Mental maths is a set of quick sums, one at a time. Press Mental maths on Testy's page, choose what to practise and how, and start. Each answer is accepted the moment the right number is typed, so there is no button to press between questions.
What to practise
- Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication and Division, and Mixed, which uses all four.
- Times tables: pick any of the tables from 2 to 12, or choose the student's weakest, which Testy works out from their past answers. It includes the matching division facts.
- Fractions, decimals and percentages: a fraction of an amount, simple percentages, multiplying and dividing decimals by 10, 100 and 1000, and finding the missing piece of an equivalent fraction.
- Missing numbers: the number that makes a sum true, in any operation.
- Order of operations, with brackets at the higher levels.
- Powers and negatives: squares, square roots, cubes and sums with negative numbers. This one is for Year 5 and up, Selective and NAPLAN Year 5.
Each kind has ten levels. The level follows the student: it moves up or down with how the drills go.
The four modes
- Classic: a set of questions against a stopwatch, from ten up to fifty.
- Sprint: sixty seconds, as many as possible. The score is how many were right.
- Daily challenge: one set a day, the same questions for every student at the same level that day. Only the first challenge started each day counts for the result and for XP, even if it is left part way; any later go is practice, though finishing one still keeps the streak going. The result shows how the student did against others in their own year level, once enough of them have played, and never shows a name. Finishing a daily challenge on consecutive days builds the daily streak, shown on the Mental maths screen.
- Practice: untimed, with a strategy tip whenever a question is skipped, and no personal bests.
Skipping
A student who is stuck can skip. A skipped question counts as a miss, shows the right answer for a moment, and the drill moves on. In Practice the answer stays on screen with a strategy tip until the student presses Next. Accuracy is the questions answered correctly out of the correct and skipped ones, so a wrong keystroke along the way is not held against the student.
Personal bests
A personal best is the quickest average time per correct answer, in a set of at least ten questions with at least four in five right, kept separately for each kind of drill, Mixed included. Sprint keeps its own best score for each kind. The first result that qualifies sets the bar and the next one to beat it is the first personal best. Practice mode never sets one.
XP, and when a drill is not counted
Each correct answer earns XP, up to a daily limit. If answers come in faster than anyone could read them, or the clock does not add up, the drill is saved but earns no XP and no personal best, and Testy says so on the results screen.
Testy's reaction
The results screen ends with a line from Testy chosen for how it went: a personal best, a streak, an improvement, or a rough day. Under each conversation with Testy there is a Mental maths link. A drill started from it adds a summary to that conversation, and Done on the results screen goes back there, so Testy can talk about how it went. Testy can also talk about recent drills and streaks in any conversation.