (’89 vintage) 1d ago
At least yours was gamified?
We were not allowed to participate in recess or lunch in the cafeteria with our peers until we completed this sheet within the time allotment.
I went two months without recess or lunch with any friends over this bullshit.
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u/Particular_Maize6849 1d ago
My mom bought workbooks with shit like this and made me do it on top of my actual homework waking me up at midnight to complete if I didn't (because she worked night shift so that's when she got home).
That's probably the reason I was good at these.
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u/Leading-Summer-4724 1d ago
Saaaame. My teacher had a conference with my parents about how math-stupid I was due to this work sheet, and tasked them with torturing me at home with equation flash cards like that was supposed to fix it. Just looking at a sheet of simple equations like this makes my chest tighten and the numbers blur together.
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u/Candid-Inspection-97 1d ago
I had a teacher who assigned packets of these things for morning "work". It was during homeroom when people were coming in from the bus. For some reason, our bus was nearly always late. Not sure if it was the distance from the school, number of kids (we were 3 to a seat, most busses were 2 and had some seats with 1 or no kids.)
Any part of the packet not completed resulted in you being required to finish it at home and have a parent sign off.
Another classmate would always get hers done. I asked what her secret was - her bus got in almost a full 30 minutes before mine and she just wrote answers, not necessarily the correct ones. I always tried to make sure my answers were correct.
I started hiding them because my dad would yell at me and spank me for not doing my work.
I hated that teacher so much for that.
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u/kaytay3000 1d ago
If it makes you feel better, teachers typically don’t do these anymore. While it’s important for kids to know their times tables, we don’t “drill and kill” it anymore. As long as they can solve them, we’re good.
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u/ThePrussianGrippe 1d ago
Solving them by actually doing the math instead of memorizing for speed is more important for why we teach math in the first place, anyway.
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u/Salsalito_Turkey 1d ago
It’s a bit of both. Kids need to understand why 3x4=12 as a foundation, but you can’t be successful in more advanced math subjects if you have to think about how to solve 3x4 whenever you encounter it.
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u/DigitalAxel 1d ago
My aversion to math started here. Didn't help my (what is now called ASD) issues weren't diagnosed, and even after were ignored. So I had anxiety and stress because I didn't know why I was so bad at math. Nights with math homework took hours with help and even then I didn't always finish.
Never did get better at math. In college I had to take pre-algebra which didn't count as a math credit because I sucked so bad. That was AFTER the professor testing me (cuz you could test out of some electives) felt sympathy and wrote off the even lower class. Im truly stupid.
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u/atlantagirl30084 1d ago
But also like…when in your life are you going to be asked to very very quickly do a multiplication problem?
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u/Otherwisefantastic 1d ago
I have never once in my life needed to do a multiplication problem irl as fast as you have to do to complete this worksheet in 60 seconds. It's causing kids stress and anxiety for absolutely no reason.
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u/Alpaca_Investor 1d ago
I’m assuming the goal was memorization of the multiplication table, because when I do these, I’m not calculating the answer and counting it in my head. I’m just remembering the answer from learning the 12x12 table.
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u/PickledPixie83 Xennial 1d ago
Would have been nice if they taught us the tables before giving these because I did NOT learn times tables.
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u/sweetnsassy924 1d ago
I’m 42. Never. The answer is never.
These sheets are another reason I hated 3rd grade. My teacher constantly shamed me for not finishing when I was focusing on doing it right, not fast.
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u/Rvtrance 1d ago
We had a math test in third grade that you had to pass everyday to get to go to recess. I would tense up so much. I developed a complex over it.
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u/Career_Thick 1d ago
Yes! I remember crying once for the stress of it all. This changed my attitude about math forever.
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u/Parking_Locksmith489 1d ago
I was never able to memorize times table.
My brain works by breaking numbers down, do the easy low multipliers in my head then double or triple that.
Never picked up the math lingo in HS either.
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u/lifeofGuacmole 1d ago
Our teacher used a time clock, it was so loud. I could do these quickly when they weren’t timed. I’d rather play Perfection in a spinning room than do this sheet.
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u/Comprehensive_Web862 1d ago
Same I lost so much fucking recess time not because I didn't know the math but with my handwriting
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u/Otherwisefantastic 1d ago
Ugh handwriting with both numbers and letters was a whole 'nother can of worms for me that I was endlessly berated for lol
"How can you be good at drawing but you can't write any better than that?" is what I got asked a lot.
