How Penny Drop Maths works: 3 steps, about 20 minutes

Penny Drop Maths works in three steps: your child takes a calm, free diagnostic (about 20 minutes, around 30 questions, no timer); you get a plain-English report of where they are secure, where they are developing and the first skill to fix; then your child follows a personalised plan of short teaching and practice sessions that adapts as they improve.

Step 1 — Your child takes the diagnostic

The diagnostic covers the maths your child's year group is expected to know, plus the skills from earlier years that it depends on. It is about 30 questions and takes most children around 20 minutes. There is no timer, no score on screen and no red crosses — a wrong answer simply moves the diagnostic on to a question that helps us understand why.

Questions are always at your child's year group or below. A Year 4 child never sees Year 5 work, so nothing in the diagnostic asks them to know something they have not yet been taught.

Step 2 — You get a plain-English report

The report is written for parents, not teachers. For each area it shows whether your child is secure, still developing, or has a gap, using everyday language rather than curriculum codes.

It then names the first skill to fix. This is often not the topic that looks weakest. A child who struggles with adding fractions may actually be missing something earlier, such as equivalent fractions, and the report explains that chain so you understand why that is the place to start.

Step 3 — Your child follows a plan that adapts

With a subscription, your child works through short sessions — about ten questions each — on one skill at a time. When a skill is a genuine gap, a short lesson comes first, then practice. When your child shows they have mastered a skill, the plan moves on to the next one.

The plan re-checks itself. If your child gets stuck, it looks for the earlier skill that is causing the trouble rather than repeating the same questions. If practice alone is not helping, it tells you plainly and suggests a conversation with their teacher.

You can follow all of this from the parent dashboard, and you can pause or cancel at any time.

What it is not

Penny Drop Maths is not a games app, and it is not a tutor. It does not replace a teacher. It is a calm, precise second opinion on where your child's maths is stuck, and a structured way to fix that one thing before moving to the next.