Free mental maths drill — instant play, no signup, no download
Missing Factor turns a times-table question inside out: instead of 7 × 8 you get ? × 8 = 56. It is the same fact, but retrieving it in this direction is the thing that makes division quick, and it is noticeably harder than reciting a row. Sixty seconds, shuffled across the tables you choose, with the answer shown whenever you miss one.
Choose a range of tables and press Start.
Each question hides one factor — type the number that makes the equation true.
Correct answers advance immediately; the clock keeps running.
A miss shows the completed fact before the next question.
Your score is the number of factors recovered in the minute.
Retrieval of multiplication facts in the direction division needs. Reciting a table practises the order of a list; being asked for the missing factor practises the fact itself, which is why it transfers to dividing, cancelling fractions and finding a unit rate.
Read it as a division. ? × 8 = 56 is just 56 ÷ 8, and most people find the division phrasing easier to answer.
Use the nearest fact you own. If 8 × 7 = 56 is solid, then 56 with an 8 in it can only pair with 7.
Watch the last digit — it rules out most candidates instantly. Something × 6 ending in 2 has to be 2 or 7.
Drill one table at a time until it is fast, then mix. Mixing too early hides which row is actually slow.
A quiz asks 7 × 8. This asks what times 8 makes 56. Same fact, opposite direction — and the opposite direction is the one division depends on.
Yes. Every question is built from a real multiplication fact inside the range you picked, so the answer is always a whole number in that range.
Whichever ones you are slowest on, which is usually 6, 7 and 8. Pick the narrow range first and only widen it once the answers arrive without working.
Directly. Short division is a sequence of missing-factor questions, so the faster these come, the less often a division stalls halfway through.