Mental math for faster calculations and fluency

  • Mental math is a group of skills that allow people to do math “in their head” without using pencil and paper or a calculator.

  • Mental math is useful in school and in everyday life.

  • Mental math can help kids understand math concepts better and get to the answer faster.

Mental math is useful in everyday life to answer questions like:

  • What is the sale price for this item?

  • Do I have enough cash to buy everything in my cart?

  • Am I getting the correct amount of change from the cashier?

  • When should I leave in order to arrive on time?


Doing mental math requires strong memory skills. Math facts and other number concepts have to be retrieved from long-term memory. Our brains also use a skill called working memory to keep track of the steps needed to solve a particular math problem.


When kids struggle with mental math, it doesn’t mean they’re not smart. Kids develop math skills at their own pace. Difficulty with mental math could be a matter of needing more time and practice to “catch up."


The five mathematical proficiencies – Conceptual understanding, Communication using symbols, Fluency, Logical reasoning and Strategic competence – can be applied and connected by using a range of real-life contexts to introduce and explore mathematical concepts, as well as to consolidate them.


What is Mental math?

A combination of cognitive strategies that enhances flexible thinking and number sense. It is calculating mentally without the use of external memory aids. It improves computational fluency by developing efficiency, accuracy, and flexibility.


How can we improve mental math through various means?

Introduction of Mnemonics

Students who struggle with basic fact fluency can improve by using mnemonic devices -- cues such as rhymes and acronyms to help recall information. For example, the subtraction song which goes like this.



This is very easy for the first and second graders to understand and I teach it to all my students who are in these grades.

Relating the problems to real life!!

By framing your word problems with student interests, you should grab attention. If most of your class loves football, a measurement problem could involve the  games . 

Word problems based on current events or issues can engage students by providing clear, tangible ways to apply knowledge. Not only will students find your lessons more interesting, they’ll believe it’s worth knowing.

Naming a question’s characters after your students is an easy way to make it relatable, motivating your class to tackle the problem.

Play a game with the students.

  • Math Facts Bingo -- Create bingo cards that contain answers to different equations. Then, hand them out to students. Instead of calling numbers, state equations such as 8 x 7. After determining the product is 56, they can check off the number if it’s on their cards.

Encourage Math gym daily.

Math gym improves mental calculations by its reliance on quick problems and practice tables options. The students will do 5 skills in 10 minutes. You can make a leaderboard of maximum attempts by the students  and post it in your parents' group.

Simple multiplication and division techniques.

Use distributive property to simplify multiplication and division. For example 

19 x 5 = 10x 5 + 9 x 5 .

100 / 25 = 50/25 + 50/25.

797x 13 = 797 x 10 + 797 x 3

Students can use existing rounding and fact fluency skills when multiplying by 9, 99, 999 and any number that follows this pattern.

First, tell students to round up the 9 to 10. Second, after solving the new equation, teach them to subtract the number they just multiplied by 10 from the answer.

For example, 67 x 9 will lead to the same answer as 67 x 10 - 67. Following the order of operations will give a result of 603. Similarly, 67 x 99 is the same as 67 x 100 - 67.

Despite more steps, altering the equation this way is usually faster and allows students to complete it in their heads.

When mastering multiplication beyond basics, students can quickly use mental math skills to multiply two integers when one is an even number.

They just need to halve the even number and double the other number. They stop this process when the even integer cannot be halved, or when the equation becomes manageable.

Using 33 x 48 as an example, here’s the process:

  • 33 x 48

  • 66 x 24

  • 132 x 12

  • 264 x 6

  • 528 x 3

  • 1,584

Conversion facts

Kids can be tested on fluency in conversion of measurement units, conversion of fractions to decimals, decimals to percentages etc . Kids can also be tested on fractions of a whole. For example ⅔ of 18 is actually ⅓ of 18 , then multiply with 2. Many kids do this the long way, like 2 x 18 , then 36/3. 

Competing environments should be set for the students so that they learn from each other. 

As you can see, it is very easy to improve the mental math skills by adopting these simple methods. 











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