Rapid Maths is a mental arithmetic drill against the clock. Press Start and a question appears, such as 8 × 7. Type the answer on the keypad or your keyboard. A correct answer is accepted the moment it is complete. A wrong answer is checked once it has as many digits as the right one; it clears with a shake, and you stay on that question until you get it.
Your score is the share of questions answered correctly on the first try; questions you do not reach in time count as wrong. Score 50% to clear a drill, 70% for two stars and 90% for three. The twenty drills are grouped in five tiers: Warm-up, Facts, Chains, Expert and Sprints. From Chains on, each question strings two or three operations together, and from Expert some add brackets. Every answer is a whole number, never negative.
The daily drill gives everyone the same twenty mixed questions, with two minutes on the clock. Custom drill lets you choose the difficulty, which of the four operations appear, how many questions and the time limit, or no limit at all. Custom drills are practice and award no stars, but your top score is kept for each set of settings.
Worked example
A Chains drill shows 3 + 4 × 5. Multiplication comes before addition, so work out 4 × 5 = 20 first, then add 3 to get 23. Working left to right gives 35, a miss. In an Expert drill, (3 + 5) × 4 − 6 starts inside the bracket: 8 × 4 = 32, and 32 − 6 = 26.
Strategy tips
Accuracy before speed. Only first-try answers count, so a two-second pause is cheaper than a wrong guess.
Find the × and ÷ first. In a mixed question, settle each multiplication or division, then add and subtract from left to right.
Use tables backwards. Every division comes out exact, so 56 ÷ 8 is simply asking which number times 8 makes 56.