Learning Hexadecimal

Learning to think in hexadecimal—doing arithmetic in your head or making field estimates—requires memorization of addition and multiplication tables. The best approach is to get familiar with the tables below and work arithmetic problems to gain speed and accuracy.

Don't worry about memorizing the tables at first. Just look over them to get a working sense of the patterns. Then, click on the image at right to quiz yourself on basic arithmetic. The quiz applet will let you practice addition, subtraction, and multiplication. Start at the easiest level (1) and progress to more challenging problems when you feel comfortable. At first, you can keep the tables in the background for reference, but as you get faster, try minimizing this page while you take the quiz.

Familiarize yourself with addition.

Now try multiplication.