Hi there! 👋
Welcome to STEM-IQ! This page shows you everything you need to know. Take your time reading — and have fun with your test!
Did your teacher send you a special test link?
If you got an email or a chat message with a link like …/test/custom/…?sid=… — that's a custom test built just for you. The rules are a tiny bit different. We made a short guide just for that.
Pick Your Grade & Topic
On the home page you'll see big boxes for each grade from 1 to 10.
Tap your grade. The test is made just for you — not too easy, not too hard.
After you tap your grade, a window pops up showing all the topics inside it — like Fractions, Geometry, or Multiplication. Each one shows how many questions it has.
- Tap All Topics to get a mix of everything — this is the best way to test how you're doing overall.
- Tap a single topic to drill into just that subject. Great when you want extra practice on one thing.
💡 If a topic gave you trouble in your last report, pick just that one for your next test!
Robotics tests work the same way, but instead of grades 1-10 you'll pick a Tier (Tier 0 for ages 7-8, Tier 1 for 9-10, and so on). Some tiers are split into Sessions — Session 1 starts at the very beginning, Session 2 builds on it, etc. Tap the tier and session that matches what you're learning right now.
Pick How Long
You can choose how long your test will be:
- 15 min10 questions
- 30 min20 questions
- 45 min30 questions
- 60 min35 questions
- 70 min40 questions
💡 If it's your first time, try the shortest one!
Answer the Questions
For each question:
- Tap A, B, C, D (or sometimes E on UK 11+ papers) to pick your answer.
- Use the arrow buttons at the bottom to go to the next question.
- The panel on the right shows all questions. Green = answered, gray = not yet.
- Stuck on one? Skip it and come back later.
- Want to come back to a tough one? Tap Mark for Review — a little flag will remind you.
Some questions don't have A / B / C answers — instead you'll see a typing box. Just type the answer with your keyboard (or tap on the number pad on a tablet).
- Number questions only let you type digits, a decimal point, or a minus sign.
- Word questions accept letters (capital letters and small letters both count the same).
- For these questions you must show your working in the drawing pad — or tap I just knew it / In my head (see the next step).
Found a tough question you want to come back to? Tap the Mark for Review button at the top. A little amber flag will appear on it.
After you've gone through everything once, scroll back through the amber ones and try them with fresh eyes. Tap Marked again to remove the flag when you're happy with your answer.
💡 You can still mark a question even after you've picked an answer — the mark just means “I want to double-check this”.
Tap the Eliminate button at the top of a question. Now when you tap an answer, it gets a line through it — like crossing it out on paper. Use this when you know an answer is definitely wrong.
When you're done crossing out, tap Done Eliminating. Tapping answers will pick them again as usual.
💡 Even if you're not 100% sure, eliminating 2 wrong answers turns a wild guess (25% chance) into a 50/50 — much better odds!
Use the Drawing Pad
Tap the pencil button on any question to open the drawing pad. Use it like scratch paper for working things out!
Hold the Shift key on your keyboard while you draw. Your line will be perfectly straight from where you started to where your cursor is — like a ruler!
Works with the Pen, Highlighter, and Eraser.
When you close the drawing pad, a little picture of your drawing shows up under the answer choices. Tap it any time to jump back into the pad and tweak your work.
Tell Us How You Solved It
When you open the drawing pad, the right side shows colourful method chips with the question “How did you solve this?”. Tap any that match how you got your answer — you can pick more than one.
I just knew it and In my head — if you tap one of these, you don't need to draw anything. You did it in your head!
Any other chip means you used a real method (a trick, a formula, counting...). You should also draw your working so we can see how you got there.
Pop-up reminders will pop up. Two friendly ones to know:
- Click Done without picking a chip? The pop-up asks you to pick one before you go.
- Click Next without drawing anything? It just double-checks you really did it in your head — tap I just knew it or In my head to confirm, or jump back into the scratchpad.
- Picked a purple chip but didn't draw? The pop-up will ask you to open the scratchpad and show your work. That's the rule!
Watch the Clock
The clock at the top counts down. Don't panic — you'll see helpful warnings:
- 10 minA heads-up that 10 minutes are left (only on long tests)
- 5 minA friendly beep — start finishing up!
- 3 minBig red countdown — final minutes!
Done? Hit Submit
When you've answered every question (or you're happy with your work), tap the green Submit button.
🎯 Don't worry — the test ends by itself when time runs out.
If you tap Next or Submitwithout drawing anything and without picking I just knew it / In my head, a friendly pop-up checks in with you. Pick a chip right there in the pop-up, open the scratchpad, or tap Continue anyway if you really meant to skip.
