TutagoraThe most useful thing you can know about your struggling child is not that they're behind — it's exactly where. And the report card won't tell you.
Why the grade tells you almost nothing
A maths grade is an average, and averages hide the truth. A child on 40% might understand half the syllabus perfectly and be completely lost on the rest — or be a little shaky on all of it. The number looks identical; the fix is completely different.
What you actually need is the specific missing skill — and in maths it's usually not this term's topic. It's a rung from a year or two ago (place value, times tables, working with fractions) that quietly breaks everything built on top of it.
Three ways to find the real gap
Watch them work, out loud
Sit with them on one problem and ask them to talk through each step. Don't correct — just listen for the exact line where it goes wrong. That line is the clue. A child who says "8 times 7 is… 54" doesn't have a division problem; they have a times-tables gap.
Work backwards until they're fluent
Give slightly easier questions, then easier again, until they answer quickly and confidently. The point where "slow and unsure" turns into "fast and sure" is roughly where the solid ground ends — and where you start rebuilding.
Use a check that does this for you
Doing steps 1 and 2 by hand across a whole subject is a lot. A diagnostic check works down from your child's grade automatically, adapting to each answer until it lands on the first skill that isn't secure.
Tutagora's maths check finds the exact skill to start from
No cost, no sign-up wall, a few minutes on any phone.
- It adapts as it goes — working down from your child's grade until it finds the precise skill that hasn't stuck.
- It reads the working, not just the answer, so a lucky guess or a copied answer doesn't hide a real gap.
- It speaks CBC — the skill it names is the official curriculum strand, so it lines up with school and exams.
Questions parents ask us
Why doesn't my child's maths grade tell me where the problem is?
A grade is an average. A child on 40% could understand half the syllabus well and be completely lost on the other half, or be shaky across all of it — the number looks the same but the fix is totally different. You need the specific missing skills, not an average.
How can I tell which maths topic my child is stuck on?
Watch them solve a problem out loud and note the exact step where it breaks; or work backwards through easier topics until they're fluent again — that point is the gap. A diagnostic check does this automatically, working down from their grade.
Is there a free way to test where my child is in maths?
Yes — Tutagora's maths check is free. It asks a short, adapting set of questions that work down from your child's grade until it finds the exact skill to start from, mapped to the CBC curriculum.
My child guesses or copies answers. Does that hide the gap?
It can, which is why the working matters more than the final answer. A good check looks at how a child reaches an answer, so a lucky guess or a copied one doesn't mask a real gap.