--- title: "Why Drill-and-Kill Fails Year 4 MTC | Times Tables Games | XTables Champions" description: "The June MTC sparked real maths anxiety in Year 4 pupils. Here's why rote drilling is the problem, and how game-based learning offers a kinder, more effective fix." lang: en json-ld: | [ { "name": "XTables Champions", "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "WebSite", "url": "https://xtableschampions.com" }, { "name": "XTables Champions", "logo": "https://qtrypzzcjebvfcihiynt.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/base44-prod/public/68cac2c61c34894625d63273/cae3abbca_logo.png", "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "Organization", "url": "https://xtableschampions.com" }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://math-magicians-academy-25d63273.base44.app/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "mtc prep without the tears maths anxiety year 4", "item": "https://math-magicians-academy-25d63273.base44.app/mtc-prep-without-the-tears-maths-anxiety-year-4" } ] }, { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@type": "FAQPage", "mainEntity": [ { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is the Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) and why is it causing anxiety?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The MTC is a government-mandated online assessment taken by Year 4 pupils in England each June, testing their multiplication facts up to 12 x 12. The anxiety is less about the check itself and more about how many schools prepare for it, using intensive timed drilling that research links to heightened maths anxiety, particularly in children who already find number work difficult." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Is drill-and-kill revision ever useful for the MTC?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "It can produce short-term recall, but it tends to produce fragile knowledge that does not transfer well when facts are presented in a different context or format. For children with ADHD, dyslexia, or any existing maths anxiety, timed repetition often actively hinders performance by triggering a stress response that blocks working memory." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How does game-based learning help children prepare for the MTC without the tears?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Games create repeated exposure to multiplication facts in a low-stakes, socially engaging setting. Because the child is focused on the game rather than being evaluated, the affective filter drops and memory consolidation is more effective. Children encounter the same facts in varied contexts, which builds more durable recall than rote repetition alone." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Is XTables Champions suitable for neurodivergent children?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Yes, and this is something we think about carefully. The platform includes SENCO flags for teachers, visual \"Show Me How\" breakdowns for children who need to understand the reasoning behind a fact, and game formats that suit different learning styles. Children with ADHD in particular often find they stay engaged in multiplayer games for longer than traditional revision activities." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "How early should schools start MTC preparation, and in what way?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Year 3 is an ideal time to begin building familiarity with multiplication facts through low-pressure, game-based exposure. The goal at that stage is not MTC performance but genuine fluency: the ability to encounter a multiplication fact in different contexts and feel confident with it. Starting early and keeping it low-stakes means children arrive in Year 4 without the panic." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "My child came home upset after the June MTC. What can I do to help them recover their confidence?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "First, reassure them that one test does not define their ability. Then, gently re-introduce multiplication facts through non-pressured formats: games, puzzles, activities that feel like play rather than revision. The goal is to rebuild a positive association with numbers before any formal practice resumes. If anxiety persists, speaking to the class teacher or SENCO about additional support is always a good step." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Are there MTC alternatives that unions and child psychologists are proposing?