How it works

1. We watch your child think

A short session, on paper, on a topic your child is currently finding difficult. We ask them to work out loud and to explain each step in their own words. The point is not to get the right answer. The point is to find the first step they cannot explain.

2. We trace it backwards

Once we have the step that breaks, we follow the chain of prerequisites down until we reach something your child can explain confidently. That boundary is the gap. It is usually two or three classes below where the difficulty appeared.

You can see the shape of this chain yourself on the topic pages — each one lists what that topic actually requires, and links down to the topics it depends on.

3. You get the reasoning, not a score

We send you what your child actually said, where it broke, and what to do about it. Plain language. No percentile, no grade, no dashboard.

What we log, and why

Every misconception we find goes into a record: the class, the topic, the prompt, what the child wrote, and the prerequisite that was missing. It is anonymised, and nothing is published without a parent opting in specifically for that.

That log is why the things we write contain real wrong answers from real children rather than generic explanation.

Start

The thinking diagnostic is free and takes about twenty minutes. If you would rather read first, start here.