See Your Score
When you submit, you'll see your score and a full report of which questions you got right and wrong.
200 is the lowest score, 800 is the highest. The score is like the SAT — bigger is better!
Every question has a difficulty level from 1 to 5. Harder questions are worth more points — so a hard question you get right is worth 5 easy ones!
Your final 200-800 score is based on how many points you earn out of the total possible points.
Don't skip hard questions just because they look tricky. One right answer on a Hard question gives you the same points as four Easy ones. Take a guess if you have to — there's no penalty for being wrong!
These are just friendly markers — your real goal is to improve your own score over time!
On the longer adaptive tests, the questions get easier or harder depending on how well you're doing. If you start strong, you'll get tougher (and higher-value) questions. Don't worry — same scoring rules apply!
💪 The more you practice, the higher you'll go!
Read Your Report
After your test, you get a full report — like a mini report card. It shows what you nailed and what to practice next time.
- Right after you submit — it opens automatically.
- On the home page — every test you've done shows up under Recent Tests. Tap any card to reopen its report.
✅ Green = right answer · ❌ Red = your answer was wrong · Plain = an option you didn't pick
Tap the ⬇ Download PDF button on the report page. You can save it, print it, or send it to a parent or teacher.
Don't just look at the score. Scroll down and read the explanation for every question you got wrong. Next time you see a similar one, you'll know exactly what to do.
The topic breakdown also tells you which subject to practice — if Fractions is your weakest bar, do a few practice problems on fractions before your next test.
UK 11+ Exam Practice
Getting ready for the 11+ to a UK grammar or independent school? Tap UK 11+ Exam Practice on the home page for a test that feels just like the real thing.
- Area — where your school is (Kent, Buckinghamshire, Sutton, Trafford...). Type a few letters to find yours quickly. Pick Other / Not listed if your area isn't there.
- School (optional) — pick the school you have in mind. Don't worry if it's not in the list — just leave it blank.
- Exam Provider — like GL Assessment, ISEB, or CSSE. Each one runs the paper a bit differently. We auto-pick one for you when you choose a school, but you can change it.
Relaxed rules. You can go back, use Mark for Review, and take your time. Best for warming up.
Just like a real exam:
- • No going back to earlier questions
- • No Mark for Review
- • A special 30-second beep at the very end
Try this once you've practised — it's great prep for the real exam day!
- Some papers (like GL Assessment) have 5 answer choices instead of 4 — including the famous None of these.
- Each provider picks how many questions and how long. GL is 50 questions / 50 minutes, ISEB is 25 / 25, CSSE is longer.
- Your report at the end shows your area, school, and provider so it's easy to track your progress for a particular exam.
Recorded Tests
Some tests are proctored — your camera and microphone record the whole test. Your teacher or parent decides if a test needs this. If yours does, you'll see two extra screens before the test starts.
A parent or guardian fills in their name and ticks a box to say it's okay to record.
We send a 6-digit code by SMS to your parent. They read it to you, you type it in, and the test moves forward. This proves a real parent is here. See Step 14 for all the details.
The browser will ask permission. Tap Allow. A small live preview shows you in the middle of the screen. Make sure your face is clearly visible, then tap Start test.
- Got more than one camera? Tap the Camera dropdown to switch — the list shows everything connected, including things like an external webcam.
- If your camera is already in use by another app and the first try fails, don't worry — the picker will still let you switch to a different source.
If your teacher set the test to block virtual cameras, tools like OBS Virtual Camera, Snap Camera, NDI, or droidcam won't show up in the dropdown — and if one is already picked, you'll see a red warning and the Start test button will stay greyed out.
- What to do: close OBS / Snap Camera / any virtual-cam app, then reload the page. The dropdown should now show your built-in or USB webcam.
- If you have no real webcam: the page will say “No primary camera detected” — ask your parent or teacher for help; you may need to borrow a device with a built-in camera.
This rule is set by your teacher / admin per test — most practice tests don't use it. It's usually only on for real graded exams.
A tiny preview of you stays pinned in the bottom-left corner with a flashing red REC badge — so you always know you're being recorded. The clock and everything else works exactly the same as a normal test.
- If your camera gets unplugged or someone else uses it, the test pauses briefly with a friendly message.
- Only your admin / teacher can watch the recording back — it's never shared with anyone else.
Recordings are kept for 30 days and then automatically deleted from our system. Your score, report, and the parental-consent record stay — only the video itself goes away. After that, no one can play it back.