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The current public debate, which picked up significantly after the June 2026 sitting, includes calls for portfolio-based fluency assessments, teacher observation records, and a broader range of low-stakes checkpoints throughout the year rather than a single timed sitting. Nothing has changed at policy level yet, but the conversation is active and growing." } } ] } ] --- [ XTables Champions Part of the ESSTA Kids family ](/Welcome) [About Us](/About)[Rewards ](/OurRewards) Tips & Tricks [Games](/Games)Login [ XTables Champions Part of the ESSTA Kids family ](/Welcome) [Learn](/levels-and-progression) [Games](/GamesOverview) [All Games](/GamesOverview)[Connect Four](/connect-four)[Guess Who?](/guess-who)[Times Tables Bingo](/times-tables-bingo)[Snap!](/snap)[Play with Friends](/games/play-with-friends)[Play against Champion](/games/play-against-champion) [Every Learner](/times-tables-for-every-learner) [Adaptive Learning](/adaptive-times-tables-learning) [Schools](/ForSchools) [Lunchtime Clubs](/LunchtimeClubs)[SENCO Support](/SchoolSencoInfo)[Homework Setting](/SchoolHomeworkSetting)[Whole-Class Games](/SchoolWholeClassGames)[Level Matching](/SchoolLevelMatching) [Wellbeing](/wellbeing-and-safeguarding) [Pricing](/pricing) Log In / Sign Up [Back to all articles](/Blog) # Why Drill-and-Kill Fails Year 4 MTC | Times Tables Games 24 July 2026 The Multiplication Tables Check does not cause maths anxiety on its own. The way we prepare children for it does. That is my honest takeaway after spending the past few weeks reading through the educator forums, union statements, and parent threads that exploded online in the days following the June 2026 Year 4 MTC sitting. The discussion is loud, it is urgent, and from where I am sitting at XTables Champions, it is one we have been thinking about since the day we started. ## What Actually Happened After the June MTC If you missed it, here is a quick summary of what I have been reading. Following this summer's MTC, teachers on TES forums and parents across social media shared a wave of accounts describing children in tears, refusing to go to school, and telling their parents they were "stupid at maths." Unions and child psychologists began calling publicly for alternative, lower-pressure fluency assessments. The argument is not that children should not know their times tables. It is that the six-week sprint of timed drills and rapid-fire flashcard repetition that many schools defaulted to left a cohort of Year 4 children genuinely frightened of numbers. What stood out to me reading through these accounts is how consistent the picture is. It is not one school, one borough, one kind of child. It is a pattern. ## The Problem with Rote Drilling Drill-and-kill teaching, the relentless repetition of multiplication facts under timed pressure, does produce a certain kind of result: children who can blurt out 7 x 8 on demand, in isolation, under calm conditions. What it often does not produce is children who understand \*why\* 7 x 8 is 56, or who can use that fact flexibly when a word problem dresses it up differently. **The real damage, though, is not about conceptual gaps. It is about what timed pressure does to a child's relationship with maths.** When I looked into the research around maths anxiety, what comes up repeatedly is that timed testing is one of the most reliable triggers. Children who already find maths difficult, including many children with dyslexia, ADHD, or processing differences, can go into a kind of cognitive freeze under time pressure. Their working memory, which is already being stretched, gets hijacked by the stress response. They forget things they actually know. They leave the room feeling like failures. And then they carry that feeling into Year 5, and Year 6, and beyond. From the schools we speak to in our early conversations, this is not a rare edge case. It is something teachers are describing regularly, especially for their neurodivergent pupils. ## What the Unions and Psychologists Are Actually Asking For The calls I have seen from unions and child development professionals are not asking for the MTC to be abolished. They are asking for preparation methods that build genuine fluency rather than surface-level recall under duress. That means exposure to multiplication facts in varied, low-stakes contexts. It means children encountering the same number relationships in different formats, over time, so that understanding actually beds in. It means not treating a single sit-down test as the only performance that matters. This is, funnily enough, exactly the design brief behind XTables Champions. As our founder Gal Darrash puts it, \*"We built this because we kept seeing bright kids decide they were 'not maths people' before they even hit Year 5. That is not a maths problem. That is a confidence problem, and it starts with how we teach."\* ## How Game-Based Learning Builds Real Fluency When I looked at what the evidence base says about game-based learning for multiplication fluency, a few things come through clearly. Games lower the affective filter, the psychological barrier that goes up when children feel evaluated. When a child is playing Snap or a Connect Four variant, their brain is in a problem-solving mode rather than a performance mode. They encounter the same multiplication facts repeatedly, but because the context keeps shifting, they are actually rehearsing retrieval in a more durable way. At XTables Champions, the games are built around formats children already enjoy: Snap, Connect Four, Bingo, Battleship, Guess Who, Dominoes, Sudoku. They are multiplayer, which means children are engaged socially, not just