The Placement Test is a key component of how our platform determines the educational content your child receives in Prodigy Math. Placement Tests run the first time an account is created, as well as every January and August.
The Placement Test is unique to each student, using our adaptive algorithm to determine your child’s strengths and weaknesses. This means the Placement Test varies in length from student to student.
As tempting as it may be to help your child through the Placement Test, it’s important that you allow them to complete the Placement Test without assistance. Hints will be periodically provided in-game to help them if they’re struggling.
Once complete, your child’s Placement Test results help our adaptive algorithm determine what math questions they receive during their play sessions. If they receive help, this may negatively impact their experience as they may receive math questions they aren’t quite ready to answer!
While Members have the ability to adjust their child’s grade level via our Grade Override feature, we strongly recommend letting the Placement Test work its magic before applying a Grade Override!
Check out our FAQ below for more information.
FAQ
Math questions from the grades below your selected grade level, and up to one grade level above it, are presented to your child during battles in-game.
If your child is linked to a teacher on Prodigy, the grade level of their classroom will act as the selected grade level for the Placement Test.
If you or your child created their account, the grade selected during account creation (pictured below) informs the test.
Depending on what questions are answered correctly or incorrectly from each skill, the Placement Test will determine what math content from each grade level should be presented to your child once complete.
The Placement Test typically takes about three to four 15-minute sessions to complete. Keep in mind that each Placement Test is unique to each student and may be shorter or longer than their peers!
How to Login:
Navigate to this webpage and input your Parent Account credentials.
From your Parent Account Dashboard, your child’s Grade Level is displayed on the right side of the screen.
You’ll be notified when the Placement Test is running via the prompt pictured below.
If the Placement Test has been completed, you will instead see the below prompt:
If your child starts getting second chances for questions answered incorrectly in-game, this is also a good indication they have completed the Placement Test.
Remember, the Placement Test is unique to each child’s performance and may take a few sessions on Prodigy to complete!
If you’d like assistance, feel free to contact Prodigy Support via the Submit a Request button above.
At this time, the Placement Test cannot be reset nor can a new one be started. If you’re not happy with the results of the Placement Test, Members have the option of using the Grade Override feature.
The Placement Test takes place twice a year, once in August and again in January. This is done to help assess your child’s progress through the Placement Test content to identify areas where they may need additional support.
Please Note:
If a Grade Override is placed on a child’s account, they will not be given these subsequent Placement Tests, unless the override is removed.
There are a number of reasons why your child may be receiving questions that may seem too easy.
1. After the test ends, our curriculum continues to adapt and may occasionally revisit pre-requisite skills from lower grade levels depending on how your child performs.
For example, if your child answers a series of geometry questions incorrectly from Grade 4, they may be presented with geometry questions from lower grades to help them understand the content presented earlier.
2. Your child was placed in a lower grade than they are currently in.
In this case, please follow the guidance from the question above.
When a Grade Override is placed on a child’s account, a few things will happen:
1. They'll first go through any material that was started but not yet mastered, in grades below the one chosen. This is done to ensure your child shows mastery in the skills required for the chosen grade level.
2. Once they've mastered the skills from the prior grades, they'll be placed in the chosen grade.
3. As soon as they’ve 100% mastered the chosen grade, they’ll then be moved on to the next grade’s content. This is to ensure Prodigy is always engaging your child with new and challenging material!
This also means that the override will not cause a child to repeat or review skills they’ve already mastered from the lower grade.
You can read more about the Grade Override feature within the support article linked here.
This varies depending on the number of skills they’ve previously encountered in-game, but not mastered. If they’ve been playing Prodigy for a longer period of time, it may take a number of play sessions before the only content your child encounters is from the selected grade.
You can read more about the Grade Override feature within the support article linked here.