This keeps things private and matches kids' data- protection rules (COPPA, GDPR, etc.). If a teacher needs to review your test, they have 30 days to do it.
💡 Recorded tests work best on Chrome, Edge, or Firefox on a desktop or laptop. Not all phones or older browsers can record video.
Closed the Tab by Accident?
On custom tests sent to you by a school or LMS (those URLs look like ?sid=...), you can re-open the same link and continue where you left off. Here's exactly what happens:
- The test reopens on the next question after the one you were on when the tab closed.
- All your previous answers are saved. You'll see them when you scroll back, but you can't change them any more.
- The countdown clock keeps running based on when you first opened the test. Time you spent away counts toward your test time — so don't leave the tab closed too long!
↑ You'll see this banner on top of any question you already passed.
💡 None of this applies to the regular practice tests you start from the home page — those don't have a sid and can be taken as many times as you like. Scheduled tests (see Step 13) have a few extra rules on top of these.
Scheduled Tests
Sometimes a teacher sets a fixed start time so everyone in the class takes the same test together — like a real exam. When you open the link for one of these, here's what to expect.
- You'll see a countdown page with the test name, the start time, and how long the test will last.
- The big clock counts down in real time. The Start test button is greyed-out until 1 minute before the start time.
- Once the countdown hits 1:00 the button lights up. Click it and you'll land in the test, ready to read Q1 while you wait for the clock to start ticking for real.
The most important rule of a scheduled test: the end time is fixed. If the test starts at 10:00 AM and is 30 minutes long, it ends at 10:30 AM for everyone — no matter when they actually clicked Start.
- Click Start at 10:00 → you get 30 minutes.
- Click Start at 10:10 → you only get 20 minutes.
- Click Start at 10:25 → you only get 5 minutes.
- Open the link after 10:30 → “Time is up.” No retakes.
Tip: open the link a couple minutes early so you're ready to go when the button enables.
💡 You'll also see the test scheduled time on the countdown page in your local time, so you don't need to do any timezone math. Just trust the clock.
The Parent OTP Code
On a recorded test, after your parent signs the consent form we send a quick 6-digit code by SMS to the phone number your school has on file for them. This makes sure a real parent is sitting next to you — not just someone who clicked the consent box.
- A screen that says “We sent a code to +1 ••• ••• 1234” — only the last 4 digits of your parent's phone are shown.
- Ask your parent to read the code from their phone. Type the 6 digits into the big box and tap Verify & continue.
- Once it's verified, the camera check screen pops up, then your test starts. You won't see the OTP screen again unless your teacher set the test to ask every time.
- The code lasts 5 minutes. If it expires before you type it, tap Resend code for a fresh one.
- You get 5 tries at the code. If you type it wrong too many times, tap Resend to start over with a new code.
- No SMS arrived after a minute? Make sure your parent's phone has signal, then tap Resend.
- Tap-closed the tab by accident? On most tests the OTP is remembered — you go straight to the camera check on reopen. On extra-strict tests (your teacher decides), a new SMS goes out every time.
We only show the last 4 digits of the phone number — the rest is hidden. The code itself is never written down on the server in a way anyone could read; it's scrambled with a one-way lock so even our own admins can't peek at it.
Event Results & Scoring
Some classes run an Event — a set of up to four rounds you do over a session. Your teacher sees a results table with one row per student and a single Total Score out of 800. Here's how that number is built.
- Rapid Fire — a normal multiple-choice test, scored automatically on the usual 200–800 scale (see Step 8).
- Conceptual Reasoning, Challenge Problem, and Creative Thinking — these are judged by a teacher while you explain your thinking out loud.
For each question the teacher rates you on three things. Each one is Yes = 100, Somewhat = 50, or No = 0. A round's score is the three added together — so each judged round is out of 300.
- • Topic / Subtopic understanding
- • Mathematical reasoning
- • Explaining clearly
- • Topic / Subtopic understanding
- • Justifying reasoning
- • Handling follow-up questions
- • Topic / Subtopic understanding
- • Planning
- • Creative thinking
Each round is first turned into a fair percentage of its own maximum, then blended with these weights:
The blended result is scaled so the most you can earn is 800. If a round hasn't been graded yet, it's left out and the remaining rounds are re-balanced — so the total always makes sense for what's been done so far.
The report also shows when you started your first round and finished your last one, so a teacher can see the window you worked in.
You've got this! 🌟
Remember — every test makes you better. Take your time, do your best, and have fun!
Stuck on something? Ask a parent or teacher for help.
Let's Go!