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Original poster

Sparx maths, how is it for you?!

90 replies

MaffsMover · 01/10/2022 15:13

DD is complaining about the new Sparx maths homework. Does anyone use it? Is it Hegarty with a deferent name? She used Hegarty before and I’m not sure why there was a change or what the difference is.

She seems to be taking hours to get to the 100 % correct answers as she finds the videos aren’t as helpful as the Hegarty ones.

Is Sparx problematic or does she just need to get used to the change?

OP posts:
Lougle · 02/10/2023 19:59

We used to have Hegarty. The real strength was that the videos were logical and not annoying. The videos on Sparx are just frustrating. There have been a couple of occasions where following the video and substituting the numbers from the question still lead to the answer being marked wrong, when I knew the answer was right. They just recycle the question if it's wrong, so they simply change the order or numbers involved.

It has very much sucked the joy out of maths for DD3. She used to complain about Hegarty but would go back in an instant. But Mr Hegarty sold Hegarty Maths to Sparx, so it will not be.

Original poster
MaffsMover · 02/10/2023 19:42

Welcome @ApissedoffSparxuser !

DD is now in year 10 and still hates Sparx but not with the venom she did. We got her maths tutoring with a friend this time last year for about 6 weeks. Then this summer she did maths every day at Mathnasiuim. It was great but far too expensive to carry on. I think being better at maths has helped.

OP posts:
ApissedoffSparxuser · 02/10/2023 18:46

The creator of Sparx is literally The Devil and Hitler's Brat Son.

Megsboots · 15/12/2022 19:34

My year 9 who has LD and struggles with maths is getting on quite well with Sparx. It takes a long time, but it gives him questions that he can do. He also likes being a Cantankerous Octopus or whatever on the league tables.

FourTeaFallOut · 15/12/2022 09:02

I have one teen on Hegarty who likes it and a younger teen who is most put-out that he is dumped on Sparx.

Original poster
MaffsMover · 15/12/2022 09:00

Sparks is Harvest festival knickersBogroll, all is safely gathered in.

I have no idea what a book work code is as DD is relentlessly independent and won’t let me look. I’m hearing the pain rather than seeing it.

I don’t think I ever got all the emails I should have, or the interactivity I maybe should. Sometimes I get an email saying she has three days to go. I think I’ve only ever got one where it’s said she’s completed it. I know she has because it’s a hallelujah moment when it’s over. Plus she’d get a detention if she didn’t do it and she’s petrified of those. She sometimes lets her dad or a mathsy friend of ours help if she’s really stuck but tgat happens less frequently than it did.

Her biggest issue is she feels she feels she’s doing work she’s not been taught. That may or may not be true. Maybe she wasn’t taught it. Maybe she missed it by being off with covid or maybe she was taught but didn’t understand. Who knows.

In a years time I’d live for us to be all back here saying our DC have a better understanding and live of maths due to Spanx…

OP posts:
Idratherbepaddleboarding · 15/12/2022 05:25

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Bimbleberries · 14/12/2022 22:44

There is a pattern to the bookwork codes at least, so if you find that they've missed one or forgotten to write them down or whatever, you can sometimes work backwards to have a decent guess at what the answer was from where it might have come in the sequence.

I hate the bookwork codes and hassle of it, but I do think the questions are good, and I like that it mixes up the topics and keeps them revising, whether the pupils like it or not.
I don't think it's helpful for schools to insist on 100% or detention, and I don't think it's helpful for the questions to just be endlessly repeated if people get them wrong.
But those are problems with the actual program, on the whole, but with the way it is used. I don't know how much control schools have over that.

BogRollBOGOF · 14/12/2022 22:40

We're trawling through the weekly Spanx now. It's fucking awful.

DS is an autistic, dyspraxic, dyslexic y7 who is otherwise great at maths. I have to sit there as he dictates book codes to me. He can do the actual maths but comes out with shit marks due to the godawful logistics of it. I'm at the point now of doing some of it for him because it's better than the alternative of him having a meltdown over it and going into homework refusal. It doesn't really matter whether it was right or not anyway because the bastard will overwrite the correct answers anyway rendering the whole thing a bloody waste time.

