Mathspace – Student Quick Guide
What is Mathspace?
Mathspace is an online ebook and exercise book. It is designed to help you learn
independently at a pace that best supports your progression through the curriculum.
With lessons, videos, hints and full worked solutions you get the support you need when
you need it.
What you need to know
1. The point of Mathspace is to help you learn. So ​
don’t be scared to use Hints and
Videos ​
when you see them. They will NOT take points off you or slow down your
progress.
2. Next Steps will slow down your progress as we will have given you a line of
working. Use these wisely when you are really not sure what to do next.
3. If you are struggling you will get more questions for practice. This gives you the
chance to show your teacher you have learned from previous mistakes.
4. To avoid getting lots of questions, use the hints, videos and the lessons. You will
often see a book icon at the top right of the page will takes you back to the
lesson. You will not lose progress if you go back to the lesson.
5. You can only use your Facebook or Google+ profile pictures or one of the
cartoons we have given you. No other options will be made.
6. We welcome your feedback, so use the feedback button if you think a question
needs clarifying, you spot a typo or if you are convinced you have been marked
incorrectly. We read every email and will respond when necessary. We will
forward some messages on to your teacher - so stay polite!
1
Points
You will only ever see the top 5 students from your class. The points are based on effort
as well as achievement. Once you have achieved Mastery the points for each question
you then complete that subtopic will be reduced. You will earn more by going onto a
new subtopic.
Commas
2,400 is understood by the system as two numbers, 2 and 400. Useful when we ask you
to order a set of numbers but no good if you wanted to answer with 2400. If you type
your answer a small gap will automatically appear for you to help with place value. If
you write onto a tablet you can wait for a second to see the text shows what you want
before pressing check answer.
Marking
A blue cross means your line of working is wrong. Try again. Computers don’t change
their mind if you input the same thing 7 times. If it thinks it’s wrong, it will keep thinking
it’s wrong until someone at Mathspace has a word with it. (Send feedback if we need to
sort out an error). Use the hints and next steps to get the next line of working so you can
keep working on your task.
A yellow tick means you are on the right track and need to continue simplifying/solving
until you are finished. Yellow ticks are a great thing because they show your teacher
your correct working out and not just your final answer.
A green tick is the green light to move on to the next question. Your answer is fully
solved.
2
Typing Shortcuts
If you are using a keyboard, there are useful shortcuts to remember. 2/7 will make a
2​
fraction for you straight away. To type 5​
you can type 5^2. Mathspace won’t
understand words unless you are asked to give a reason.
Error Messages
You don’t lose points if you get an error message. If you see something like this:
Notice how there’s no blue cross? That means you haven’t lost any points.
Typo Message
If you get the typo message, clear your previous answer completely and rewrite from
scratch. Again, notice there is no blue cross? So no points lost. Phew.
If there’s a blue video icon this is helping to explain the message and what you need to
do to avoid it again.
Need help?
If you are stuck remember to use the lesson, the hints, the videos, your friends and your
teacher!
3
Reasoning
Some questions will ask for your reason. At every step. We know this is more work for
you, but it’s about checking your understanding.
The important thing is to remember that it is a KEY WORD search. So you don’t have to
memorise how it is written in Mathspace. You do need to know the key terminology.
Want to use the fact that the sum of angles in a triangle = 180? Try searching for ‘tri
sum 180’. It’ll find the right sentence for you.
Fast Track
A Fast Track test helps you to show your teacher which subtopics you already know and
which subtopics you still need some help with. If you show you can do the harder
questions in a subtopic we will let you speed through that subtopic later at triple the
pace. That means less time wasting on what you understand and more time to tackle
new concepts.
Lesson
The lessons are designed to help you with new concepts and to show you how to lay out
your work. Watch the videos at the end to see a teacher working through the problem,
line by line, explaining why you need to do each step. There will sometimes be
interactives for you to explore too.
Investigation
An investigation is a longer, more open ended task that we can’t mark within
Mathspace. They are still useful tasks to complete though as they should improve your
understanding of a concept. They will help you develop your problem solving and
analytical skills too.
4
Adaptive Task
These tasks adapt to how well you are doing. If you are progressing well, you get
through the task quickly. If you find some questions more difficult you will have more of
them to complete as extra practice. You will see your progress at the top of the screen.
Push yourself for Mastery - a full green bar - if you can. Remember you can use the hints
to help you through.
Custom Task
These are tasks designed by your teacher. You will see the bar at the top gets filled in
with different traffic light colours depending on how well you answered the question.