How to play
Choose a grid size and press New game. Find 1 and tap it, then 2, then 3, and so on until the last number. A wrong tap is counted but does not move you on — you are always looking for exactly one number.
Keep your eyes near the centre of the table and let your peripheral vision do the searching; that is the classic way the table is used, and on larger grids it is the only way to stay fast.
Five sizes, from 4×4 to 9×9
The table comes in 5 sizes: 4×4, 5×5, 7×7, 8×8, 9×9. A 5×5 table with the numbers 1 to 25 is the traditional one. Bigger tables are not just longer — each search covers more cells, so the time per number grows too.
There is no 3×3, and not by choice: the centre cell of a 3×3 grid touches all eight others, so a 3×3 table can never keep every number away from its successor.
Tables built so every run is a fair search
A random shuffle often puts a number right next to the one before it — 7 beside 8 — which hands you a free find because your eyes are already there. Every table here is checked so that no number touches its successor, diagonals included. Only about one shuffle in a thousand passes, so the game searches for one before you start.
That matters because the measurement is the search. A table with several free finds is easier in a way you cannot see, and two runs on different tables would not be comparable.
What a Schulte table measures
Schulte tables are named after the German psychiatrist Walter Schulte, who used them to assess attention. They are a visual search task: the result reflects how quickly you can move your attention across a field and recognise a target, which psychologists group under processing speed (Gs in the Cattell–Horn–Carroll model of abilities; McGrew, 2009).
They are popular in speed-reading courses as a way to "widen peripheral vision". There is little good evidence that practising the table improves reading speed or comprehension, so we present it as what it demonstrably is: a quick, repeatable test of visual search speed that you can track over time.
How the result works
Every number you find is timed from the moment the previous one was found. The headline result is the median of those times, because a single long hunt for a badly placed number should not describe the whole run. How many numbers you found and how many wrong taps you made are shown alongside it.
There is no percentile or "normal range" yet: comparing your time with other people would need a large set of results on the same tables, and we would rather print no norm than an invented one. Compare yourself with your own previous runs at the same size.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good time on a 5×5 Schulte table?
There is no reliable public norm: published figures come from different table designs, devices and instructions, and we have not collected enough runs on these tables to publish one. Times also differ between a mouse, a trackpad and a touch screen. Track your median time per number at one size, on one device, and look for steady improvement.
Do Schulte tables improve reading speed?
That is a common claim in speed-reading courses, but it is not well supported by research. The table is a good test of visual search speed; whether training on it transfers to reading has not been shown.
Why can I not pick 3×3?
Because a fair 3×3 table cannot exist: the centre cell touches every other cell, so some number would always sit next to its successor. The smallest size is 4×4.
Do I need an account?
No. The 4×4 table is free without an account. Signing in is free and opens every size and keeps your times; runs you played as a guest are moved to your account when you sign in.
Sources
- McGrew, K. S. (2009). CHC theory and the human cognitive abilities project: Standing on the shoulders of the giants of psychometric intelligence research. Intelligence, 37(1), 1–10.