How to Learn Your 8 Times Table: Tips from a Teacher (2024)

Learn the 8 times table with help from an elementary school teacher. Start simple, grasp basics, and enjoy fun tricks and songs for quick mastery.

• Basics First: Begin with simpler times tables (2s, 5s, 10s) to ease into multiplication with patterns and skip counting
• Conceptual Understanding: Solidify multiplication understanding with strategies like skip counting and the Commutative Property before tackling the 8 times table
• Engaging Tricks: Use doubling tricks, pattern recognition, and skip counting games to make learning the 8 times table fun and effective

• Key takeaways
• 8 times table chart
• Practice problems

When children start learning multiplication facts, a common way to introduce them is through sets organized around one factor. In other words, students might learn all of the 2s multiplication facts, all of the 4s multiplication facts, and so on.

While the “best” order for learning sets of multiplication facts can be debated, there is a fairly common understanding that some facts are easier to remember than others and should, therefore, be taught earlier.

For example, the 10s multiplication facts are easy for students because of the pattern with the 0 in the product and easy skip counting. Students learn how to count by tens early in elementary school and can use that knowledge to multiply—they must be shown this connection! Similarly, the 2s and 5s times tables are straightforward for students because of their predictable patterns and easy skip counting.

On the other hand, the 8 times table is usually one of the later sets for students to learn. While 8 is not a prime number such as 7, it is a relatively high number compared to 2, 3, and 4, which makes it more challenging for students to skip count by 8.

This is an essential point because students can efficiently utilize skip counting (or repeated addition) as a strategy to solve for an unknown multiplication fact. If a student tries to solve 8 x 4 but can remember 8 x 3 is 24, all they have to do is add another “group of” 8 to 24 to solve 32 as the answer. However, adding 8 to a number is not typically something students can do as quickly as adding 2, 3, or 4.

Therefore, I advise teaching other sets of multiplication facts before introducing students to the 8 times tables. Times tables that easily incorporate repeated addition/skip counting or those that have predictable patterns allow students to grasp the actual meaning of multiplication first.

The 2s, 5s, 10s, and 3s are the best sets for students to begin with when learning multiplication. Knowledge of these times tables lay the foundation for learning more challenging facts, such as the times tables for 8.

It is important for students to have a conceptual understanding of multiplication before they try to learn the 8 times table. The 8 times table chart facts can be challenging for students because 8 is a relatively large number for a factor in beginning multiplication. The 8 times table does not have predictable patterns to utilize such as the 5 and 10 times tables.

Therefore, having a concrete understanding of the concept of multiplication (which is gained through learning other times tables first, mastering repeated addition/skip counting, etc) gives students a way to calculate the answer if they cannot remember any of the 8s facts. As a teacher, I cannot stress this enough! If children know they can utilize repeated addition to find the answer to multiplication problem, it prevents much frustration and anxiety around math. This is also the reason rote memorization is not effective—if a student has no strategy for backing into an asnwer there is no way to solve the problem if they can’t recall the product.

Now let’s dive in to my best tips for teaching the eight times table.

A tip that can help make the 8 times table less overwhelming is reminding them of the Commutative Property of Multiplication. This multiplication property states that changing the order of the numbers being multiplied (the factors) does not change the answer (the product).

Once students learn 3 x 8, they also learn 8 x 3. Remembering this simple rule reduces the number of facts in the 8 times table chart from 20 to 10, which automatically makes it less overwhelming!

The Commutative Property of Multiplication is particularly beneficial when learning the 8 times table. Students have typically learned at least a few other times tables by the time they start learning the 8s. You can show your child the 8 times table chart and circle the facts they already know!

For example, suppose your child has already mastered the 2s, 5s, and 10s times tables. In that case, you can identify 2 x 8, 8 x 2, 5 x 8, 8 x 5, 10 x 8, and 8 x 10 as facts your child has already learned.

As students continue learning the 8 times tables, a few “tricks” or patterns might help. The first 8 times table trick is particularly helpful for students who can easily double numbers and already know the 4s times table.

Since 8 is the same as 4 doubled, students can use this relationship to solve the facts for the 8 times table. However, students must also understand that only one factor should be doubled. Doubling one factor doubles the answer, whereas doubling both factors quadruples it.

For example, if students try to solve 8 x 3, they can think of 4 x 3 = 12. Since the factor of 3 stays the same, but you can double 4 to get 8, the student can double 12 to get the correct answer of 8 x 3 = 24.

Another example is how students can think of 7 x 4 = 28 when solving 7 x 8. Since you can double 4 to get 8, you can double the answer of 28 to get the product for 7 x 8 = 56.

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The following two 8 times table tricks are more complicated to visualize as they do not involve number sense or mathematical relationships. However, some students still find them helpful since all brains are different!

First, every fifth multiple of 8 ends in the same digit. For example, the 2nd multiple of 8 is 16. Five multiples later, which would be 7 x 8, the answer is 56. The numbers 56 and 16 both have a 6 as their last digit.

Finally, skip counting songs are a quick, easy, and fun way to teach the 8 times table. Skip counting songs are great when teaching multiplication because they emphasize the idea of multiplication, which means “groups of” a number. For example, 4 x 8 is the same as 4 “groups of” 8. Students can count by 8 four times to find the answer of 32.

My students’ favorite song was this one. It was a bit of a tongue twister at first, but they loved trying to do it faster and faster each time!

A note on drawing models: even though we want our students to have fallback strategies, I want to acknowledge that drawing models are not the most efficient way to get a product for multiplication problems with larger factors such as 7, 8, and 9. Utilizing repeated addition and skip counting is much more effective for teaching the 8 times tables which will ultimately need to be memorized.

Want more practice? Our math help app is a great resource for times table practice!

In conclusion, the 8 times table can be tricky to learn, but these tips and tricks can make it more manageable for your child or students. Using a combination of the tricks, skip counting, the Commutative Property, songs, and doubling the 4s multiplication facts, your children can conquer the 8s times table.

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