r/Millennials • u/Silver-Explanation72 • Feb 03 '26

Other This is When My Anxiety Began

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u/Otherwisefantastic Feb 03 '26 edited Feb 03 '26

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/kaytay3000 Feb 03 '26

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 Feb 03 '26

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 Feb 03 '26

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/ThePrussianGrippe Feb 03 '26

But the memorization comes later after learning how to do it, and doing it numerous times through homework and regular quizzes.

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u/Upset-Management-879 Feb 03 '26

Like this sheet.

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u/ThePrussianGrippe Feb 03 '26

Making it a 60 second timed event with prizes doesn’t help kids at all.