Mental math test: 45 seconds of quick sums (free)

How this mental math test works

The game is called Math Sprint. A sum appears on the screen with four answers underneath, and you tap the one you think is right. The next sum shows up straight away. There is no pause between sums, so the number you finish with reflects how fast you work as well as how well.

The sums mix addition, subtraction, multiplication and brackets. They start easy. Every correct answer moves you up one step and every wrong answer moves you down one, so within a few sums you are working at a level that suits you. That way two people who finish with the same number have been working at a similar pace on similar sums.

Why the wrong answers look the way they do

The three wrong answers are not random numbers. Each one is what you get from a mistake people actually make: forgetting to carry a digit, ignoring the brackets, taking the number next door in the times table, or swapping two digits. With random wrong answers you could often spot the right one without doing any sum, and then the test would measure guessing. Because the wrong answers here look plausible, you have to calculate.

What your score says, and what it leaves out

After the round you see two numbers: how many sums you got right, and a game score from 0 to 100. The game score comes from a fixed curve. Five right scores 20, nine right scores 50, fourteen right scores 80 and nineteen right scores 95. How that curve was set and where it falls short is on our scoring reference.

The score describes this game at this moment. It is not a measure of how good you are at arithmetic in general, and it says nothing about school or work. Being tired, playing on a phone or getting distracted halfway all end up in the number, so two rounds in a row can differ by a few points. We show typical scores once enough people have played. Until then you see your own result and its place on the curve, with no comparison to other players.

Tips for a second round

Round one is partly about getting used to the layout, so a second round often goes a bit better. Treat that as getting used to the game and compare later rounds with each other. A few habits help in this kind of game. Round a number to the nearest ten and correct afterwards, so 49 + 26 becomes 50 + 26 minus 1. Work out the last digit first, because it often rules out two of the four answers. And when you are stuck, tap an answer and move on, since a wrong answer costs one step and a long pause costs seconds.

More ways to play with numbers

If you want to go through the tables one by one, try the times tables test with twenty fixed sums. Math Sprint is one of five games in the free Brain Check, next to the memory test, the reaction time test, the attention test and the brain test. You can play all of them on one page. The same sprint exists in Dutch as part of hoofdrekenen oefenen.