Home › Brain trainers › Schulte
SchulteSchulte table
Find the numbers in order as fast as you can. A classic trainer for attention and visual search speed.
Play now →A Schulte table is a square grid filled with numbers in random order. The task is simple: find and point to all the numbers in order — 1, 2, 3… — as fast as you can. The classic version is 5 × 5 with the numbers 1 to 25.
Behind this simplicity lies one of the best-known attention exercises. Psychologists have used it for more than half a century, and today it is also used by teachers and by anyone who wants to train focus and visual search speed.
On BB Gym the tables come in three levels: a 4 × 4 grid with a hint, the classic 5 × 5, and the red-and-black Schulte–Gorbov table, where you have to alternate colours. The result shows a score and a skill profile.
Where the tables come from
The method was proposed by the German psychiatrist and psychotherapist Walter Schulte (1910–1972). The tables were designed as a psychodiagnostic test: from the time a person needs to find the numbers, a psychologist judged the properties of their attention — span, stability and pace of work.
Psychology in the post-Soviet countries settled on a standard procedure: a person completes five tables in a row, and three indicators are calculated from the time of each. Work efficiency is the average time per table. Warm-up shows how quickly the person gets into the task. Mental stability shows whether they slow down towards the end of the series because of fatigue.
Gorbov's red-and-black table
The harder version is associated with Fyodor Gorbov (1916–1977), a Soviet psychologist and one of the founders of space psychology, who worked on the psychological support of pilots and cosmonauts.
A Schulte–Gorbov table has numbers in two colours. Black numbers must be found in ascending order, red ones in descending order, and you have to alternate: black 1, the largest red, black 2, the next red down, and so on. This tests not only search speed but also the ability to switch attention between two tasks and remember where you stopped in each.
Relatives in world psychology
In Western neuropsychology a similar role is played by the Trail Making Test. Its predecessor, Partington's Pathways Test, was described in 1938. In 1944 a slightly modified version was included in the US Army test battery, and in the 1950s Ralph Reitan began using it to detect the effects of brain injury.
In the first part of the test you connect numbers in order with a line; in the second you alternate numbers and letters: 1 — A — 2 — B… The idea is the same as in Schulte–Gorbov tables: fast visual search and switching between two sequences.
What the tables train
Several skills work at once during the game. Attention keeps you focused and resistant to distraction. Processing speed lets you spot and recognise the right number quickly. Working memory keeps track of where you stopped and of where the next numbers are. The red-and-black version adds cognitive flexibility — constant switching between two sequences.
Results on the tables improve noticeably after just a few attempts — a well-known practice effect. But to be honest, scientific evidence that exercises like Schulte tables improve attention in everyday life is still limited. A large 2016 review of brain-training research (Psychological Science in the Public Interest) found that people mostly get better at the tasks they practise and at very similar ones.
Claims such as "the tables are guaranteed to improve speed reading" have no reliable evidence behind them. Schulte tables are best seen as a short warm-up for attention that helps you get focused before work or study, and as a way to keep an eye on your own pace.
How to play and what to watch for
Look at the centre of the grid instead of scanning row by row: that way more numbers fall into your field of view at once.
While looking for one number, notice where the next ones are — it saves time.
Don't tap at random: mistakes lower your result more than a few extra tenths of a second.
Compare yourself with yourself. Time depends a lot on the grid size, the screen and fatigue, so the trend of your results matters more than any single attempt.
Who it is for
Schulte tables are easy to understand at any age: younger schoolchildren start with a small grid and hints, adults train on classic and red-and-black tables, and older people can play without time pressure.
BB Gym results are not a medical diagnosis or a professional assessment of attention. If you are worried about problems with concentration, please talk to a specialist.