Sparx maths, how is it for you?!

We don't help lots with homework but do support. However Sparx has become our homework as unless DS gets 100% it's marked as unfinished. It just keeps churning more tasks out of a similar ilk until you get it correct. Then there's all the noting down codes & unless you do that you have to go back to the beginning.

I don't think DS would do work unless we supported. DD can manage the work independently.

It's been interesting going back to Maths from 30 years ago!

I don't see how it can be avoided helping them as if they keep making mistakes it's flagged up as incomplete. I get emails as reminder too!!

Yep, DS in year 10 hated Hegarty, but really hates Sparx. It takes forever and as he's not actually very good at maths, rarely gets 100% and I can hear him raging "I don't know how to do that, stop asking me the same questions with different numbers!" He's actually reached the point now where he's happy to take a C1 consequence for not doing the homework, as he's learning bugger all from it and it just stresses him out.

Well, I'll tell you what it really is: IT'S A FLIPPING NIGHTMARE!!!

It's making EVERYONE lose their minds.

Funny, DS has just switched from MathsWatch to Sparks and he thinks it's much less annoying. Mathswatch made him watch long videos on things he already understood, and sometimes you just couldn't input the answers in a way that the system would mark right. (In a way that was ok though, it forced him to fight his perfectionist tendencies.)

Early days for us with Sparks though, and I agree collecting cat cards is not a way to motivate Y9s.

Interesting thread - my Y10 DD is really strong in maths, previously had Hegarty which she loved and HATES Sparx. I don’t get involved in homework but she seems to spend hours and hours doing it every week (and she does Further Maths as well so gets extra homework on top). Might email the school based on what I’ve read here.

@Tittyfilarious81 exactly the same DD is year 11 too.

Ds in year 11 absolutely hates sparx maths , we've been told it's much better but to be honest my son just finds it really annoying.

DC1 is year 7 and started on Sparx this year. What is the point of the book check? I cannot see what it adds apart from the chore of writing down answers

We've started using this this year. DD hates it, it emails saying she hasn't done homework when she has and when she wasn't aware it was set. Dd also struggles with the length of time as pp have said and the repetitive nature of the questions when she gets one wrong and doesn't know the concept/type - she finds it demoralising.

Mine are both good at Maths and hate Sparx. They liked Hegarty. Before that we had iXL which was awful but mainly because it seemed set up to punish you which could have been the school's settings rather than the actual software default I guess.

After reading this thread I asked dd last night. (we changed from hegarty to sparx this year)

Her comment was interesting. Sparx is set up so that you do 1 hour homework. So they make you work for an hour.
Last year, she could whizz through her Hegarty in 15 minutes and it was a quick easy get out fo the way homework for those who were good at maths.
now those kids have to do a whole hour on Sparx.

Dds comment is that if you are good at eg English and can finish your English homework quickly, you can still do that, and those who are not good at English take a long time to do it. But with maths everyone has to spend a long time, good or bad, which makes it unfair for the good maths kids!
(I hope that makes sense)

I quite like some of the questions, which present the topic in some interesting examples and more like some of the applied exam questions. It is a shame they are mixed in with some less useful questions, though. I also like that (at least the way local schools have it set up) students have to practise previous topics regularly. I don't like that the videos show exactly how to do specific questions, rather than a more general understanding of the topic. And the bookwork codes seem tedious, and don't encourage written working out anyway, as pupils just end up with a long list of random number answers. Schools here also require 100% done, and done correctly, so I don't think the alogrithm does much to adapt, apart from possibly looking at the time it takes to do it, because students end up getting help for the difficult questions in the end if they aren't sure, so it doesn't help to tell parents not to get involved, as someone has to help!

But it's more the admin side of it that can be a pain; the actual questions I think are generally quite good, though I still preferred Mr Hegarty videos.

I find is less irritating that trying to get the right answers inputted on MyMaths or MathsWatch, and those questions really were repetitive.

At least on sparx you can leave part way and do a few each time, and there isn't a lot of copying down of questions. There is something to be said for having a required number that you have to do correctly, as with Mr Hegarty or other programs, pupils would get, say, 30% on a topic, and nothing ever happened - no follow up, no further explanation, etc. I'm not sure forcing 100% is the way to go either, as it means weaker students can just get totally stuck - there should be a way to skip somehow and let the teacher know.

The videos on Sparx are terrible. You are best off looking for a video on YouTube and finding a teacher there that explains it in a way which works for your child.

I misread it as Spanx and I got serious teenage attitude and eye rolling.

We like it.
As there is a terrible shortage of teachers, and maths teachers in particular, it seems like a reasonable solution.
Not as good as increasing the number of teachers; but given the lack of respect teachers get (resulting in them leaving the job in droves) that seems unlikely to happen, so computer based teaching seems to be the way things are heading.

Interesting that most people seem to dislike it. DS1 also had Hegarty last year and he absolutely loathed it. Moved to Sparx this year and he likes it so much more. So pretty much the reverse of most people! He likes the fact that if you are fine you don’t have to watch the videos at all (they made them write notes off them last year) and if you do they are short. Also that you can do it a bit at a time as all the questions are separate.

Maths teacher here - I never liked Hegarty, we trialled Sparx in lockdown, I tried it with a very able group who were up for a challenge, they hated it.

Please feed back to the school, either via students or via parents, most teachers I know would not want a student spending that long on a piece of homework that should take an hour max at KS3 age. (I am not the biggest homework fan generally!)

It shouldn't be topics they haven't covered that could be due to the system setting things up weirdly - I never liked it as it was really weird to set up - not intuitive from the teacher view point at all.

We have switched to Mymaths - equally hated by my students, those who hated Hegarty are now extolling its virtues - I was a Mymaths user then Hegarty and now back to Mymaths so find it better as its what I know!

If you google Hegarty Maths and topic and video you are likely to find them on You tube - saves you paying for a supscription. Another source of good videos is Corbett Maths.

However do feedback, constructively, about Sparx - if its taking too long tell their teacher.

We had hegarty last year and swapped to Sparx midway through.

DC2 (Y8) hates it, preferred hegarty, takes approx 3hrs. It is absolutely not intuitive and last year I had to email in twice that the system was asking questions on topics that they hadn't even covered. The videos are rubbish, and eventually tells them to get help from a teacher.

Dc3 (y7) has no experience of hegarty but also dislikes sparx.
Takes ages, the writing answers down and going back for checks is annoying.

There's no enjoyment in it at all and the games are not aimed at teens, or not mine anyway, they don't want to collect cards of cats?