The Effects of Timed Multiplication Fact Drills on 5th Graders' Ability to Master, Maintain and Apply Their Multiplication Facts to Higher-Order Thinking Problems That Require Multiplication to Solve

This study tested the effects of timed multiplication fact drills on 5th graders ability to master, maintain and apply their multiplication to higher- order thinking problems that require multiplication to solve. The research took place in a 5th through 8th grade school in New Jersey with five heterogeneously mixed 5th grade math classes. Timed multiplication fact drills are simple multiplication problems that challenge students to answer a given number of multiplication problems in a short period of time. This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of timed multiplication fact drills on participants' ability to master their multiplication facts from 1×1 to 10×10 and then apply and maintain them to higher-order thinking problems. The participants completed a pre-test and two post-tests (one application and one maintenance) to determine the effectiveness of the timed multiplication fact drills on timed multiplication fact drills. At the completion of the study the participants completed a questionnaire. The participants developed automaticity and fluency with their multiplication by completing multiplication fact drills, the results showed that it had positive impact on the number correctly answered on the posttests.