Frequently Asked Questions

In addition to our FAQs, you can explore our user guides, tutorials and professional development!

General

How much does Mathigon cost?

Mathigon is completely free to use for students, teachers and parents!

Do I need to create an account? What personal information do you collect?

Most of our content and features are available without creating an account, but you need to sign in to save your progress. Visit our privacy policy to see what data we collect and how we use your personal information.

Is Mathigon available in other languages?

Yes, Mathigon is available in more than 20 different languages! Simply click the user icon in the top right corner and then select Change Language.

Translations are generated by volunteers or by automated software. Please let us know if you find any mistakes or if you want to help us create additional translations.

Can you sign a Student Data Privacy Agreement with my school or district?

You can visit the SDPC website to see if another district in your state has already signed a data privacy agreement with Mathigon. In that case, you only need to complete Exhibit E and email us a copy.

We can only sign privacy agreements that closely follow the SDPC template. Since Mathigon is a free product, we cannot reimburse schools or districts for any costs related to using Mathigon – including data breaches. Please get in touch if you have questions.

This answer only applies to schools in the United States

What accessibility features does Mathigon have?

Most parts of Mathigon follow the WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards at the AA level, and you can see a detailed breakdown on our accessibility page.

Our interactive courses also contain built-in audio narrations for students with reading difficulties. These work will all the different interactive elements, questions and equations: simply hover over a paragraph and click the play button at the start. Please note that this feature is only available in English.

Can I use Mathigon offline?

Yes – our native mobile apps for iOS and Android are free to install and work offline! If you sign into your account, they will periodically sync your progress data with our server, while you are connected to the internet.

Do you have any tutorials or lesson plans for teachers?

Take a look at our Teachers page for a summary of all the tools and resources we offer to teachers, as well as different tutorial videos.

We also have a large library with more than 70 tasks and lesson plans for Polypad, covering the entire mathematics curriculum.

Interactive Courses

Some of the courses are listed as “under construction”. When will they be released?

Building our interactive courses takes a long time: from research to writing, graphics design, and programming. Unfortunately, we cannot promise when a specific topic will be finished. However, our team of writers and engineers is always working on new content. If you have a Mathigon account, you can subscribe to our email newsletter to receive regular updates.

Can I see all the content in a chapter at once without having to answer each question?

Mathigon’s courses are divided into many small steps, and we want students to actively participate at every step before we show the next one.

However, when you first visit a page, there is a grey banner in the top-left corner which shows the approximate length of this chapter, and allows you to reveal all content at once. Later, you can also scroll to the very bottom of the page and click either “skip to the next step” or “reveal all steps”.

Please note that revealing all content will disable some of Mathigon’s personalisation features.

Should I complete the courses in any particular order?

Not necessarily: the chapters within a course do build upon the ideas from the previous chapters, but students can always go back as needed.

I think I found a mistake in a course. How can I let you know?

Thank you helping us to improve Mathigon. Simply send us a message using our contact form!

Can I disable Archie, the virtual tutor?

Our virtual tutor provides hints and help if students are stuck, or encouragement if they answer questions correctly. Students can also ask questions, which we try to answer directly, using Wolfram|Alpha, or by finding appropriate educational YouTube videos. It is not possible to disable the tutor.

Can I track my students’ progress in courses?

Yes! You have to create a teacher account and link your students to one of your classes. Then you can track their progress on your teacher dashboard.

Multiplication by Heart

How do the Multiplication By Heart flashcards work?

Our Multiplication By Heart flashcards use an approach called spaced repetition, to show students the cards they are most likely to forget.

All new cards appear in Box A. Answering a question correctly moves the card into the next box. An incorrect answer moves the card back to Box A (or keeps it in Box A, if it is already there).

Please watch our tutorial video to learn more!

How do you decide which (and how many) cards students see every day? Can you change the order?

Using spaced repetition, the software automatically selects up to 36 cards each day, personalised for every student. These will be a combination of new cards in Box A and/or various cards from the other boxes.