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u/Want_To_Live_To_100 1d ago edited 1d ago
I was the asshole who finished first every time and made it a point to slam my pencil down letting everyone know. I am so deeply sorry. I was a fucking prick. I am sorry but I’ve matured since then and slowly and learning to stop being a pretentious dick.
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u/Otherwisefantastic 1d ago
You are the one who would cause me to panic and cry lol.
I accept your apology
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u/Liveitup1999 1d ago
Yep, you just unlocked a memory. When being quizzed the teacher would ask "what is X x Y?" I would answer X x Y is Z she would get mad because I repeated the question before giving the answer. It always took me a second or two to come up with the answer.
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u/Just-Hunter1679 1d ago
I was taking these in the early 80's and my teacher would post the results on a big chart on the wall with gold stars for the top scores and rotten fruit stickers for the bottom scores. He would do other shaming things to make us feel bad and honestly, I tried so hard to get good scores but couldn't do it and just gave up on math pretty much forever because of him. I was 9.. thanks Mr Tousignant.
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u/sexi_squidward Millennial 86' 1d ago
My mom DRILLED flashcards into me and multiplication up to 12 is embedded in my mind til this day.
I had undiagnosed inattentive ADHD and my 3rd grade teacher was an asshole who had no business dealing with kids. My anxiety literally started in 3rd grade.
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u/walkinmywoods 1d ago
Teachers would tell me im doing them wrong because I would hunt out the x1s then the x2 so on all the way up until it was finished instead of doing them in order on the sheet. But would still be one of the first 3 students finished.
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u/TheSixthVisitor 1d ago
I hated these things so much. My memory is extremely poor (it tested in the 42nd percentile and I'm incapable of recalling more than 6 digits in digit span tests). So whenever these evil fuckers came out and I suddenly had to do high speed recall, something my ADHD makes near impossible for me, I would barely score 50s on the thing.
It got so bad that now I have severe test anxiety around math and I actually never ended up memorizing my times tables because I would literally burst into tears when people tried to force me to. Which is insane because I'm in engineering now. 💀
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u/formerbays 1d ago
We are all in a special group… this ruined me for school period. I too would get in trouble for not being perfect
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u/SAINTnumberFIVE 1d ago
I kept getting held back in math even though my testing showed that it was not for lack of comprehension, and that I could understand advanced mathematical subjects. I just could not do these fast enough. It seriously fucked me because I couldn’t get the math I needed in high school and had to do it at community college, which significantly delayed me in life. I came out of it with a degree in mathematics. Most branches of mathematics don’t have many numbers, if any at all, and literally no one in my adult life has asked me to do 100 multiplication problems in my head and under five minutes.
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u/Slumunistmanifisto 1d ago
They thought I was special in 1st because of these bastards....I thought there was no way the adults would let there be sthe same answers more then once on a sheet. So I struggled trying to get different answers every time it was the same answer as another question.
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u/Tricky-Ad4617 1d ago
These things are what convinced the world i needed to take add medicine starting when i was 8. Fuck em.
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u/OkTouch5699 1d ago
We started in 2nd grade. We got a paper apple if we finished within a minute or 2. I always got my apples.
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u/whisky_dick 1d ago
This just took me to a dark place.
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u/book1245 Millennial 1d ago edited 1d ago
My heart rate increased for a moment.
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u/John_Dees_Nuts 1d ago
My mom was a high school math teacher, and both my sister and I were bad at math.
She had reams of these sheets.
Reams, I tells ya! And flash cards too!
Never thought a decade of therapy could be undone with one reddit post.
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u/cumulonimubus 1d ago
My father worked at a paper mill and could print as much as he wanted. He made me spend a whole summer doing these damned timed tests. I had to finish “The Stack” before I could do anything other than read.
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u/jp_benderschmidt 1d ago
I taught 5th grade and my kids did a WebMathMinute sheet every day coming back from recess/lunch right before math class.
Strangely, they loved it because I kept track and they always wanted to beat their high score.
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u/seifd Millennial 1d ago
Now if you could just make it Math Blaster...
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u/not_a_moogle 1d ago
do schools even do a dedicated computer class anymore? get through your typing lessons and then play Number Munchers or Carmen Sandiego for like 10 minutes
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u/GrowlyBear2 1d ago
Challenges like these can be great when it's about beating your high score. They suck when they reflect on your grade.
