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Pencils Down
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Pencils Down for Tutors

Assign with intention. See how students actually think.

Give students targeted SAT Math practice, then see more than a final score. Review attempts, nudges, Build Ups, solution use and eventual accuracy from one tutor workspace.

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Tutoring is still in Beta. Beta

Students

Interactive demo
  • 40%First try
  • 80%Eventually
  • 1.4Avg nudges
  • 2/4Build Ups done

Gets there with help. The gap between first try and eventual is the lesson.

  1. 123Algebra2 submissions
  2. 148Geometry & Trigonometry2 submissions
  3. 80Problem-Solving & Data Analysis1 submission
  4. 12Advanced Math1 submission
  5. 182Algebra1 submission · solution opened
  6. 196Geometry & Trigonometrynot opened

What a number leaves out

A score tells you where a student finished, not how they got there.

Four correct out of six is one fact. Underneath it are four different students, and four different things to do about them. Pencils Down keeps the behavior behind the result, so the next session starts from evidence rather than from reconstructing what probably happened.

4 of 5correct
  • 2right on the first tryWorked alone, start to finish.
  • 2right after nudgesThe scaffolding got them there. They are not independent on these yet.
  • 1solution opened before a correct answerThis one was read rather than worked, and no wrong answer records it.
  • 2Build Up left unfinishedThey started the prerequisite reasoning and stopped partway.

Same six problems. Same four correct. Four different conversations to have next.

Setting the work

Build the assignment your student needs.

Choose exact problems, target specific skills, or draw a balanced set from a filtered pool. Add instructions, require prerequisite work, and decide how many attempts students receive.

New assignment

Interactive demo
Skills

What this set is made of

  • Algebra4
  • Geometry & Trigonometry2
Work this set yourself →

No assignment is saved and no student is contacted.

  1. 27Geometry & Trigonometry
  2. 123Algebra
  3. 148Geometry & Trigonometry
  4. 167Algebra
  5. 182Algebra
  6. 186Algebra

How it runs

Three moves, and the last one is the one tutoring usually loses.

  1. 1

    Tutor assigns

    The tutor selects the work and the expectations that come with it.

  2. 2

    Student works

    The student answers, opens nudges only when they need them, and completes any required Build Ups.

  3. 3

    Tutor sees what happened

    Attempts, help used, solution reveals and eventual accuracy appear in the student record. Not while it happens, afterwards, as a record.

The student record

Everything the work left behind, on one screen.

This is the real screen's shape with invented students in it. Every figure is an arithmetic summary of rows written when somebody pressed a button. Nothing here predicts, diagnoses or adapts.

Amara (demo)

Interactive demo
  • 40%First tryWhat they can do unaided. The honest difficulty signal.
  • 80%EventuallyWhether the ladder gets them there. High with a low first try means the scaffolding is working.
  • 7SubmissionsHow many times they answered. Many with few nudges is somebody grinding alone.
  • 1.4Avg nudgesHow much scaffolding they took. Near zero on wrong answers is somebody not asking for help.
  • 2 of 4Build UpsPrerequisite reasoning started and finished.
  • 1Solution firstTimes the worked solution was opened before a correct answer. The one thing an accuracy figure cannot see.
  • 1FlaggedProblems the student marked to come back to. Their judgement, not a metric.

Where they are, by skill

  • Algebra0/2
  • Geometry & Trigonometry0/1
  • Problem-Solving & Data Analysis1/1
  • Advanced Math1/1

The real screen refuses to call a skill weak on fewer than three problems, so a new student never gets a confident diagnosis from a coin flip. Six problems is below that bar, which is why this says where they are rather than what they are bad at.

Attempt history

  1. 123Bwrong
  2. 123Dcorrect · 2 nudges
  3. 148Awrong · 1 nudge
  4. 148Ccorrect · 3 nudges
  5. 8024correct
  6. 12Ccorrect
  7. 182Awrong · 2 nudges

Build Ups

Assign the reasoning that comes before the problem.

Every Volume I problem carries a 8-question Build Up that checks and develops the prerequisite reasoning the full problem needs. Tutors can require that work directly inside an assignment, so a miss on the problem tells you something about the problem rather than about the ground underneath it.

The original price of a jacket is DD dollars. A discount of r%r\% is applied to the price, and then a flat $5 is taken off the discounted price. Which of the following expressions represent the final price, in dollars? Select all that apply.

Select 2.

Choose 2 answers for step 1

Getting started

How tutor access works.

  1. Request tutor access.Tutor accounts are enabled by hand because the role lets somebody ask to see a student's entire answer history.
  2. Invite a student by email. They get a request on their own account page.
  3. The student accepts. Nothing about their work is readable before this.
  4. Assign work and review progress. Set problems, require Build Ups, then read the record.

Questions

Before you ask.

What can a tutor see?
Which problems the student attempted, what they submitted, whether it was right, how many nudges they had open, whether they opened the worked solution, how far they got in each Build Up, and which problems they flagged. All of it after the fact, as a record. There is no live view of somebody working.
Does a student need their own account?
Yes. The connection is between two accounts, and the student has to accept it from theirs. A free account is enough to be connected, though a student with no purchase can only open the free samples, so there is little to assign them yet.
Can tutors read student notes?
No. Notes and flags live on the same row, and a tutor sees the flag and never the text. A note is a student writing to themselves, and it stays that way.
Does an assignment unlock paid content?
No, and this one is worth being exact about. An assignment is a list of problems and some expectations. It grants nothing. If a student does not own a problem, setting it for them does not open it, and the reverse holds too: a tutor cannot take away a solution somebody has paid for by hiding it inside an assignment.
Can I require Build Ups?
Yes. An assignment can require that the 8-question Build Up is finished before a problem counts as done, which is how you make sure the prerequisite reasoning was actually worked rather than skipped.
How do I request tutor access?
Through the contact form. Tutor accounts are enabled by hand rather than by a signup because the role lets somebody ask to see a student's whole answer history and that is not a button anybody should be able to press for themselves.
What does tutor access cost?
Tutor access is currently available by request. Contact us for current availability.

Spend less time reconstructing what happened.

Assign focused practice and begin the next session already knowing where your student struggled.

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Interactive demo Every student, assignment and figure on this page is invented. The problem numbers are real and are the free samples, so you can open any of them.