What we found: the sample student's marks were lost mostly on “Number clues: digit puzzles and divisibility” and “Money and time: cents, coins, clocks and elapsed time”.
This week: a 20-question practice paper on these skills each study day, then the Saturday mock.
Next step: see how the plan turns these results into weeks.
Diagnostic test · 2026-09-07 · marked by code, every verdict names its question.
8 / 11
correct of the 11 attempted (12 on the test)
8 / 11
marked “I checked it twice” — your own tick, not something we measured
3
skills to master next
Where The sample student stands
ProficiencyCreditDistinctionHigh DistinctionPrize
No standard is fully shown yet — a standard needs every skill it rests on to be secure. Proficiency needs 7 more skills: 1 to fix, 6 not yet tested.
A standard, not a rank: awards are decided by rank each year, and no site can promise one.
Mastery by area · first reading, 0 to 100
Number (2 skills tested)
33
Problem solving (3 skills tested)
85
Patterns (1 skill tested: a first reading)
100
Shapes and space (3 skills tested)
100
Money and time (1 skill tested: a first reading)
50
Data and chance (1 skill tested: a first reading)
100
From this one test, with one or two questions per skill: a full bar means right so far, not held. A skill is held once a fresh question on it is solved unaided, and again a week later. Secure skills count in full, shaky ones half, gaps nothing, weighted by band.
By band
3 / 4
Warm-up like questions 1–10 of the real paper
3 / 4
Getting harder like questions 11–20
2 / 4
Challenge like questions 21–30 — the award deciders
Question by question
✓
The diagram shows an L-shaped garden. Only two sides are labelled. What is the perimeter of the garden, in centimetres?
Q1 · Warm-up · Shapes and area · Correct
✓
The net is folded to make a cube. Which number is on the face opposite the face numbered 5?
The first clock shows when a movie started and the second shows when it finished. How many minutes did it take?
Q3 · Warm-up · Money and time: cents, coins, clocks and elapsed time · Answered A (160) · C (80)
Where it broke: 160 is what comes out of treating an hour as 100 minutes instead of 60. Jump to the next full hour, count the whole hours, then add the last minutes.
Pat has the digit cards 6, 7, 9. Using every card exactly once she makes a single 3-digit number. What is the difference between the largest and smallest numbers she can make?
Q4 · Warm-up · Place value: building the biggest or smallest number · Correct
✓
The pictograph shows the number of players for each child. Each full symbol stands for 4 players; a half symbol stands for 2. How many players were there for Ben?
Q5 · Getting harder · Data and chance: graphs, pictographs and spinners · Correct
✓
Nia is exactly in the middle of a queue. Raf is 7 places behind Nia, and there are 8 people behind Raf. How many people are in the queue?
Q6 · Getting harder · Counting the ways: cases and combinations · Correct
✗
4 tickets cost $19. How many dollars do 20 tickets cost?
Q7 · Getting harder · Working backwards and sharing in ratio · Answered A (35) · D (95)
Where it broke: 35 is what comes out of adding the difference instead of multiplying by the scale factor. Ask how many times bigger the new amount is, then multiply by that.
Lights are placed 4 m apart all the way around a triangular garden with sides 12 m, 40 m and 36 m, with a light at each corner. How many lights are needed?
Q8 · Getting harder · Shapes and area · Correct
✓
Priya spends her prize money in three stages: first she spends 1/2 of it, then 1/5 of what is left, then 1/3 of what is left. She now has $16. How many dollars was the prize?
Q9 · Challenge · Working backwards and sharing in ratio · Correct
✗
What is the smallest three-digit number that is odd, a multiple of 3, contains the digit 8, has no digit 0, and has all different digits?
Q10 · Challenge · Number clues: digit puzzles and divisibility · Answered 192 · 183
At noon, 6 lights all flash at the same moment. After that they flash every 5, 4, 9, 8, 4 and 9 seconds respectively. How many seconds after noon do all 6 lights next flash together?
Q11 · Challenge · Patterns that repeat: cycles and step rules · Correct
–
Three different numbers are chosen from the list 3, 5, 7, ..., 105 and added together. How many different totals are possible?
Q12 · Challenge · Counting the ways: cases and combinations · Not attempted · 148
About “where it broke”: the engine matched the answer given to one known wrong turn of that question family. It is the likeliest reading of one number, not proof of what your child was thinking — worth asking them before re-teaching the whole skill.
Number clues: digit puzzles and divisibilitycause not known yet(0/1 attempted on this test; missed Q10)
multiples, factors and remainders
digit rules: even/odd, digit sums, 'contains the digit'
finding the smallest number that fits several clues at once
sharing with none (or the same number) left over: the least common multiple
Money and time: cents, coins, clocks and elapsed timeto re-check(0/1 attempted on this test; missed Q3)
Where it broke: 160 is what comes out of treating an hour as 100 minutes instead of 60. Jump to the next full hour, count the whole hours, then add the last minutes.
coin totals in cents
change from a note
unit price
minutes between two clock times
Working backwards and sharing in ratioto re-check(1/2 attempted on this test; missed Q7)
Where it broke: 35 is what comes out of adding the difference instead of multiplying by the scale factor. Ask how many times bigger the new amount is, then multiply by that.
undoing a chain of steps from the end
fractions of a whole and what is left
sharing in a ratio; scaling a recipe or price
two-weighing problems (compare, then subtract)
Right so far: Shapes and area (2/2), Space: cubes, nets, views and routes (1/1), Place value: building the biggest or smallest number (1/1), Data and chance: graphs, pictographs and spinners (1/1), Counting the ways: cases and combinations (1/1; Q12 not attempted), Patterns that repeat: cycles and step rules (1/1). One or two questions each — evidence, not mastery. The plan re-tests every one of them on fresh questions.
Step 4 · the study plan
Turn these results into a week-by-week plan
From The sample student's results, the target, the weeks left to the AMC and your study days per week: which skill each week, a mock every Saturday, and an honest check that the training for the target fits the time.