My daughter has a friend who is going into fourth grade. She apparently is having difficulty in math because, while she understands the concepts well, she isn't quite up to school requirements for speed on multiplication tests. The school will not allow her to progress until she meets their speed requirements, even though she is very close, and this is a source of great frustration.

Does anyone have suggestions for ways to help her get past this obstacle? I'm not sure why she just can't seem to get that little bit faster, but perhaps different ways of practicing would help?

I know many people may suggest that arguing with the school to let her move forward is the best response, but the school is completely inflexible (they say this speed is critical to her future success in math, even though I think they are effectively killing her interest and confidence in math at this point because this has been dragging on for so long).

A boring, but effective way to get up to speed is the Xtra Math iPad app. DD used it in 2nd grade when "speed tests" at school started with her higher math group. DD was pretty stressed in 2nd because she realized she wasn't always the fastest (which was GOOD for her!). This program really helped her automatically learn and recall the facts. In 3rd grade, the school started assigning it as homework for all of the 3rd graders - it DID build automaticity in addition, subtraction, and multiplication (don't ask me, but we didn't see division???).

DS6 also used it a bit last year when the pace of K was too slow. Since I know he has "learning facts quickly" in his "math future" at school, we found it to be a good challenge for him.

Added bonus - my kids love using the iPad.

You can also get Xtra Math for the PC. It's free. Another option is Big Brainz (or Timez Attack) which is more of a game. There is a free version or you can pay to rent a fancier version. DD went all the way thru it for multiplication last summer but has a problem retaining. Lately she has been doing just the pretest over and over.

DD has slow processing speed so I don't think she's ever going to be particularly quick with math facts. She has ADHD and when she's off medication it's particularly bad. But the games do help to some extent. A psych recommended getting her a 504 for slow processing speed, since there is a big gap between that and her other abilities. So, since she is so slow, she may be able to do a fraction of the amount of problems (if she shows understanding of the concepts). Might be an option for your friend if there is a disability involved and playing the math games is not going to rectify the situation.

What does the school plan to do if she never meets their time requirements? She's going to be in 6th grade still doing multiplication? I can see the importance of continuing to work on it, but you can work on it while still learning more advanced concepts.

What kind of multiplication is she doing? Is it just multiplication table 0-12? Or problems like 17x8 and 14x15?
BTW, does she have problems with timed tests in other subjects?

Kumon ... for some children this can be very effective.

I'm not a big fan of Xtra math. It was required for homework in our school and most of the kids I know from my son's grade did not have a good experience with it. I also partly blame it for the "I hate math" comments I heard waiting at the bus stop.

I appreciate the suggestions. There are no other apparent issues and it is just 1-10 multiplication. I don't know what they do if kids never meet their requirements. She is very close but just can't seem to get that little bit faster.

I second TimezAttack - my son has slow processing, and he was having some trouble initially and you can actually slow it down a bit. He's gotten much faster and loves to play. He also hated times tables before, now he feels a lot more comfortable with them.

How do you do that?

In that case she just needs more practice. There are many free printouts, e.g, here: http://www.edhelper.com/Multiplication_Facts.htm. Her parents should just choose the same format they use at school, and time the girl's work twice a day. Kumon does the same, but not for free
As for the school, they don't do anything, after some point these timed tests do not matter, and later they disappear completely. They may be important at some point, when the teacher decides to move to the next topic. Quicker kids get the next worksheet earlier, slower kids spend more time on the previous topic. But everybody moves to the next topic eventually, because show must go on

It could be a question of technique vs. memory. She may be calculating or skip counting or visualizing grids or such which can be slow. Some shortcut ideas may speed her along. Here's a link to a document with some techniques that are useful for a more conceptual thinker: http://visualspatial.org/files/tchmath.pdf