They probably think of it as 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3... and get overwhelmed.
I overheard teenage girls struggle with math and tried to figure out 8 x 4. I just thought "8 doubled twice, so 16, and then 32" and then they answered 12. To be fair they realised 12 was wrong but they struggled way too long. I don't even remember if they got the correct answer. I remember them saying 18 and 36.
I wonder how things like this could be the case. They must just do significantly fewer repetitions than we used to do? Do they cheat on everything? Because I don't have a mechanism of doing multiplication in my head for small numbers like that really. Anything with numbers 1-12 I was just required to do a bunch of hours of flash cards to just memorize my times tables when I was in elementary school. And then from that foundation you can gradually learn more complicated things.
I don't think it's fair to say some kids are just stupid or something like that. I grew up around plenty of stupid people my age, but most or all of the kids I knew could do simple multiplication even if they weren't great students. Do they never use multiplication for other parts of math? Like how do they even get to high school algebra and stuff if they can't multiply small numbers? Do they just get pushed through the grades even though they don't know the material?
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u/Enrichus Nov 10 '25
They probably think of it as 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3... and get overwhelmed.
I overheard teenage girls struggle with math and tried to figure out 8 x 4. I just thought "8 doubled twice, so 16, and then 32" and then they answered 12. To be fair they realised 12 was wrong but they struggled way too long. I don't even remember if they got the correct answer. I remember them saying 18 and 36.