drilling in isolation. The "Show Me How" visual breakdowns inside the platform mean a child who does not immediately know 9 x 6 can see why it works, not just be told to memorise it. For neurodivergent pupils specifically, this matters enormously. A child with ADHD who cannot sit still for a ten-minute flashcard session will often stay completely absorbed in a competitive game for twenty minutes without noticing. A child with dyslexia who struggles with written number work can engage with visual, pattern-based formats that play to different strengths. The platform also includes SENCO flags so that teachers and support staff can see which children may need additional support, without waiting for a crisis. ## What Schools Can Actually Do Right Now If you are a teacher, SENCO, or school leader trying to work out what to do differently before next June, here is how I would think about it. The first thing worth doing is auditing \*how\* your current MTC preparation is structured. If the majority of it is timed drills and flashcard repetition, that is worth reconsidering, not because those tools are always harmful, but because they should not be the only approach, and they should not be the dominant one for children who are already anxious. Second, consider whether your Year 3 and Year 4 timetable creates enough low-stakes, repeated exposure to multiplication facts across different contexts. Games, physical activities, number talks, collaborative puzzles. The more varied the context, the more robust the memory. Third, think specifically about your neurodivergent pupils. Children with ADHD, dyslexia, or high anxiety around performance are often the ones who suffer most in a drill-heavy environment, and they are also the ones most likely to thrive when the format changes. ## Talk to Us Before Next June If what I have described here resonates with what you are seeing in your school, or with your child at home, I would genuinely encourage you to get in touch with us at XTables Champions. We are a young, founder-led company and we are actively working with schools to understand what support looks like in practice. Whether you are a Year 4 teacher wanting to rethink your MTC prep, a SENCO looking for tools that work for neurodivergent learners, or a parent who watched their child come home anxious after the June check, we want to hear from you. Visit [xtableschampions.com](https://xtableschampions.com) to find out more, or get in touch directly to talk about how we might support your school or your child. No hard sell, no complicated process. Just a conversation about what would actually help. ## Frequently Asked Questions What is the Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) and why is it causing anxiety? Is drill-and-kill revision ever useful for the MTC? How does game-based learning help children prepare for the MTC without the tears? Is XTables Champions suitable for neurodivergent children? How early should schools start MTC preparation, and in what way? My child came home upset after the June MTC. What can I do to help them recover their confidence? Are there MTC alternatives that unions and child psychologists are proposing? ## Ready to help your child? Join thousands of families using XTables Champions to make multiplication click. Get Started Free XTables Champions Game-based times tables for children aged 6 to 11. No timers, no tears. For parents, schools and tutors. Part of ESSTA Kids. #### Platform - [Schools](/ForSchools) - [Levels & Progression](/levels-and-progression) - [Our Programme](/Programme) - [Rewards](/OurRewards) - [Pricing](/pricing) - [About Us](/About) - [Learning Philosophy](/LearningPhilosophy) - [Contact](/Contact) #### Community - [Insights](/Insights) - [For Parents Blog](/Blog) - [Tips & Tricks](/TipsTricks) - [Success Stories](/SuccessStories) - [Events & Competitions](/Events) - [Live Results](/Results) - [Lunchtime Clubs](/LunchtimeClubs) #### ESSTA Kids Expert learning programmes for children who need extra support. [Visit esstakids.com →](https://esstakids.com) © 2026 XTables Champions, An ESSTA Kids Programme. All rights reserved. [Privacy Policy](/PrivacyPolicy)• [Terms & Conditions](/TermsConditions)• [Sitemap](/sitemap.xml) XTables Champions Game-based times tables for children aged 6 to 11. No timers, no tears. For parents, schools and tutors. Part of ESSTA Kids. #### Platform - [Schools](/ForSchools) - [Levels & Progression](/levels-and-progression) - [Our Programme](/Programme) - [Rewards](/OurRewards) - [Pricing](/pricing) - [About Us](/About) - [Learning Philosophy](/LearningPhilosophy) - [Contact](/Contact) #### Community - [Insights](/Insights) - [For Parents Blog](/Blog) - [Tips & Tricks](/TipsTricks) - [Success Stories](/SuccessStories) - [Events & Competitions](/Events) - [Live Results](/Results) - [Lunchtime Clubs](/LunchtimeClubs) #### ESSTA Kids Expert learning programmes for children who need extra support. [Visit esstakids.com →](https://esstakids.com) © 2026 XTables Champions, An ESSTA Kids Programme. All rights reserved. [Privacy Policy](/PrivacyPolicy)• [Terms & Conditions](/TermsConditions)• [Sitemap](/sitemap.xml)