Whizz Maths - Maths Age

[RoadArt]

For those parents who have registered their children with this site, how realistic do you find the maths ages?

Do you find that there is always a topic lagging behind, and another one way ahead?

Do you think the abilities were fairly assessed at the start?

Also, do you think the Report card is useful or not?

I dont know anyone else personally who has tried this programme to be able to get feedback as to what other people think.

On the whole I do find the site very motivating for kids but I have a few niggles and wondered if other parents found the same.

Thank you

I found the Maths Age was pretty low for my dd but it helped her gain confidence and consolidate, which is almost definitely needed at the time - they just didn't get enough practice at school, school didn't believe in Maths homework - or giving a child like her extra support because she was middle table. She went from hating Maths to enjoying the challenges. Also bear in mind that if the Maths age is way below your dc's ability they will whizz through the exercises at lightening speed - just what a child who struggles with Maths needs - it gives them the feeling of being a real Maths Whizz.

Maths age of 7 would be just finishing Year 1, age 8 is the end of Year 2 - KS1. If you think the Maths age is inappropriate them give them a call, they may change it.

Some topics rarely appeared so it hard to practice them. I did find the report card useful - it allowed me to keep tract of whether my dc was doing Maths or playing in the virtual bedroom - and she knew that too!

I thought about asking them to change some settings, but as you say it helps with the confidence and the sessions do flow and work together, so its a a very clever programme.

One downside is that my kids dont want to practice in the revision sections because they dont get points and too panicky to repeat a lesson in case they get worse times.

How long have they been using it? They may feel panicky to begin with but as they become more familiar with the programme, they'll flick though previous exercises without feeling nervous.

DS was terrified of playing other kids on TutPup last year but this year he seems to have just got on with it!

I found the first assessment quite pointless - my DD got it all right (I sat with her, not helping) and the questions did not go on to push her until she got answers wrong which I would have thought necessary to know where her knowledge ended. The lessons she got were far too easy and she quickly lost interest. I contacted them and they were very helpful but then she had to redo the assessment which she was not impressed about as it is pretty dull. The outcome was a better assessment and more appropriate work from then on. I am not sure about the ages and how accurate they are - she was down as 8.2 maths age (she is 6.5) but at the end of yr 1 was told she is a high year 1 level so the two don't really correlate.
I also found that some topics like you say were easy for her and others quite difficult in an area she may not be familiar with from school. In the end we gave up but it kept her doing a bit of maths over the summer so wasn't a complete waste of time.
The support I received was very good.
Does that help at all?

That should have said at the end of Yr 1 her school said she was a high year 1 level, not maths whizz!

I'm highly sceptical about the maths age. Ds has a supposed maths age over 2 year above his calendar age. Yes, he's bright, but not way ahead.

My experience with the assessment was different - they kept having harder and harder questions until I just told my son to stop trying to answer as it was getting ridiculously hard.

Really sceptical about the progress he has made as apparently he has progressed 6 months in maths age in 3 weeks...hmmmmmm.

Yes, when DS2 did it last summer (2009)he had a maths age of nearly 4 years above his actual age,which struck me as ridiculous - and patently not true. But since he used the programme a lot over that summer holidays and only sporadically between then and now it shows him now as having a maths age only 3 months higher - which is rubbish because I'm sure if he did the assessment again he'd get a higher score.

I felt that the "maths age" after the assessment was probably about right, but I am extremely sceptical about the reported rate of progress. If dd continues to "progress" at the ridiculous rate they claim, she'll be doing a degree by the time she's 7!

I think it's a great site for kids who like playing with numbers, and my dd loves earning credits and buying stuff from the "whizz shop", feeding her virtual kitten etc. But I think any parent who sets too much stock by the progress reports is barking up the wrong tree!

Basically they make rapid 'progress' if they play it a lot. I want to stop paying for it now as DS2 hardly ever uses it, but he doesn't want to lose his hamster.

I don't think dd uses it that much tbh - perhaps about an hour a week in tutor mode, and the rest of the time she just likes feeding the kitten.

We did it for a couple of weeks. Found the initial assessment to be ridiculously low, so that DS 6 spent the first week burning through things he's been able to do for a long time.

Then Mathswhizz projected what his maths age would be 6 months hence based on his current rate of improvement. Drumroll, please: 36 years old. We unsubscribed.

is the maths whizz for children with senco needs or very low ablity in maths if they use it for secondary level in year 7 or 8

I think Maths Whizz has content up to yr8, so it's for any children up to that year group.

DD did this at 8 and got an age of 13. She is very mathematical but seemed very high so didn't sign up. Used Mathletics from time to time which would say is much better.

I assumed there was an element of vanity sizing to the maths age. DS came out really high, and as a very experienced teacher of his age group, I know he isn't.

It's a ZOMBIE Thread

Monkeys121 resurrected asking different question.