Help

How this works

Next Level Math is built so a child can sit down and start without you next to them. This page is for everything else: the first few minutes, what the screens mean, how to help without giving away the answer, and what to do when something breaks.

Can't find your answer? Write to hjalp@naestastig.app. It reaches me directly.

The first few minutes

Create a profile

A name or nickname and a year group. Several children can share one iPad; each keeps their own progress and switches with a tap.
Take the placement test

A short handwritten test that finds where the child actually is. It is offered from year 3; younger children simply start practising. You can take it again later if the year group turns out to be wrong.
Start with Í dag (Today)

The daily set is about 20 minutes: practice, word problems and review. When it is done, it is done. This is not a feed that never ends.

The Today screen showing the child's daily set — Today: a set that finishes, not an endless list

How one problem goes

The problem sits on the left and squared paper on the right. The child writes with Apple Pencil, exactly as they would in an exercise book, then taps Skila og fá yfirferð (submit for marking). The response comes back in a few seconds.

The thing that matters most: write the working, not just the answer. Shown working earns several times more than a bare number, and the feedback is far more useful when it has something to read.

A child writing working with Apple Pencil on squared paper — Write the steps, one under the other

Feedback retelling the working and awarding two of three stars for layout — The feedback retells the working before it judges it

What do the stars mean?

The stars are not about whether the answer was right. They are about layout: whether the steps are legible, in order, and understandable to a reader. Three stars with a wrong answer is entirely possible, and it is a good result. The child thought clearly and made an arithmetic slip, which is far easier to fix than disorder.

The hints

Under the problem is a ladder of help, four rungs, and none of them gives the answer.

I don't understand the problem. Restates it in the simplest words and names what is given and what is asked. Computes nothing and does not even name an operation. Always free, always open.
What do I write first? The first line and why. Not the second.
What comes next? One more step, based on what the child has already written.
I am completely stuck. The whole setup: the quantities named, the steps in order, the equation written with the numbers in it. The arithmetic itself is left for the child.

The first rung is free because it is not help, it is access: a child who cannot understand the question should not have to pay to understand it, and that goes double for a child who struggles with reading. The other rungs cost XP, because they walk the child toward the answer. For scale, a correct answer with the working shown pays 30 XP, so a child who uses two rungs and then solves it still comes out well ahead.

Rungs 2 to 4 open once the child has had a go, or after a little while with the problem on screen. Either will do. A child who cannot get started should not have to hand in a blank page to earn help.

The adventure, the tests, and Geta

Ævintýri (Adventure) is the chapter journey: problems, a boss fight at the end of a chapter, and the next chapter opening on mastery rather than on the calendar. The fight is maths; the monster is packaging around a mastery check.

Kaflapróf (chapter tests) are shorter and more serious. Multiple choice appears here where it genuinely fits, because the point is to check quickly. Afterwards you can page through each question and see what went wrong.

Geta (Skills) is the ladder: every individual skill in the national curriculum for that year group, and how far along the child is in each. This is where to look when you want to know where your child stands, rather than what they did today.

A chapter test, first question, worked by hand — Chapter tests are written too, not tapped

Test results with each question marked right or wrong — Every question reviewed afterwards

Skills list for the year group with progress in each — Skills, one at a time, rather than a single number

How to support your child

The temptation is to say the answer. What works better, and takes less time than it sounds:

Ask what they wrote, not what they got. A child explaining their first line usually finds the mistake themselves.
Make them write the steps down. If the working is all in their head, there is nothing to fix when it fails. That is what the layout stars are for.
A wrong answer with three stars is a good day. Praise the thinking. Arithmetic slips fade with practice; disorder does not.
Reach for the explain button rather than solving it. It teaches the concept without handing over the answer.
Stop when the daily set is done. Twenty minutes every day beats two hours on a Sunday, by a wide margin.

If a child is stuck in the same chapter for days, the year group is probably too high. Retake the placement test or lower the year group under Stjórnun (Admin). That is not going backwards; it is starting where the floor holds.

For the parent: Yfirlit

Under Yfirlit (Overview) you get progress and all of the child's work: every written solution kept on the iPad, exactly as it was written. You can page through real working rather than a summary.

There is also a parent PIN there. It locks the parent area: profiles, year group, the overview, and marking a test as passed. It is optional, but if a child can change their own year group, they will.

Progress: problems solved, skills, and how often working was shown — Progress, including how often the working was actually shown

Subscription

One subscription covers every child in the household and follows your Apple Account. Family Sharing is enabled.
Monthly and yearly plans, with a free week to start.
It renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period.
Manage and cancel it in Settings → your Apple Account → Subscriptions on the device, not inside the app. Apple handles this, not us.
Already subscribed on another device? Tap Endurheimta áskrift (Restore) on the subscription screen.

When something goes wrong

"Nothing is visible in the image" when the child did write

Write it again and resubmit. If it happens more than once we genuinely want to hear about it: tell us what was on the page and roughly when. A child who did the work being told they did nothing is the worst failure this app has, and we treat it that way.

The pencil is not writing

Check that Apple Pencil is paired and charged (Settings → Apple Pencil). The app is built for a pencil; a finger works for buttons but is hopeless for writing.

Marking is slow or does not come back

Marking needs an internet connection. On a weak connection it can take a while or give up. The work on the page is not lost: it stays on the iPad and can be submitted again.

"Marking is resting for now"

The service has reached its daily ceiling and is resting until the next day. The work is safe. If you see this on an ordinary day it is a fault at our end and we want to know.

The content does not match the year group

The deepest coverage today is years 4 to 7, and it is growing steadily. If problems are too easy or too hard, change the year group under Stjórnun or retake the placement test.

Contact

hjalp@naestastig.app. Tell us the child's year group and what was on screen. Do not send the child's name and no photos of their work; we do not need them and do not want them.

For what data exists and where it lives: the privacy policy.