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Schulte Table Games: What the Number-Grid Focus Exercise Actually Trains

This exercise looks like a simple find-the-number game, but it is built around a real technique used in visual-attention training. Here is how it works, and what it does and does not prove.

Find every number in order, as fast as possible

Numbers 1 through 25 (in the standard 5x5 version) are scattered randomly across a grid. The task is to click or tap them in strict ascending order while a timer runs, with any out-of-order click typically not counting.

Keeping your eyes near the center beats scanning around

The technique this exercise is meant to build is holding your gaze near the grid's center and using peripheral vision to locate the next number, rather than physically scanning your eyes back and forth across the whole board for each one.

A bigger grid is much harder than the numbers suggest

Moving from a 5x5 grid to a 6x6 or 7x7 grid does not just add a few more numbers to find — it substantially increases how far your peripheral vision has to reach, which is why larger grids feel disproportionately harder.

It is widely used in visual-span and speed-reading training

This exercise format is commonly used in speed-reading courses and visual-attention training programs, based on the idea that widening your effective field of sharp focus reduces how often your eyes need to physically move while reading.

The evidence for transfer to real-world reading speed is mixed

While the exercise reliably improves performance on the exercise itself with practice, researchers studying speed-reading claims generally find weaker or inconsistent evidence that peripheral-vision drills like this meaningfully improve comprehension-based reading speed in everyday reading.

How the exercise is meant to train visual span

The core idea is that untrained eyes tend to scan a page or grid in a jerky, back-and-forth pattern, re-checking areas unnecessarily. By forcing you to locate numbers without moving your eyes far from center, the exercise practices using peripheral vision more deliberately, which is the visual skill the exercise is actually targeting rather than raw speed.

What the science actually supports

Vision and cognitive-science research generally supports that peripheral vision can be trained to some degree with repeated practice on tasks like this one. Where the evidence gets weaker is the specific claim that this transfers into meaningfully faster comprehension-based reading in daily life — most controlled studies on speed-reading techniques find gains in raw scanning speed but a real trade-off in comprehension when reading actual text quickly, so treating this as a pure comprehension shortcut is not well supported.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does practicing this actually make you read faster in real life?

It reliably makes you faster at the exercise itself, and there is some support for it training peripheral vision generally. The stronger claim that it substantially speeds up comprehension-based reading of real text is not well supported by controlled research, so it is best treated as a focus and visual-span drill rather than a guaranteed reading-speed hack.

What is a good grid size to start with?

The standard 5x5 grid (numbers 1 through 25) is the traditional starting point. Moving to a 6x6 or larger grid only once you can comfortably complete the 5x5 grid without your eyes wandering off-center avoids building the wrong habit under too much difficulty.