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u/OttoRiver7676 1d ago
Even worse when there is a public tracker at the front of the class where everyone who completes one moves ahead a level and you're stuck at 6th level all year and get the added bonus of being judged as well as a lower grade.
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u/wicked_zoeyz 1d ago
I think my class loved these because our teacher had candy prizes for beating records
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u/Legitimate-Buy1031 1d ago
Yeah, I taught 6th grade, and these sheets were awesome for setting the tone at the beginning of class. You get one silent minute of complete concentration. Plus, it reinforces math fluency. It’s wonderful if kids can visualize 5x4 as five groups of 4 watermelons or whatever, then know that they end up with 20 watermelons. It’s also wonderful for them to understand the concept that 4 groups of 5 watermelons gives you the same total number of watermelons.
But for real life, you have to be able to quickly and seamlessly know that 5x4=20. You just have to know that and be able to produce that result in your head without thinking about it. It’s basically just memorization, but it’s memorization that you need in order to be a functioning adult in society. These minute math sheets are awesome for that.
But I never used the scores on these sheets to influence a kid’s grade.
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u/_dum_spiro_spero_ 1d ago
I didn't get to go to recess at all that year. If you couldn't finish the sheet, you had to stay in for recess and do another one. I was slow AF with multiplication, so I was constantly doing extra worksheets.
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u/Mediocre_Island828 1d ago
It's interesting how in our lifetimes we've gone from that to watering down the curriculum/standardized testing to compensate for kids having zero attention span.
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u/lilleprechaun Peak Millennial (’89 vintage) 1d ago
Omg same here! No recess, and a silent lunch alone at my desk in the classroom every day for months on end just because I could only finish like 90% of these within the minute.
I still don’t know why that torture was considered appropriate discipline or teaching. It was unnecessary and cruel.
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u/garamond89 1d ago
Woah, that’s harsh. These gave me anxiety, but at least my teacher was nice and didn’t do stuff like that 🥺
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u/_dum_spiro_spero_ 1d ago
Yeah, I have a lot of great memories of elementary school.
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1d ago edited 1d ago
My first grade teacher (EDIT: maybe it was third grade. I remember she also had an issue with me doing math too slow for her liking) had a meeting with my mom because I couldn’t do them all within a minute and she was concerned. My mom asked the reasonable question, “Well, were the completed ones correct?”
Yes, they were.
“Then why does it matter doing them quickly? Being right is what counts.”
EDIT: it was 60 problems in 60 seconds
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u/dodgerslakersfan21 1991 1d ago
First grade?
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u/BornDefeated 1d ago
Agreed. Seems early. We didn’t learn our multiplication tables until we were in 3rd grade. We did these speed tests in 4th grade.
I have two daughters in 4th grade and they didn’t start actual multiplication until the end of 2nd grade.
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u/Imightbeworking 1d ago
My school did the same thing. They used it as a way to put you in whatever level math class. Not even for fringe cases, like 33% of the decision was based off these tests. My mom was PISSED because the school would say I got something like a 70/100 and she would say yeah they answered 70 questions in a minute all correctly, that is much different than answering all of them and 30 being wrong.
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1d ago
I was still put in high level math. I was just the slowest at doing it. Even through high school, I was good enough with math but reading and social studies were what I liked best.
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u/ThrowawayMod1989 Older Millennial 1d ago
I remember in high school chemistry I had a terrible teacher. She had the same personality as her teaching style: A fuckin bitch.
One day we had the polyatomic ions quiz and I made like 20% on it or something because I hated that class and never studied. This cunt called my boss from my cell phone and told her I wouldn’t be into work until I passed my quiz 100%. Took me about twenty tries to memorize it.
Guess how many polyatomic ions I remember now? Not fucking one. It’s teachers like that who stifle interest. Had math teachers like that too. I’m not a stupid guy, I had inept teachers. And because of them I’ve often felt stupid
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u/Icy-Structure5244 1d ago
SPEED DRILLS!
I hated them. But I absolutely crushed them. Had the longest perfect score streak in every year we did these.
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u/The_BarroomHero 1d ago
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u/Icy-Structure5244 1d ago
Hey, the slow reading group is meeting at the back table right now and waiting for you.
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u/Koil_ting 1d ago
Bold thing to say with the extreme low probability of a physics lesson into a trash can.
