How to Find Your Child's Math Level (and Where to Start Practising)

Children rarely sit neatly at one grade level in math. A Grade 4 child might add four-digit numbers with ease and still wobble on telling time. That is normal. The goal isn’t a label; it’s finding the skills that are just hard enough.

Start with a short placement check

Our free placement check asks 12 questions. Two right answers in a row move it up a grade; two misses move it down. At the end it suggests a level and three skills to start with, including any it noticed were shaky.

A few tips for getting a fair result:

• Let your child work alone. Hints from an adult make the level look higher than it is.
• “I don’t know” is a good answer. It moves the check down to where the practice is useful.
• Treat it as a starting point, not a test. If the suggested skills feel too easy after a day, move up a grade.

Use the skills list for that grade

Each grade has a full list of skills, grouped by topic, the way a math textbook is organised. For example, the Grade 3 skills run from patterns and place value to fractions and word problems. A printable checklist of the same list is handy for a fridge or planning binder.

Practise one skill until it’s mastered

Each skill has a score from 0 to 100. Right answers raise it, misses lower it a little, and the questions get harder as the score climbs. At 100 the skill is mastered. Ten to fifteen minutes on one skill usually does more than an hour spread over many.

When a skill keeps slipping, try the warm-up skill a grade below; each skill page suggests one under Up next.

Make it real

Numbers stick when children use them. Pair a skill with a hands-on lesson on the same idea: measuring a bean plant’s growth for length, or sharing snacks fairly for fractions. The lesson library links each unit to the practice skills that match it.

Track progress

My progress shows every skill your child has practised on this device, the score for each, and badges for milestones. It’s a nice thing to look at together at the end of the week.