How to Find Your Child's Learning Gaps in Maths: A Step by Step Guide for Parents

Step 1: Gather the last few papers and tests

Collect three to five recent school tests, mock papers or past papers your child has already marked. More is better, but you only need enough to see a pattern.

Step 2: List every question where marks were lost

Go through each paper and note the topic of every question that lost marks: algebra, geometry, statistics, word problems and so on. Do not worry about the exact marks at this stage.

Step 3: Look for repeats

After three or four papers, the same topics start to appear again and again. Those repeats are your gaps. If algebra shows up in every paper, you have found where to start, even if the questions looked different each time.

Step 4: Sort each mistake by type

For each lost mark, decide which of these it was:

• Concept: did not understand the idea
• Method: knew the idea but used the wrong steps
• Careless: made a small slip with signs or arithmetic
• Reading: misread or misunderstood the question
• Time: ran out of time before reaching it

Step 5: Test the foundations

If algebra is the weak topic, check the skills underneath it: fractions, negative numbers, and expanding brackets. Ask your child to do five simple questions on each. A wobble on the basics usually explains the trouble above it.

What the pattern tells you

Once you know the type, the fix is clear, and so is how long it is likely to take. If this feels like a lot, a diagnostic assessment with a teacher does the same job in a single session and produces a written plan.

• Mostly concept errors: needs the topic retaught from the ground up
• Mostly method errors: needs guided practice with feedback on each step
• Mostly careless errors: needs a checking routine and slower, neater working
• Mostly time errors: needs timed practice and a plan for which questions to skip first