CTCMath Review

Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

CTCMath has been part of my homeschool since my son was in 2^nd grade and my daughter 5^th grade. It’s hard to believe that now I have a freshman and senior! It has been a lifesaver many times when we hit those math stumps throughout the years.  

I was delighted to get a 12-month Family membership to continue on with my kids math skills. CTCMath is an online subscription math program. The program can be used with your desktop, laptop, iPad, iPhone, Chromebooks, and Android devices. Once you have registered an account, you create an account for each child. Each child will have their own password. You don’t need a separate email for each student. The student will have their own separate dashboard to view their task and assignments. As a parent I also have a parent dashboard to view my students separately.

CTCMath is taught on video by Pat Murray, an Australian math teacher. He and his wife are also homeschoolers. He presents each lesson in a simple and straight forward approach. No fluff and long drawn out lessons. Amazingly the lessons are very informative and easy to understand to grasp the mathematical concepts in short segments. You can use this as a full curriculum or supplemental math for K-8. For High school it is a supplemental program. . There is even more advance topics like calculus to trigonometry.

Once you sign into CTCMath the first thing you will see is the main menu. It’s extremely easy to navigate around the site in both the student and the parent area.  Something I really appreciate with CTCMath is that I’m not locked into one grade level and I have access to all levels from K-calculus. It’s easy to go back and forth in grades and topics. The student doesn’t need the parent to go in adjust the setting to do this. They just click on the area they need. It’s that simple! This allows them to explore other levels and topics if needed. I know I say this often but having a child with special needs whose abilities vary in topics allows me to give her what she needs with her math abilities-quickly with CTCMath.

With CTCMath you can take a diagnostic placement test if you are unsure where to start. You can choose whether to take a short, standard, or comprehensive placement. This should give you an idea where to start your student. The test will not automatically put you in an area to start.

You will have a menu that your child will click on to begin. You first watch an online math tutor video. The videos are anywhere from 4-10 minutes long. The videos aren’t cartoonish animated but they do have graphics showing the concepts being taught. After the video they work on the math questions. If they get the question wrong they will be provided with instant feedback. The lessons are taught in small increments. If you missed a lot of questions you can go back and retake the lessons at anytime again.

You can select what topics and whether it is easy, medium, hard, or challenging for the Question Bank

Question Bank to assign to your kids.

Another feature is a Question Bank in which you can pick and choose topics you want them to work on. You can choose how many topics and choose an assigned number of questions. You can also assign the dates you want them to do the problems. You could literally assign out lessons in advance if you want more control of topics covered. I can choose the difficulty level also. You can have them do this online or print it off for them. You will have to manually enter the questions online afterwards to have CTCMath track the grades. This is a nice feature if you still want you student to write out the math problems. Afterwards either the student or you can go back in input them in.

Create worksheets in the Weekly Revision 

A sneak peek at the Revision Worksheet

Something new is the Weekly Revision Task which looks like it is for 1^st to 6^th grade. It breaks up the course in two semesters in which you have the option also to download as a PDF or use the interactive questions.

My daughter loves to see her award ribbons and strives to redo lessons to get a higher ribbon

The kids get reward certificates for every area that they complete that you can print out. With each topic you get a ribbon reward in bronze, silver, gold, or platinum.

Another way to keep track of scores is this checklist or you can use it for a schedule for your kids to follow if they need a physical reminder

If you need a hard copy for your records you can print off each completed lesson. Or if you just want a general record copy you can go into the parent dashboard and print of the grades but not the full worksheets. You can receive weekly emails that will show you the topics covered and the grade too. There are a lot of options to choose from if you need hard copies.

There are also speed drills to facilitate math facts and even logic: Speed Skills, Times Tables, and Swap Pieces.

The pictures below will give you an overview of the teacher dashboard.

There is a lot of features to download and print if you need them

 The Teacher Dashboard I see the grades for each topic and grade. I have an overview of when they logged and how many attempts they did a certain topic. I can also have a view of the lessons from the student’s perspective. There are videos to help you navigate the site.

 How did I use CTCMath in my homeschool?

Since we have used CTCMath several times throughout the years I was immediately ready to go plus we used this last year too. All of our information is saved since we began using CTCMath. I didn’t need to put in my students. Both of my kids have taken several placement test throughout the years with CTCMath and I was comfortable where they are working.

Subtractions of Fractions is very hard for her, she has a frown on her face to prove it. However she is doing very well now.

 My daughter used it as a complete curriculum mid-year for her junior year. She came to a point with her other curriculum not working for her with it getting into pre-algebra. My daughter is 17 and has special needs and I needed to adjust to her level. She has touched on a few of the topics in CTCMath that we hit the wall with last school year. I have noticed that she has comprehended some of the topics. She likes she likes that she can redo topics over as many times as needed. I like that she is confident enough with CTCMath that she will take a chance and challenger herself with harder topics.

I tried the “Wizard Question Bank” last year and found that it wasn’t a good fit for her since we adjust often. Currently she is working in the 5^th grade level and sometimes she will venture in the 6^th grade level, lower levels, and even higher more complex levels. For her Senior year I will continue CTCMath as her primary curriculum. For summer math I only require her to do 3 days a week. My daughter does this on a desktop. She is able to sign in and navigate the program without any help on my end. The only time she needs my help is an occasional help with a math concept or most likely a printing issue! The best part is she likes doing math even in the summer the last few weeks.

 My son did his math 3 days a week. He is reviewing the pre-algebra and Algebra 1 the last few weeks. I also let him touch on topics he feels he needs to revisit but sometimes I have to direct as he will sometimes try to get away with extremely easy topics. He is now in 9^th grade. Next year I plan on him doing this as a way to enhance his skills as a supplement.

I don’t set up tasks.  With our schedule it doesn’t work. It’s a nice feature that even if you miss your task you are still able to do the task.   

My son working on his lessons on his Chromebook

My son likes to do the Speed Skills and Swap Pieces too. He likes to challenge himself!  My son works on a Chrome book for all of his lessons. 

You can print out the lessons for your records

I have the kids print out each assignment after they complete a lesson so I can keep a hard copy for our records.

My family really likes CTCMath and I have nothing but good things to say about it. It’s straight to the point, effective, and no fluff math. I highly recommend CTCMath! 

They have a unique 12-month guarantee if you're not satisfied! 

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 I am 1 of 60 members of the Homeschool Review Crew reviewing CTCMath and their 12-month Family membership. Click here or on the graphic below to see what others think.