How to Play Mathlap
Mathlap is a times tables math racing game. Four cars line up on the grid: yours and three rivals called Turbo Tess, Max Gear and Dot Dash. When the lights go green, a sum appears under the track, such as 7 × 8. Type the answer on the big number pad, or with the number keys on a keyboard, and your car gets a burst of speed. The quicker you answer, the bigger the burst, and three right answers in a row fire the nitro. The strip at the top of the track shows where all four cars are on the way to the chequered flag.
Once you have typed as many digits as the answer needs, it is checked a moment later (about half a second, a little longer on the Relaxed pace), so a slip can still be fixed with the back key; press Go or Enter to send it straight away. If you get one wrong, nothing bad happens: the car sputters for a moment, the right answer is shown, and that same fact comes back two or three questions later so you can get it right. Every car cruises along on its own, so a race always finishes, even for a beginner. Each race is a kilometre long and takes about a minute.
The Career: 17 Cups From Addition to Division
Your career has 17 cups, and each cup has three races: a Qualifier, a Heat and a Final. Finish in the top three to open the next race, and finish the Final in the top three to win the cup. The first three cups are warm-ups for younger players: the Rookie Sprint (addition with sums to 10), the Junior Dash (addition with sums to 20) and the Downhill Derby (subtraction within 20).
Then come twelve times table cups, one for each table from 1 to 12, in the order many schools teach them: ×1, ×2, ×10 and ×5 first, then ×3, ×4, ×11, ×6, ×9, ×7, ×8 and ×12. In a cup’s Qualifier the table comes up in order, so 1 × 7, 2 × 7, 3 × 7 and so on; the Heat shuffles it and mixes in a few facts from earlier cups that are due for review; and the Final mixes in more of them. After the tables come the Division Cup and finally the Grand Prix, which mixes the tables from 2 to 12 with division. Win the Grand Prix to become the Times Tables Champion.
If a player already knows a table, there is no need to grind through the easy cups. Every locked cup up to the Division Cup has a Test race: finish it in first place and that cup opens straight away.
Your Garage and Your Car
Every cup you win unlocks a new part for your car, and you fit parts in the Car tab of the garage: six new paint colours, three spoilers, three sets of rims, four decals and three nitro flame colours, 19 parts in all. The car on the track wears everything you fit, so your car shows how far your career has come, and each trophy you win goes on the garage shelf. Two parts are special: Gold Rims for mastering every multiplication fact from 1 × 1 to 12 × 12, and the Rainbow Nitro for winning all three races in five cups.
How Mathlap Helps Children Learn Their Times Tables
Mathlap uses spaced practice, a well-studied way to make facts stick: recalling a fact again after a gap, on another day, does more for memory than repeating it many times in one sitting. Every fact sits in one of six boxes. While a fact is new, a quick right answer moves it up a box straight away: under four seconds, or under seven on the Relaxed pace that younger players use. From the third box on, it only moves up when you answer it quickly on a later day: one day later to reach mastered, then three days, then a week. So a fact counts as mastered only once it has been recalled on two different days. Mastered facts come back for a quick check after a few days, then a week, then two weeks, so the ones you have not seen for a while return to the races. A wrong answer sends a fact back to the first box and puts it back into the race a few questions later. Races choose more of the facts that are still shaky or due and fewer of the ones you already know, so practice time goes where it is needed.
The Facts tab is for parents and teachers as much as for players. It shows a 12 by 12 grid of the times tables, coloured by how well each fact is known: grey for not met yet, orange for missed, yellow for learning and green for mastered. Below it are the addition, subtraction and division totals and a list of the facts most often missed. The Practice button starts a race made only of those facts, and the Daily race gives a fresh set every day with a streak for coming back.
Tips for Faster Laps
- Choose the right pace. The rival pace starts on Relaxed, which suits younger players. Normal is a fair race if you answer in about four seconds, and Turbo is for quick mental maths.
- Keep the streak going. Every third right answer in a row is a nitro boost, so a steady run of correct answers beats a few fast guesses.
- Use the patterns. The 9s add up to nine (9, 18, 27, 36), the 11s repeat the digit up to 99, and the 5s always end in 5 or 0. The Qualifier puts the table in order so you can spot these.
- Turn facts around. 3 × 8 is the same as 8 × 3, and every division fact is a times table fact backwards: 56 ÷ 8 is 7 because 7 × 8 is 56.
- Do not worry about mistakes. A wrong answer only costs a moment, and the fact comes back soon. That second try is where the learning happens.
- Play little and often. A few races a day, plus the daily race, does more than one long session.
