About Math Sprint
Math Sprint gives you 60 seconds to answer as many arithmetic questions as you can. It starts with addition and subtraction and gets harder as your correct answers pile up, adding multiplication and division later in the round.
How to play
- Press Start to begin a 60-second countdown. One question is shown at a time, and you type the answer and submit it.
- Each correct answer adds one point. A wrong answer scores nothing, but it is not penalised beyond that; the game simply moves on to a new question.
- Difficulty rises every 5 correct answers. The largest number used in addition and subtraction starts at 15 and grows by 5 per level.
- Until you have 10 correct answers, every question is addition or subtraction. After that, questions can also be multiplication or division.
- Multiplication uses two numbers from 1 to 12. Division always divides evenly, with both the divisor and the answer between 1 and 12.
- Subtraction never goes below zero, so every answer is a whole number of zero or more. The input box only accepts digits.
- When the clock hits zero the round ends and your score is the number of correct answers.
Controls
- Keyboard: type the answer and press Enter to submit. The answer box is focused automatically when the round starts.
- Mouse: click OK to submit the typed answer.
- Touch: the answer box opens a numeric keypad on most phones; tap OK to submit.
Tips and strategy
- Keep your hands on the keyboard and use Enter rather than the OK button. Over 60 seconds the saved mouse movement adds up to several extra questions.
- Since a wrong answer costs only the time it took, do not freeze on a hard question. A fast best guess and a fresh question is usually better than a long calculation.
- Learn your times tables up to 12 x 12. Once multiplication appears, those facts cover every multiplication and division question the game can ask.
- Read division questions backwards as multiplication: 84 divided by 7 is asking which number times 7 makes 84.
- For addition with larger numbers, add the tens first and then the ones, for example 38 + 47 as 70 + 15.
Background
Timed arithmetic drills have long been used in schools to build math fact fluency, the ability to answer basic sums from memory rather than by working them out step by step. Research on arithmetic shows that people solve simple problems either by retrieving a stored fact (knowing that 7 x 8 is 56) or by using a procedure such as counting on or breaking a number apart. Retrieval is much faster, which is why practice with a clock tends to reward memorised facts. Math Sprint mixes both: early questions are small enough to know by heart, while later addition and subtraction use larger numbers that usually need a quick mental strategy.
Questions
- Do wrong answers lose points?
- No. A wrong answer scores zero and a new question appears. Your only loss is the time you spent on it.
- When do multiplication and division start?
- Once you have 10 correct answers. Before that, every question is addition or subtraction.
- Does the timer stop if an ad appears?
- Yes. The countdown pauses while an ad break is on screen and resumes afterwards.