Frequently Asked Questions

Our system teaches while evaluating. As we are evaluating, we are determining proficiency in understanding the language of mathematics. That means that the student would be able to apply the materials outside of the system in the real world. As a teacher or parent, you may use our reports to understand how to take learning outside of the system, or use our history to replicate activities in real life to see if your student is producing the materials in the real world.

Our coaches are trained in helping students with mathematics anxiety. They treat the system like a basketball hoop. In basketball, it is physically impossible to shoot for the player, but in mathematics, sometimes we can destroy confidence by helping the student by giving them too much information. Essentially, we are shooting for the player. Our coaches are trained to let the student take the shot but also provide information to assist that allows the student to understand the solutions intuitively.

We cover from counting through Algebra. We have seen students as young as 2 years of age achieve success. If you have an older student that is struggling with upper-level mathematics, it tends to be due to a misconception that occurs in Algebra or earlier. Our system will detect gaps in understanding and fill them with activities that were proven by third-party research to effectively teach the concepts. Our UI ages with students and we have graphics that are age-appropriate. We continuously create new experiences and curriculum.

Yes. We start with a placement exam to find their initial level of understanding, and it is important that this placement exam starts behind their current level. We have tools that help determine which exam they should be placed in, and if you do not know, do not worry; there is a placement exam that tests the student from the beginning of our system to determine their initial level of understanding. The good news is that older students tend to catch up quickly. They have had math experiences over their lives that now may make more sense. For example, they may have memorized their multiplication tables but not really understood how to apply multiplication to solve real life problems. Once our system gets them the understanding and intuition, the memorization now becomes useful. We have students as old as 12 or 13, coming in tested at the 2nd or 3rd grade levels outside of our system, catch up to their grade level within 6 months. Again, we focus on the understanding, so that the student may participate in the classroom, and so not all the strategies will be covered. While this may not cause test scores to improve, the student may now participate in a classroom and pick up the strategies that teachers instruct in class in order to pass tests very quickly.

Elephant Learning uses the latest in early age education science, combined with gamification and adaptive algorithms to provide a fun but completely customized approach to teaching. It is considered experiential and uses the spiral method to build students up from their current level. It feels a lot like what Montessori may do, but from counting through Algebra.

Because we focus on teaching mathematics as a language, we have seen students from all backgrounds improve. While we do not collect information regarding learning impairments, many parents have come through our system and raised their hand to say that their student has a learning impairment such as ADHD, dyslexia, autism, etc., and that they have experienced success. Please see our case studies and testimonials to see their stories. We are very happy to continue to honor our guarantee for any student including students with learning impairments.

It is not advised that you show students how to solve the problems nor solve it for them. As you or anyone else answers correctly for your student, it is telling our system that the student understands the materials and may take the student to a level that they are not prepared to receive. Having said that, from time to time a student may require some help, and it is preferred that the parent provide hints without giving answers or strategies. In order to provide a hint or instruction that helps the student, please use the following process. Within the history screen, you may see which question they are having troubles with, and use the "Try" button to try in parent mode without affecting the student's score. After trying the question, allow your student to answer. Do not try to correct them or tip off the answer, allow them to answer incorrectly if it happens. Once the system says it is incorrect ask "Why do you think that is the correct answer?" or "How did you come to that answer?" When the student tells you, you will begin to understand their misconception and either distinguish the topic or provide a hint. Because the answer can vary greatly, it is best if a parent or teacher conducts this process. For example, a parent once reported back that the student had confused "older" and "taller" to have the same meaning. Our customer success is always here to help and so if the above process leaves parents or students confused, please contact us, so we can help advise.

Yes. For a student that is ahead, please ensure that the placement exam matches their level -- it should start behind where they are but be close so that we are catching up to them. That ensures that they have a good experience on the way in and that our system quickly finds their initial level. From there, we have seen students that are ahead continue to learn and engage with our system.

We are considered supplemental, but we cover the essential topics that when understood allow your students to easily understand and learn the other curriculum items. For example, a student with a strong grasp of addition will be able to add on a clock or with money.