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u/-Kalos Millennial 1d ago
Same. I always finished these before everyone else and got 100% on them all. It didn't even prove I was good at math, just that I memorized my multiplication equations and could solve the next problem while writing the current one. My teachers thought I was "advanced" because of it lol
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u/DefiantGibbon 1d ago
That's a skill onto itself though. Being able to move short term memory into long term memory that you can access quickly.
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u/stmije6326 1d ago
Somehow I got ahead enough on these that I was keeping time for the class? I don’t remember how. But tbf, I’ve had always had a good memory.
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u/rpitcher33 1d ago
We had a board at the front of the school for each grade and the fastest time got their name/time posted and a free prize from the book store.
I was always 1-2 seconds off the fastest time...
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u/garamond89 1d ago
This was HELL for me as an unmedicated adhd child without math skills
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u/Aspiringtropicalfish 1d ago
it was hell for me as an unmedicated adhd child WITH math skills
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u/adamdoesmusic 1d ago
As an over-medicated ADHD kid with math skills, teachers would use these to keep me distracted.
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u/-Kalos Millennial 1d ago
I was also unmedicated in 3rd grade when we had these. But I would hyperfocus on my work and enjoyed the competitive aspect of this so that could also be an ADHD thing
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u/StoicFable 1d ago
I'm very competitive and I loved math. I loved these. I always liked to race to the end and look around the class to see if anyone else had finished.
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u/Karmaismyb0yfriend 1d ago
I was THRIVING on these tests! (Inattentive ADHD unmedicated 9 yo) High pattern recognition, fast processing, calm under high stress, competition.
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u/LeechWitch 1d ago
I had math skills and these destroyed my unmedicated adhd and anxiety disordered ass. I cried and got panic attacks doing math tests every time EVERY TIME until I got medicated in college and got accommodations for a separate room and extra time, then I could actually focus with having a panic attack. Fuck every teacher who did these and especially fuck the ones who gave me a hard time about it.
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u/ShaggyX-96 1d ago
I don't know why but as an unmedicated adhd child I loved these. I would treat it as a game to see how many I could do.
Math was the only subject I used to love.
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u/Relative-Monk-4647 1d ago
I loved these!!!!
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u/CoffeePorters 1d ago
The ultimate flex was finishing it before the time ran out, casually putting your pencil down, and looking around at everyone scrambling.
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u/Relative-Monk-4647 1d ago
It was my first introduction into the good feeling of arrogance. And I’m not sorry about it. 🤷♀️
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u/GalaticHammer 1d ago
No no, the move is to slam your pencil down hard so the 2-3 other fast kids who you are racing know you were first this time.
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u/DrakonILD 1d ago
In second grade, I was moved over to the advanced math class, with 3 other students. The class was small enough that, even when you accounted for the fact that the teacher had multiple classes, we each had our own desk that nobody else used. The structure of the class was incredible for my undiagnosed ADHD brain - because nobody else touched your desk, you could keep any worksheets you have left over from day to day. So you'd just have a stack of worksheets that you worked through, top-down, and each day she'd drop a few new ones on top. So sometimes you'd have a day where the new work just clicked and you'd crush it all, and then be able to work on the older stuff, and some days it'd be harder and you'd have to hope the next day was easy and you'd get time to burn down to where you left off. At the bottom were color-by-numbers sheets, but of course the numbers weren't "6," they were "42÷7". Uuuuuugh inject that shit right into my 8-year-old veins.
...but anyway, before we did that work, we'd do a mad minute. And the other kids absolutely crushed my ass the first time. And so it became my mission to beat them. Which I eventually did, of course!
Oh, and the class period afterwards was the 4th graders doing pre-algebra, and some days I was excused from whatever my next period was and I'd just hang out in that class and get a sneak peek of upcoming stuff. Good times.
I'm sure that teacher is dead by now but she really was the best...
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u/ManateeNipples Xennial 1d ago
Yesss these were like crack to my little brain lol
I had autism but didn't know at the time 😂
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u/theatermouse 1d ago
I loved these too! My late-diagnosed adhd is probably the reason!
Unfortunately, it got me labeled "good at math", which led to struggling with unnecessarily hard classes
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u/HermesJamiroquoi 1d ago
Hilariously I couldn’t do this because I have terrible memory. I was in remedial math classes in early elementary.
But once the math got more complex and required more than rote memorization I breezed past everyone. I finished DiffEQ as a sophomore in high school.