What Makes Mathlap Different
Math racing games are a classroom favourite, and the idea is simple: answer correctly to drive faster. Mathlap keeps that idea and adds a career. Instead of one race over and over, each times table is a cup of three races, every cup unlocks the next one and a part for your car, and the races quietly bring back the facts you got wrong until you know them. There is no chat, no sign-up and nothing to download; progress is saved in your own browser.
Math Games, Then and Now
Children have practised times tables with games for a long time: flash cards, chanting tables in class, and later computer classics such as Math Blaster in the 1980s and 1990s. Today, sites such as Math Playground, Coolmath Games and Hit the Button, and programs such as Times Tables Rock Stars and Prodigy, are used in many homes and schools. Racing games where a correct answer moves your car forward are one of the most popular styles, because a race turns quick recall into something you can see. Mathlap is our take on that style, free in the browser.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I make my car go faster in Mathlap?
Answer the sum under the track correctly. Every right answer gives your car a burst of speed, and the burst is bigger the faster you answer, up to about one second. Every third right answer in a row fires the nitro, which is a bigger burst with a flame from the exhaust. A wrong answer halves your current boost but does not stop the car.
What happens when I get an answer wrong?
The car sputters, the right answer is shown for a moment, and then the race moves on. The fact you missed is put back into the same race two or three questions later, and marked with a small arrow when it returns. It also goes on the Facts to practise list in the garage, and later races ask it more often until you have mastered it.
Which times tables are in the game?
Every table from 1 to 12, each with its own cup: ×1, ×2, ×10, ×5, ×3, ×4, ×11, ×6, ×9, ×7, ×8 and ×12, in that order. Before them come three warm-up cups (addition with sums to 10, addition with sums to 20, and subtraction within 20), and after them the Division Cup (dividing by 2 to 12) and the Grand Prix, which mixes multiplication and division from the tables 2 to 12. That makes 17 cups and 51 races.
How do I unlock the next race and the next cup?
Each cup has a Qualifier, a Heat and a Final. Finish a race in the top three to open the next one. Finish the Final in the top three to win the cup, which opens the next cup and unlocks a new part for your car. If you already know a table, use the Test race on a locked cup: finish first and that cup opens straight away.
Is Mathlap too hard for a young child?
It starts gently. A new career begins on the Relaxed rival pace and with addition sums to 10, and every car cruises forward on its own, so a race always ends. You can switch the rival pace between Relaxed, Normal and Turbo in the garage at any time. Wrong answers never cost more than a moment.
What does mastered mean, and what is the Facts tab?
Each fact sits in one of six boxes. A quick right answer (under four seconds, or under seven on the Relaxed pace) moves a new fact up a box, but from the third box on it only moves up on a later day, so a fact is mastered once it has been answered quickly on two different days. A wrong answer sends it back to the first box, and mastered facts come back for review after a few days, then a week, then two weeks. The Facts tab shows the whole 12 by 12 times table grid coloured by how well each fact is known, the totals for addition, subtraction and division, and a list of the facts missed most often. A cup whose facts are all mastered gets a Mastered badge.
What can I unlock in the garage?
Each of the 17 cups unlocks one part: paint colours, spoilers, rims, decals and nitro flame colours. Two more are special: Gold Rims for mastering every multiplication fact from 1 × 1 to 12 × 12, and the Rainbow Nitro for winning all three races in five cups. The car you race wears every part you fit, and your trophies go on the garage shelf. There are 24 awards to collect as well.
What are the daily race and the Practice race?
The daily race is a new race each day built from the cups you have opened, plus facts that are due for review. Your best time for the day is kept and a streak counts the days in a row you have raced it. The Practice race is made of the facts on your Facts to practise list. Neither one changes your career medals.
How is the leaderboard score worked out?
The score is your career points: the best points you have scored in each of the 51 career races, added together. A race pays 100 points for each right answer, up to 50 more for a quick one, and 300, 200 or 100 points for finishing first, second or third. Your career points are offered to the leaderboard when you are back in the garage after winning a cup, never over your race result. After that, a cup can offer a higher total once more: when you win its Final again, or when your career points have grown by 5,000 since your last offer.
Is my progress saved, and does it work on a tablet or Chromebook?
Your career is saved in your browser after every race and every change in the garage, and Continue on the start screen picks up where you stopped. A race in progress is not saved, but races only last about a minute. The game is drawn in 2D so it runs on school Chromebooks and tablets, the number pad has big buttons for touch screens, and a keyboard works too: number keys, Backspace, Enter, and P to pause. An answer is checked a moment after it is typed, so a mis-tap can be fixed with the back key, and Go or Enter sends it straight away.