We select cards based on how long they have been in their current box, to ensure that students memorise the cards in the most efficient way. As students answer questions correctly and the cards move through the boxes, more days will pass until that card appears again:

  • Cards in box A are shown every day.
  • Cards in box B are shown after around 2 days.
  • Cards in box C are shown after around 5 days.
  • Cards in box D are shown after 1-2 weeks.
  • Cards in box E are shown after 2-3 weeks.

For example, if a card has been in Box C for about 5 days, that card will likely be amongst the 36 cards to appear on that day. It is not possible for teachers to manually change the order of the cards.

How many cards are there in total? What happens when they all reach the memory box?

There are 212 cards in total, divided into three decks. There are 25 cards in Deck 1 (dot arrangements), 94 cards in Deck 2 (grid arrangements), 35 cards in Deck 3 (prime factor circles), and 60 cards in Deck 4 (multiples of 11 and 12). If a student gets all these cards into their memory box, congratulate them – they have successfully memorised all multiplication facts. For additional practice and reinforcement, they can always spend time in shuffle mode.

What if students see no (or very few) flashcards on their page?

Multiplication By Heart is designed for a few minutes of practice every day. Once students have answered all questions on a given day, they should wait until the next day to get new cards.

Once students have seen all cards at least once and Box A is empty, there may be some days on which students see very few flashcards – or even none at all. This is because cards haven’t been in their boxes long enough, and completely intentional. Once all cards reach the “memory” box at the end, students will never see new cards again: by then, students should be fluent and won’t need to practice multiplication facts again.

However, we also have a “shuffle mode” version of Multiplication By Heart, which you can access it from the Settings and Instructions panel, by clicking the "?" icon. In Shuffle mode, we simply pick a random subset of 36 cards, without spaced-repetition. Any practice done in shuffle mode will be saved or interfere with their saved progress from other days not spent in shuffle mode.

How do I track my students’ progress in Multiplication By Heart?

To track your students’ progress, you need to sign up for a Mathigon teacher account, create a new class, and then add your students to that class. These videos show how to set this up in more detail. Now you can view your students’ progress on your teacher dashboard – just click the blue Multiplication By Heart link in the sidebar. You’ll be able to see how long each student has spent on the flashcards and summary statistics for the class.

My students already know the simple multiplication fact. Can you skip these?

Yes! Students can skip to Deck 2 or Deck 3 in the Settings and Instructions panel, by clicking the ? icon. The visual representations in Deck 3 are the most abstract of the representations. As a teacher, you may want to explore starting on Deck 2 or Deck 3 in your own account before deciding which decks your students should start on. You can always reset your progress to start over.

Can I purchase a physical set of the cards?

Yes, they are available on the Math for Love website.

Teacher Accounts

How do I create a class and add or delete students?

This video shows how you can add and remove classes and students on your teacher account.

I created a student account – can I change it to a teacher account?

Yes – simply go to your account settings page and then click the corresponding button.

Can I add a co-teacher to my Mathigon classes?

You can add co-teachers to any class in your teacher dashboard. Open the class and then click on “Add new co-teacher” on the right hand side. Then, just enter the email address of the co-teacher you want to add. Before doing so, make sure they have a Mathigon teacher account associated with the email you enter.

Everything Else

How did you decide which mathematicians to include on the timeline?

No timeline can ever show everyone who has contributed to mathematics: because of limited space, but also because research and discoveries were often misattributed throughout history. On our timeline, we tried to select both those mathematicians and artifacts who had the greatest impact, and those who best show the diversity of mathematicians. We are regularly reviewing our content and adding additional mathematicians and artifacts.

How do you keep Mathigon freely available?

Mathigon is free to use for students and teachers, but we license our content and technology to other organisations and publishers who want to make their products more interactive and engaging.

Can I use Mathigon commercially?

You can only use Mathigon for non-commercial purposes: this includes in schools or universities or for educational research. If you want to use Mathigon for something ele, please contact us to sign a commercial licensing agreement.