It's not so much sparky spanx as my great-grandma's blousey knee-length bloomers.
Bloody awful.

The point in this household is about survival not maths knowledge.

chiswick1 · 09/12/2022 22:38

EXACTLY

Spendonsend · 08/12/2022 19:08

My year 11 does not like sparx and says heggarty is much better.

Someo · 08/12/2022 19:08

My teen does nothing but complain about sparx. Discourages her from her homework.

carefulcalculator · 08/12/2022 19:05

Sparx Maths is awful. It is dispiriting for kids, it is basically bloody bullying to just keep on asking a kid to do something again and again without adequate support.

Luckily our school allow them to leave the questions once they have tried twice.

It is all crap, old-school homework in books is much healthier mentally.

princesssugarplumfairy · 08/12/2022 19:02

AugustRose · 02/10/2022 14:55

If a child gets an individual question wrong then they get another one. This is true, they get another question using the same concept/type of question. But if they don't understand the concept just changing the numbers doesn't always help - and that's my DDs issue with it.

This drives us mad. It needs to give them 2 chance then explain what they did wrong. Sometimes I haven't known why the answer was wrong which doesn't help them learn?

Original poster
MaffsMover · 08/12/2022 18:43

@chiswick1 oh dear! You sound like where “we” were at the start of term.

Now I’ve calmed down about it I can see that Hegarty had its issues. There are still a lot of issues with Spanx (!) but I wonder if the teachers and children have learnt to work it a bit better? Sparx time is still hellish but not to the tears stage, more chocolate needed stage.

OP posts:
Spud90 · 08/12/2022 16:10

We've only used Sparx but think it's fine. From what I've seen, Hegarty used to give 3 attempts at the correct answer then would just mark it wrong and move on. Whereas Sparx won't let you move on until you've got the question right and gives you a new question after 3 wrong attempts. I prefer it like that as DS has been known to just guess so he can get his homework out of the way even if it's wrong.

He gets 6 tasks a week with 3-9 questions per task so he does one task a day and it doesn't seem to take him that long. Bookmark checks are a bit of a pain but as long as he's written them down right it's fine.

chiswick1 · 08/12/2022 11:58

Well, I think we all know the right thing to do... GET RID OF IT SO THAT NO ONE HAS TO LOSE THEIR MINDS FROM IT AGAIN!!!!

Verite1 · 07/12/2022 23:29

My DS has Sparx and absolutely loathes it.

Fartymcfart · 07/12/2022 23:12

My kids find sparx fine.

you can do a little bit every school night as its split into sections so doesn't have to be done all at once, though one kids gets it over with and the other just does a little bit every night as he struggles to concentrate for longer periods.

It never takes anywhere near an hour though, 30 minutes max for my older son?

Last year they had hegerty but it never seemed to work and they never seemed to have any homework, so this at least means they are doing something

canyouextrapol · 07/12/2022 22:58

Dd who's always been miles ahead in maths hated sparx. It took her forever then she'd have to randomly cross reference codes with earlier questions which seemed completely pointless. The school has now switched to dr frost maths but her teacher never seems to set anything so I don't know what she thinks of it

Coralpop · 07/12/2022 17:31

Ha! DD is y7 so new to Sparx maths...she gets very indignant when I tell her I've had an email encouraging her to start her homework and it isn't due in for 3 more days!

Idratherbepaddleboarding · 07/12/2022 17:21

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Original poster
MaffsMover · 07/12/2022 17:15

Sigh. It’s not going anywhere though is it? I don’t think DD would have gone on to study anything STEM anyway but Sparx has as sure as heck made certain of that.

OP posts:
chiswick1 · 07/12/2022 10:48

As someone wise said: You say peacock, nobody bats an eye. You say headock...Everybody LOSES THEIR MINDS!!!
(Is it just me or does Sparx have to go?)

Land0r · 07/12/2022 10:46

DD2 (yr9) uses it and really dislikes the videos. They are set Compulsory, XP Boost and something else with a name I can't recall every week. The 'reward' for doing anything beyond the Compulsory is even more Sparx exercises! DD usually does all 3 categories though. The Bookwork Check thing used to drive her crazy, but she's used to that now.