How it works

The dashboard that tells you whether school and tutoring are working.

Test My Kid is the first assessment built for the parent who measures everything else. Here's exactly how it works — the philosophy behind it, and the principles you should know before your child sits down.

The pain

You measure everything at work. So why not your child's academic progress?

You track quarterly KPIs. You read your team's performance reviews. You know your portfolio's beta. You can pull a chart in three clicks. But when it comes to your child's academic progression — the most important investment of your life — you're handed one report card a year and a parent-teacher conference.

What you have at work

  • Real-time dashboards
  • Quarterly performance reviews
  • Topic-level breakdowns
  • Trajectory over time
  • Peer benchmarks
VS

What you have for your child

  • One standardized test a year
  • A report card every nine months
  • Letter grades, no detail
  • No visibility between checkpoints
  • No sense of how they compare

The solution

An in-depth analysis that's valuable for parents and fun for kids.

Three things make this work — and they only work together.

Adaptive, not pass/fail.

The test calibrates to your child as it goes. In math, get a question right and the next gets harder, miss it and the next gets easier. Multiple-choice reading steps up or down a grade band between passages. The goal isn't 100%, the goal is to find exactly what your child knows and what they don't know yet, in eight minutes.

World-class analysis.

The report goes far beyond a number. Topic-level mastery, a trajectory chart, suggested practice, calibrated to NWEA MAP and iReady, the two scales most U.S. schools use.

Gamified for the kid.

Streaks, points, level-ups, and a dino game when the questions are done. Your child won't have to be reminded, they'll ask when the next one is. Which is exactly what makes a regular cadence sustainable.

Principles

A few things every parent should know before their child sits down.

1Growth Mindset

Built end-to-end on the Growth Mindset.

Carol Dweck's research is clear: kids who believe ability is fixed avoid challenge; kids who believe ability grows seek it out. Every word of feedback in Test My Kid — the result screens, the suggestions, the language for parents — is written to reinforce that ability is a muscle, not a verdict.

This matters because how a child interprets a hard question shapes whether they ever take another one. When the goal is to find exactly what they don't know yet, a wrong answer isn't failure. It's information.

What this looks like in practice: we never call a child "smart." We praise effort, strategy, and persistence — the traits research shows actually predict long-term growth.
Fixed mindset

"I got a 4 out of 10. I'm bad at math."

Growth mindset

"I got 4 out of 10. Now I know exactly what to work on next."

2Calibration

About half right is normal. 10 out of 10 is not the goal.

This trips parents up at first. Math and multiple-choice reading checks adapt as your child answers: after right answers the questions get harder, and after misses they get easier. The check is looking for the edge of what your child can do, so a score near half is normal and not a bad sign. A perfect score usually means the check never reached that edge.

The score is not the level. The level comes from which questions your child got right and how hard they were, so two children who both get 5 of 10 can land at different levels. In multiple-choice reading, the level also counts the questions from earlier checks.

Read the level, not the number right. The level and what to practice next are what each check is for. Missed questions near the edge are information, not failure.
How a check finds the edge
RightNext one is harder
EdgeAbout half right is normal
MissNext one is easier

3Position

This is a deep-analysis assessment tool for your children.

Kumon teaches. Russian Math teaches. Tutors teach. Test My Kid is the dashboard that tells you whether any of that is working.

It's also a way to get context, not just a number. Build a village with families you trust, and a friend's child shows up next to your own with their grade level as soon as that family chooses to share their analysis. Until they do, every result of theirs stays private. If a friend's child is two grade levels ahead, that's information. The question becomes: why, and what can you do to help your child succeed?

What gets measured, gets improved. Without regular data on your child's academic progression, you have no way to tell if they're moving forward or falling behind.
Your child's enrichment stack

Each builds a different skill. Only one tells you if any of them are working.

KumonDrills math fluency✕
Russian MathBuilds problem-solving✕
TutoringTargeted skill help✕
Test My KidMeasures progress every two weeks✓

FAQ

Questions parents ask before their child sits down.

How much does Test My Kid cost?
Your first assessment and its full report are free, and math needs no signup. After that you get a 30-day free trial, then Test My Kid is $99 a year per family, covering every child in the family. On the paid plan a math check and a reading check are available for each child every two weeks. Past reports always stay free to view.
How long does the assessment take?
About eight minutes, ten questions. In math each skill moves harder or easier with every answer. Multiple-choice reading adapts between passages, and open-ended reading, the default at grades 6 to 8, follows a fixed plan. Short enough that kids actually want to take it every couple of weeks, long enough to give a reliable signal.
What grades does Test My Kid cover?
Math and reading, grades 1 through 8. Both subjects are fully live. There is no kindergarten level: a kindergartner is measured against a Grade 1 floor. Logic, history, and grades 9 through 12 are on the roadmap.
How is Test My Kid calibrated to NWEA MAP and iReady?
Each question is mapped to grade-level standards aligned with the same scales used by NWEA MAP and iReady, the two most common assessments U.S. schools use. Every grade we report has three steps: Approaching is the lower part of that grade, Meeting is the middle, and Exceeding is the top. So 'Exceeding Grade 4' names the top of Grade 4; it is not a Grade 5 label. Math and reading earn the top step differently. In math, Exceeding Grade 4 means this check's answers placed your child at the top of Grade 4, with at least one of the questions we rate hardest in Grade 4 (or a harder one) right; it does not need a Grade 5 question. In multiple-choice reading, we only call it the top of Grade 4 once Grade 5 is going well: a Grade 5 passage read well, at least 4 Grade 5 questions right, and 2 in 3 or more of all the Grade 5 questions right so far, with recent answers counting more. In open-ended reading, it means more than 8 in 10 answers right at the grade the check asked. That makes Exceeding easier to earn in math than in multiple-choice reading today. The label names the grade we measured, which is not always your child's own grade, so on your own child's pages we show their school grade beside the label when the two differ. It is our own measurement, not a school's.
Does my child need an account to take the assessment?
Not for math. Anyone can take the free math assessment without signing up. Reading needs a free account, because reading answers are sent to our servers to be scored and each result is kept in that account. Signing in with Google also saves results across devices and gives you a trajectory chart over time.
What's the difference between Test My Kid and iReady or NWEA MAP?
iReady and NWEA MAP are sold to school districts, so parents only see whatever summary the school chooses to share. Test My Kid is built for the parent. You take it directly with your child, every couple of weeks, and the full report comes straight to you: math the moment your child finishes, and typed reading answers once our servers have scored them.
Can Test My Kid tell me whether my child's tutoring is working?
Yes, that is one of the main reasons parents use it. Take an assessment before starting tutoring (Russian School of Math, Kumon, Mathnasium, private tutor) and keep checking as the weeks go on. The trajectory chart shows whether the program is moving the needle. Give it a few months before you judge: a single check is a dot, not a direction.

Ready to see where your child stands?

Eight minutes, and the math assessment gives an instant report with no signup. Find exactly where your child stands, and watch them grow.