XtraMath sessions are short—about 10 minutes or less—and are ideally intended to be done once a day. A typical session consists of a progress and/or placement quiz and practice activities, each lasting about two minutes. Remember that your students can use XtraMath on laptops, Chromebooks, tablets, and smartphones.
The entire program is guided by Mister C, who explains how the program works, so you don’t have to worry about that.
The student begins with the Placement Quiz, which levels the student and determines their knowledge of the math facts so that exercises can be adjusted according to the student’s difficulty level. Based on this assessment, the program will determine whether to administer the Progress Quiz (the daily quiz) or to jump directly to practice. Students will also be presented with the same math facts multiple times, as the program is designed to improve fluency and will continue to show certain facts until it detects quick responses.
This is why the program is customized and entirely dependent on each student’s individual progress.
After completing the Placement Quiz, if the program considers it the right time for evaluation, it will administer the Progress Quiz. If not, it will take the student directly to practice.
1. Welcome Message: The session begins with a welcome message.
2. Quiz Introduction: Next, the student is given an introduction to the quiz, explaining the type of quiz and the operations involved.
3. Countdown: A countdown appears, giving the student time to prepare for the quiz.
4. Complete the Quiz: The student completes the quiz.
5. View Results: After finishing, the student can see their results displayed in the fluency matrix. The fluency matrix can be expanded using a magnifying glass tool to see more detailed information.
🟢 Green: If a student responds in the green section, it is considered a fluent response.
🟡 Yellow: If the student responds in the yellow section, it is considered a good response within an acceptable time but not fluent for the assigned program.
🔵 Blue: If the student does not respond within the time and the blue section appears, the response is considered out of time, and they must type the correct answer to continue to the next operation.
Additionally, to minimize distractions,the student have the operation settings panel in the top left corner. Here, they can hide/show the keyboard, move it left or right, and hide/show the timer. Note that even if the timer is hidden, the time will still run.
The fluency score and matrix are constantly updated to reflect progress. As the student progresses, the fluency matrix shows their performance in each math fact. Students can track their progress with the fact matrix displayed before each activity. This shows them which facts they are fluent in and which they are still working on.
After the Placement or Progress Quiz, the student moves on to practice activities. It may be one or several practices, depending on what the student needs. Practices are where students develop their fact fluency. XtraMath selects an individualized set of 10 facts for the student to work on. Spaced repetition is used to solidify knowledge of these particular facts. The practice activities do not affect a student’s fluency score (as that would only test short-term memory). Instead, the next Progress Quiz will assess which facts have been retained.
Students earn trophies for reaching certain milestones in XtraMath. Any new trophies earned are shown to the student at the end of an activity. Each trophy indicates something slightly different. Your online student report shows all the trophies a student has earned. Just click a trophy to see when they achieved it and what it means. There's also a printable version of each trophy that the student can color in.
When a student finishes an operation by achieving fluency in all its facts, they earn a certificate. Certificates are designed to be printed and posted on a bulletin board or fridge, to celebrate the student’s accomplishment. You can access these certificates from your class report or student report. See How can I print certificates for my students? for details. When a student has finished an operation and earned their certificate, they will automatically move on to the next operation in their assigned program, if one is available.