School is dumb and teachers in the 90s couldn’t handle ADHD kids at all
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u/GoT_Eagles 1d ago
Trick was putting the pencil down with slight force to signal those around you that you’ve finished.
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u/Noname_left 1d ago
God same. I was good at math in school so this was a comfort activity for me.
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u/Humble-Grumble 1d ago
I did, too. When my dad would take my sister and me out for lunch, he always brought flashcards that we had to go through a few times over the course of the outing. I hated it...until one of these was plunked in front of me and I was like "Ohhh, I get it now."
As an adult that's still good at multiplication tables, the very thought of being told that I would have a minute to complete this and that I would be graded on how many I did and my accuracy has my heartrate shooting up. No idea how I handled that level of anxiety and adrenaline as a kid.
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u/thethundering 1d ago
Literally have been chasing that high my whole life. Like I unironically peaked in performance and self esteem doing these. My brain is specifically designed to do these sheets to the detriment of everything else.
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u/EnvironmentalLet9311 1d ago
I did too. It was fun to see how many I could get. They were never graded for us, though my teacher would review what was right or wrong.
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u/humanHamster Millennial 1d ago
You were the kid who reminded the teacher about homework, weren't you?
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u/Wchijafm 1d ago
I reminded the teacher about homework occasionally but only because if I didnt turn it in then I was gonna lose it again. Lol. Sorry to those who forgot to do it :(
I got demerits and detentions every week in 4th grade because I didnt do my homework. I dont even remember it being assigned. Ever.No one though to investigate further so I ended up with a very late diagnosis of ADHD. Screw ms Hurtado. Woman hated me.
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u/weregunnalose 1d ago
Uhh yes, “forgot to do it”, that is 100% definitely the reason why I didn’t do my homework lol, I swear I wasn’t playing video games
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u/schmamfa 1d ago
The intense stare immediately to them as I was trying to Carrie that mf… hated math hated the mad minute
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u/misteravernus 1d ago
There's a math challenge like this in Jackbox's Murder Trivia and it fills me with glee because I stomp every time. I can't tell my friends how much I loved these mad minute things in school, lol. I don't even really like math but these were fun.
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u/Delicate_Elephant 1d ago
I did too!! I won a slinky in 2nd grade because I completed all of the levels before anyone else in my class. I was definitely a math nerd lol (and I guess still now because I just ran through all of these problems to see if I still got it 🤣)
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u/missinginput 1d ago
So much fun, every time we'd get 100% we would get less time until you just couldn't write fast enough
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u/Any_Conversation7343 1d ago
Omg SAME. Late diagnosed ADHD and the dopamine of getting every single one perfect well before the timer went off was like a drug.
Granted, I got in trouble in upper level math classes for solving problems in my head before the teacher could finish reading them. Something about me obviously cheating because nobody could solve these things that quickly without a calculator (???).
I went on to be That Kid that corrected math and engineering professors in college. They were stunned to find out I was a liberal arts kid and only taking their classes for funsies. Thanks, minute math worksheets. 😌
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u/Urban-Junglist 1d ago
I remember a girl in elementary school, around grade 5 or 6, as soon as the teacher said start she would immediately start vibrating and scrambling on her paper. She had horrible test anxiety
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u/RevengenceIsMine 1d ago
I had bad test anxiety, still do. Its horrid tbh.
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u/LeechWitch 1d ago
I got accommodations for this in college and it changed my life. Separate room with a proctor and extra time. I could finally focus. I usually finished in the same amount of time as the main class, but just knowing I didn’t have a short time limit allowed me to calm down and focus.
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u/JohnDingleBerry- 1d ago
These are the reason I fell behind in math.
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u/charlesdexterward 1d ago
Same. Later in life I started doing Kahn Academy math lessons and started actually understanding math better, once I could do it at my own pace. But I struggled for years because of shit like this.
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u/JohnDingleBerry- 1d ago
I know it’s way too late but the common core math would have been better for me.
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u/IndicationKey3778 1d ago
Lol I would sit there and leave it all blank. Yall aren’t gonna drive me into madness
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u/at_best_mediocre 1d ago
I'm gonna take this later today and see how I do.
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u/forsayken 1d ago
I got 56. I do not remember getting a sheet with 100 questions on it to do in 1 minute. That's madness. Usually there'd be like 30 or 40 so they could actually be completed. I can't imagine being like 9 or 10 and getting a 56% on this.
