Mathbench

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Mental arithmetic practice

The NBT gives you no calculator. Pick your topics, set the number ranges, and drill until the arithmetic stops costing you time.

Topics 2 selected

Number Ranges

Session Options

1-minute sprint
Race against the clock
Include negatives
Allow negative answers
Sound effects
Audio feedback tones

⌨️ Keyboard Shortcuts

  • Enter Start / Submit answer
  • Esc End session
  • P Practice tab
  • W Worksheet tab
Why this helps

Arithmetic speed is worth marks on the NBT

The NBT Mathematics paper gives you 60 questions in three hours with no calculator. That is three minutes a question — comfortable if the arithmetic is automatic, and very tight if it is not. Every second you spend working out 7 × 8 is a second not spent on the actual problem.

Short, regular sessions beat long ones. Five minutes a day on the two or three operations you are slowest at will do more than an hour once a week. Turn on sprint mode once accuracy is solid — not before, because practising fast and wrong just makes you quick at being wrong.

When the arithmetic feels automatic, move on to the NBT book, where the questions are the real thing.