Every lost mark has a reason.
A practice paper gives you a score. A score doesn’t tell you what to do next. SillyMaths names the mistake behind each lost mark — then builds the practice that fixes it.
Half an hour of maths. No marking at all.
Your child sits it on screen and it marks itself the moment they finish. Nothing to print, nothing to mark, and nothing for you to type in.
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Hand over the device
one minuteYour child sits the paper on screen, on your laptop, tablet or phone. Your screen shows a QR code — they point a camera at it and the paper opens, with no typing and no password — and your own dashboard locks while they work so nothing is spoiled.
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One go, no help
half an hourThree parts. The first two have no clock at all — your child takes as long as they need to think. The last part is short and timed, and that hurry is deliberate: it is where a careless mistake shows itself.
- 3
It marks itself
instantNobody transcribes anything. The moment your child presses Finish it is marked, and what they typed on every question is kept — because knowing WHICH wrong answer they wrote is what names the mistake, not just that the question was wrong.
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See what to practise
instantNot a score. The mistakes that cost marks, most-repeated first — and, for each one, whether it was carelessness or something not yet learned. Those need completely different things from you.
- 5
Check the fix held
a week laterWe build a short practice sheet from the exact mistakes your child made — fresh questions, not the same ones again. A week on, you know whether it stuck.
Not a score. Things you can act on.
Every wrong answer gets a name
Not “got it wrong” — which wrong. The mistake behind each lost mark, in plain English, with the question numbers so you can reopen them together.
The line to say out loud
Every wrong answer comes with a sentence you can read out to your child, written for you to say as it is. You do not have to work out how to explain it, or be able to do the maths yourself.
A practice sheet built from those exact mistakes
Fresh questions on the slips your child actually made, and nothing else. Most families do another whole paper and re-practise everything the child could already do.
Then it checks the fix held
Sit the paper again and the same mistake comes round again. If it has stopped, we tell you, with the marks it was costing — and if it has come back, we tell you that too. Some mistakes turn up in more than one topic, and those we watch across all of them.
One topic, taken seriously.
Every pack is one topic — fractions, say. It is not a set of practice questions with a mark at the end: it is a list of the mistakes children actually lose marks to in that topic, and every single one of them is asked more than once. More than once, because one wrong answer can never tell you whether your child cannot do it or simply rushed.
The table is wider than the screen — swipe it sideways to read the whole row.
| Part | How it is asked | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Part 1 | Asked plainly | The mistake on its own, with nothing else going on. Can your child do it at all? |
| Part 2 | Buried in a longer question | The same mistake, this time hidden inside a problem with several steps. Does it survive contact with a real question? |
| Part 3 | Quick, against the clock | The same mistake again, short, at the end, in a hurry. This is where carelessness shows itself — and nowhere else can. |
This is the whole point, and it is the thing a score cannot do. Right in Part 1 and wrong in Part 3 is a careless mistake — your child knows this, and lost the marks to speed. Wrong in all three is a gap, and needs teaching, not reminding. Same wrong answer on the page. Opposite instruction to you.
Every question looks for one mistake.
Not just ‘got it wrong’ — which wrong. Every question is written to catch one specific slip a child makes again and again. Here are three that many parents will recognise.
Of the rest
Applies the second step to the original amount instead of what was left after the first step.
You’ll meet this one in Fractions, Percentages, Statistics & Data Handling and Mixed Super-Selective Reasoning.
Ordering decimals
Reads a longer decimal as bigger (0.417 beats 0.6) instead of comparing place by place.
You’ll meet this one in Place Value & Rounding and Decimals.
Finding the whole from a part
Given a part and its fraction, percentage or ratio share, multiplies instead of working back to the original whole.
You’ll meet this one in Fractions, Percentages, Ratio & Proportion and Mixed Super-Selective Reasoning.
Some mistakes appear in more than one pack on purpose. A child can beat a mistake in one topic, then make it again in the next one inside a harder question. When that happens, we show you — so you know the idea needs another look before the exam.
Know what to practise — and whether it worked.
One pack shows you a close-up. Several packs, sat over months, show you something no single paper can — whether a mistake is dying out or quietly digging in.
After one pack
The close-up
- Part by part — how your child did each time the same mistake came round in a different form.
- The mistakes that cost the most marks, most-repeated first, with the exact question numbers to do again with your child.
- The kinds of question your child got fully right — the quiet good news.
- A short practice sheet built from the mistakes made, ready when you are.
Across every pack
The pattern
- The same mistake tracked across every pack your child has sat, month by month.
- Each one labelled active, improving or fixed — a direction, not a mark.
- The slip that looked fixed in March and came back in June in a different topic.
- What to practise next, chosen from the mistakes that are still there.
Written by a maths teacher.
SillyMaths is written by a qualified maths teacher — PGCE, 1996. Every question is original, written at genuine 11+ level and mapped to the Key Stage 2 curriculum, and every answer is worked out independently and checked before it goes anywhere near a child.
What a topic gives you.
Every topic
We find what is going wrong inside the topic
- Your child sits it on screen and it marks itself.
- Every mistake named, and told apart: careless, or not yet learned.
- Practice sheets built from the mistakes made — fresh questions, not the same ones again.
- Unlimited practice, and the pattern tracked across every topic.
Find the reason behind the lost marks.
Pick the topic your child keeps slipping on — 20 to choose from, each a complete check-up on its own. Your first one costs nothing and takes one evening.