Subject

Math

From counting and shapes to algebra, calculus and beyond - number magic one tiny step at a time.

Maths is the longest ladder on BrainSnail, running from counting and shapes through times tables, fractions, ratio, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, functions, probability, precalculus and into calculus and beyond.

It is also the subject where skipping ahead hurts most. Almost every unit assumes the one before it, and a shaky grasp of fractions will quietly undermine algebra years later. If something feels hard, the problem is usually two units earlier rather than in front of you.

Mathematics is the only subject where you can be certain, and the habits it builds - defining terms, checking cases, following an argument to its conclusion - are useful long after the specific techniques fade.

Units: 18
Steps: 378
Questions: 2,161

Who this track is for

Genuine primary school through to first-year university calculus and higher topics.

How to approach it

Go in order, and go back rather than pushing forward when stuck
Fractions, ratio and negative numbers cause most later algebra trouble
Practice frequency beats session length in maths more than in any other subject

Study guide · 9 min readHow to Learn MathsAlmost nobody is bad at maths. Almost everybody who thinks they are broke somewhere specific and kept going. A guide to finding your actual gap, why fractions are the usual culprit, and what practice should look like.

What you will be able to do

Work confidently with fractions, decimals and percentages in either direction
Set up and solve an equation from a written problem
Read a statistic and say whether it supports what it is being used for
Estimate well enough to notice when an answer is obviously wrong

The thing people get wrong

That some people are maths people and some are not. Nearly all persistent difficulty traces back to a specific earlier gap - usually fractions or negative numbers - and gaps are fixable in a way that talent is not.

If you only do 3 units

These three carry almost all the mathematics that turns up outside a classroom. Fractions are the foundation everything later is built on, proportional reasoning is the single most useful skill in the subject, and probability is where intuition is most reliably wrong.

What the questions look like

8 real questions from across the Math track, easiest first, each with the answer and the reason behind it. Every unit page below has thirty more.

Choose all that applyLevel 1
1. Which groups have exactly 3 items?
- 🍎🍎🍎correct
- ⭐⭐⭐correct
- 🔵🔵
- 🐱🐱🐱🐱
The apple group and the star group each have 3 items.
Choose all that applyLevel 1
2. Which shapes have exactly 4 sides? Pick all that apply.
- Squarecorrect
- Rectanglecorrect
- Triangle
- Circle
A square and a rectangle each have 4 sides; a triangle has 3 and a circle has none.
Build the sentenceLevel 1
3. Build the sentence about arrays.
Answer: An array has rows and columns
An array is a neat grid with rows and columns.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
4. Which sums equal 50? Pick all that are right.
- 35 + 15correct
- 20 + 30correct
- 25 + 20
- 40 + 15
35 + 15 and 20 + 30 both make 50.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
5. Build a true sentence about adding fractions.
Answer: To add fractions keep the same denominator
When denominators match, you keep the denominator and add the numerators.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
6. Build the true sentence about length.
Answer: One meter equals one hundred centimeters
One meter equals one hundred centimeters.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
7. Build a true sentence about pie charts.
Answer: A pie chart shows parts of a whole
A pie chart shows parts of a whole as slices of a circle.
Build the sentenceLevel 2
8. Build a true sentence about a right angle.
Answer: A right angle is 90 degrees
A right angle is 90 degrees.

Units in Math

Listed in the order they are meant to be worked through.

Practise Math

2,161 questions, in tiny sessions you can finish in a few minutes.

Start playing

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.