How to practise properly
- Choose a size: 3×3 and 4×4 for warming up, 5×5 is the classic, 6×6 is for advanced players.
- Press Start and look at the centre of the table.
- Try to find numbers with your peripheral vision rather than darting your eyes from cell to cell. Your gaze may drift, but keep returning to the centre.
- Tap the numbers in order. A wrong tap is highlighted and the clock keeps running.
- Do 3–5 tables in a row and look at your best and average times.
5×5 benchmarks
There are no strict norms: results depend on screen size, input method and experience. A rough guide for an adult on a phone or computer:
| Time for 5×5 | Level |
|---|---|
| over 45 s | Getting started: a calm rhythm matters more than speed |
| 30–45 s | Average |
| 20–30 s | Good concentration |
| under 20 s | Excellent, well-trained |
History of the method
The tables are named after the German psychiatrist and psychotherapist Walter Schulte, who used them to study attention. The method was later adopted in psychological assessment and education, and then in speed reading courses. There is also a harder version — the red-and-black Gorbov–Schulte tables, where you alternate between two series of numbers to train attention switching.
What practice gives you
- Visual search speed — finding things faster on a page, in a spreadsheet, on a screen.
- Sustained attention — 25 numbers in a row without drifting to your phone or your thoughts.
- Visual span when reading — the habit of taking in more and making fewer fixations.
To be honest, a Schulte table won’t turn you into a “thousand words a minute” reader. But it trains attentive search well and is a handy two-minute replacement for a feed of short videos.
The Schulte table in the Cabe app
In the app you can choose the size, see statistics for every attempt and switch on a hard mode where numbers without cells are scattered across the field and keep swapping places. That is a serious attention workout once the standard table stops being a challenge.