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Schulte table

The numbers 1 to N scattered on a grid: tap them in order, fast. The board grows each level; then letters, then numbers and letters taken in turn.

  • Attention and speed
  • Timed
  • Endless levels

How it plays

Find 1, tap it; find 2, tap it — all the way to the last number. Each tap is numbered where it lands, and the answer is in the moment you tap the last one.

Levels grow the board from 3×3 without end and tighten the time. In the settings, run letters instead, or interleave the two: 1, A, 2, B, 3, C…

Keys

Space starts and skips ahead · 1–9 pick · Enter submits · Esc stops. On a phone, tap.

What it trains

This practises visual search and holding your place in a sequence. It is practice at this task; it makes no claim about attention in general.

Learn

How to get better at schulte table: the method, the techniques, what each new level asks of you, and the traps the wrong answers are made of.

Your approach to each question

  1. Before the first tap, settle your eyes on the middle of the board and take in the whole of it in one look.
  2. Find 1 and tap it — and while your finger moves, your eyes are already looking for 2.
  3. Tap with care. A tap cannot be taken back, and only the run up to your first wrong tap scores.
  4. If you lose your place, read the line under the board: “7 of 25 tapped” means the next one is 8.

Techniques and tricks

  • Hold your gaze in the centre

    On boards up to about 5×5, keep your eyes on the middle and spot each number with side vision. Moving your eyes from cell to cell is the slow way to search.

  • Look one ahead

    The moment you find a number, start searching for the next while you tap. The search and the tap then overlap instead of taking turns.

  • Note what you pass

    While hunting for 7 you will see 8, 12 and 15 on the way. Make a rough note of where the next one or two are — “8 was top left” — so the next search starts in the right place.

  • Search by regions on big boards

    From 6×6 your side vision cannot cover the board. Split it into four quarters and search the quarter you last saw the number in before the others.

  • Letters as numbers

    For letters and the interleaved run, know where letters fall in the alphabet: E is 5, J is 10, O is 15, T is 20. After J comes 11, so 1, A, 2, B runs J, 11, K.

    e.g. Past 26 the letters start again with a 1: A1, B1, C1.

As the levels climb

  • The board grows by a side: 3×3, then 4×4 at level 1, 5×5 at level 3, 6×6 at level 5, and from level 7 one size bigger every level, without end. The time grows with the cells, about a second each.
  • The clock tightens to 85% at level 2, 72% at level 4 and 62% at level 6, then stays there. From there on, only bigger boards make it harder.
  • Past 6×6, the centre gaze no longer covers the board. This is where noting what you pass pays: the next number is often one you have already seen.

Traps to avoid

  • Reversed digits on big boards: from 5×5, both 12 and 21 are on the board, and from 8×8 both 16 and 61. Check the order of the digits before you tap.
  • A tapped cell shows the number of your tap. In “1, 2, 3…” that is the same as its own number, so the board never looks emptier — do not look for gaps to guide you.
  • In the interleaved run, tapping 3 straight after 2 and skipping B. Say the pairs to yourself: one-A, two-B, three-C.

How to practise

  • Set “Time pressure” to “Off — untimed” while you train the centre gaze, so the clock does not pull your eyes back into cell-by-cell searching.
  • When numbers feel easy, set “Sequence” to “A, B, C…”, then to “1, A, 2, B…”, which makes you hold two runs at once.
  • Read the order in the working after a wrong tap to see which number you jumped to, and why it looked right.

Levels

Each question has a clock that comes from the work it asks for. There is no last level: at least one dial turns without end. Your level is judged on your last ten answers, every ten: 90% moves you up, below 80% moves you down, which holds most people near four in five right.

All of it is in the settings beside Start — how many answers a judgement looks at and how often it recalibrates, the thresholds, the time, which questions, how many options, and whether you see each verdict at once or review them together at the judgement. You can also jump to any level.

More attention and speed

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