There is no contract, nor commitment. You may cancel at any time, and the terms are month to month. All we ask is that you complete the month you are on.

Our system addresses the essential topics as a language. What we have found is that students that understand the ideas and can discuss them with a teacher or parent are better able to learn the strategies and take instruction in class on "how to do" the mathematics they are encountering. Instead of memorizing, they learn the tables because it is a useful tool to help them solve problems that they are encountering in every day life. As students understand, they report increased confidence and actually begin to enjoy mathematics as it engages them as a puzzle to be solved rather than a task to be done. Our system, for older students, starts in a placement exam to find their initial level of understanding. The placement exam moves very quickly and was designed to start behind your student so that it is catching up to them. This helps build confidence and also helps the game feel as the levels start easy and get more challenging. Once we have determined your student's level of understanding, we send you a detailed report allowing you to understand what our assessment found as our coaching videos help you facilitate conversations with the student to ensure accuracy or recover if a mistake was made. Remember, a student needs to understand addition in order to understand multiplication and so it is important that we build from their level up. From there, we continue to feed puzzles that baby step the student from their current level up, each puzzle hinting at the next. When a student forgets or does not understand, the system takes them back to find the gap. As they show that they do understand we speed them to the next topic. All along the way, we help you keep your student in the game and provide you detailed reports on what they are working on, how we intend to teach it, and activities that you can do with your student outside of the system to facilitate or reinforce learning. The tool is configurable for any situation and we guide you every step of the way by telling you what to look out for and coaching through any anxiety or common issues that come about. On average, students that use our system 30 minutes per week learned 1.5 years of mathematics over the course of 10 weeks. We have seen this happen without parent help, though, every now and then a student may require extra attention. We help coach you through how to provide that and have our customer success team open to facilitate further if necessary.

If your student uses the system an average of 30 minutes per week over the course of 10 weeks they will gain at least 1 year of Elephant Age. If the student does not achieve, we will either provide you with a refund for the three months or provide another three months with coaching. If at any point during the journey you feel that your student is not progressing as they should or that something may be going wrong, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our only mission is to empower children with mathematics and we're happy to have our team look at the data for your students and coach.

Yes. We help teachers determine students' levels of understanding, create cohorts of students, and include teacher training and advice at the student's level even if it is not the current grade level they are in so that you may work with students that are ahead, behind or right at the level of the class. Finally, our reports help you understand which students need attention and what they need help with at a glance. This allows you to manage 1-1 time with students by exception and at each student's level. It is conceptual evaluation, remediation, and learning made easy.

We are a powerful tool created to effectively teach children mathematics. We include evaluation methods and options to tune the system specifically to your student. Our system is gamification of a proven curriculum, and we guarantee results. While other systems out there also provide math learning, our tool is complete with teacher training and powerful analytics that help you to help your student.

We are now offering a 5-day free trial for our customers to try our program. This will give you the opportunity to try our program and see if it's the right fit for your student. If for any reason you decide that the program is not suitable for your needs, you can cancel within the trial period and you will not be charged.

We are not common core. Many parents find common core frustrating and confusing. Our system is straightforward, and our reports help you understand exactly what your student is working on and how we intend to teach it. They also provide methods that you can take learning outside of the system with fun games if you wish to be more hands on. We are compatible with all standards and curriculum, including common core, because we focus on teaching the essential topics of mathematics as a language. That way, regardless of the standard or curriculum your teacher is using, a student from our system is able to take learning from our system back into the classroom with them.

Our customer success team is trained and ready to handle any challenge you or your student may be facing within our system. We are able to examine the data and advise based on your feedback of what is happening for your student. We are available by chat, email, and phone.

There are demonstration videos on our homepage, we are unable to provide a sample lesson at this time.

Because we teach mathematics as a language, and cover the essential topics, we are compatible with all other standards and curriculums including those from other countries. We have had many success stories come out of these countries and we opened up our system to the world during the COVID pandemic. At this time we only work in English.