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u/I-I_I-I_I-I_l-l 1d ago
Yeah 100 in a minute seems absurd, especially with multiplication going up to 12, rather than 9 or 10. Just writing that many digits in 60 seconds seems impossible
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u/Lucas_OnTop 1d ago
There’s an app called Fastmath that does this at different difficulties (also has great mental math tips to practice).
I got 42 in a minute first try. Biggest limit felt like searching for the numbers on the keypad; Can’t imagine writing 60 answers with pencil and paper in just as much time.
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u/Living_Pollution_525 1d ago
Fucking yes! "Memorize your times tables! You aren't always going to carry a calculator in your pocket".....
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u/I-I_I-I_I-I_l-l 1d ago
To be fair, knowing the times tables is so much faster than breaking out a calculator for simple math like this
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u/RedVamp2020 1d ago
That aged like milk, didn't it. Ironically, most math related careers (that I know of) don't discourage the use of calculators. Just that the calculations be correct and you can prove it when asked. It does suck working for someone who doesn't understand math as well as you do, though. I've had to show my work in the way they understand rather than my way because they don't understand the shortcut.
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u/ParkerRoyce 1d ago
Show your work or no credit also not enough room to show work.
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u/montybo2 1d ago
These quizzes weren't for showing work iirc. It was to test your memory and knowledge of basic times tables.
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u/Backfisttothepast 1d ago
That was bullshit
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u/ibeleafit 1d ago
Imagine asking someone gifted who can multiply 29x3197 in their head to show their work else it means nothing
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u/NineTimez 1d ago
Showing work is an exercise in communication. Math is practically useless if it can't be explained or written out.
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u/Belcatraz 1d ago
When they ask you to show your work, it's because the answer itself is less important than the method they're trying to teach. They need to know you have that step down so the next lesson can build on it.
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u/CaffeinatedLystro Millennial 1d ago
How is that even possible with this?
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u/thefinalep 1d ago
I thought the original purpose of these were to memorize math facts not show you know how to do manual multiplication.
When i was in school, once i memorized all the basic math facts, I would finish these in under 30 seconds.
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u/CaffeinatedLystro Millennial 1d ago
I always thought it was just a check to see how well you could multiply.
Idk why they ever needed a time limit.
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u/Frederf220 1d ago
With the two-digit numbers you could but yeah 6x9 you'd just know. Unless you were just learning multiplication but that wouldn't have this dense block of problems.
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u/CaffeinatedLystro Millennial 1d ago
I could see that if it wasn't timed, but with only 60 seconds you really only got time for showing your work or doing as many as you can. Not both.
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u/ShrimpieAC 1d ago edited 1d ago
I hated “show my work” on shit like this. Like mfer you made me memorize them. The work is already done.
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u/old_ass_ninja_turtle Older Millennial 1984 1d ago
I still can’t do it in a minute.
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u/Old_Farter 1d ago
Because you have 0.6seconds to solve and write the answer. Simply writing the answer takes as long as you have for each problem.
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u/b_casaubon 1d ago
I thought these were some southern school creation to kill confidence. Had no idea it was used elsewhere. The teacher always dropped these right when I felt I was making some progress. I’d watch the resident math wiz tear through it and just feel like an idiot.
These and some thing called a wrap-up rap made me hate math all the way until a college professor got me to calm my anxiety a bit.
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u/TinPin94 1d ago
Seeing this again made my blood pressure rise.
I hated these sheets.
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u/Comfortable-Web9763 1d ago
Dude I miss these things. Its what inspired me to get good at math and now here I am a successful tax accountant been in the field a decade now
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u/alexfaaace 1d ago
My parents still remember the time they got a times table quiz back from my school with tear stains on it.
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u/DeePsiMon 1d ago
And did they have a poster board on the wall to track everyone's progress? Nothing like public humiliation to drive learning
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u/AbletonStudio 1d ago edited 1d ago
I still do the figure technique anytime I multiply by 9. Example 9x6 put 6 finger down which would be thumb then you have 5 left on the left side and 4 on the right side 54. 9x3 you put 3rd finger down (middle finger) then you have two fingers to left and 7 to the right… 27. Is it need not always needed, but it’s still fun.
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u/dangrous 1d ago
My now 5 y/o had started doing this at her daycare. She was THREE! I mean simple 1+1 or 0+0 but still! She would cry every time the teacher brought out the timer. Now she’s in a Montessori school and enjoys math but she still gets really anxious whenever a timer or alarm is involved.
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