Your student isn’t bad at maths. Something underneath is missing.
Send the question they’re stuck on. ownIT asks a few short questions, one layer down at a time, and finds the first thing that gave way.
Going down, one layer at a time
We found something
You got limits and algebraic fractions right.
Expanding brackets
Every single thing in the first bracket has to meet every single thing in the second bracket — four little multiplications in total, then tidy up.
Think of it like thisIt is like every person on one team shaking hands with every person on the other team — nobody gets left out.
A real run against the real skill map. The mistake it lands on is the one AQA’s examiners reported on that question in June 2024.
Why more past papers isn’t working
The question is almost never where the problem is
Every question sits on top of other things. When a student gets one wrong, the mark scheme blames that topic, so that’s what they revise. If the real problem is two years further down, revising changes nothing — and they decide they’re just bad at maths.
Finds the first thing in the way
Not a list of twelve weaknesses. One skill to start on, and why it’s that one rather than something lower down.
Explains it so it lands
What it means in plain words first, then what it’s like in real life, then the maths, then the mistake they’re probably making.
Never does their homework
It never gives the answer to the question they sent. An answer gets them through tonight; they’re stuck again next week.
A real example
What examiners actually saw
June 2024, AQA Paper 1, question 10: prove from first principles that the derivative of x³ is 3x².
Every student in that report lost the marks on a differentiation question. Not one of them had a differentiation problem. They couldn’t expand a bracket — something they were taught at fourteen.
The window at the top of this page is ownIT finding exactly that, in four questions. The examiners’ other complaint — using h = 0 instead of the limit — it finds in two, because that’s a different break in a different place.
“Quite a few students expanded (x + h)³ as (x² + xh) + (xh)… because students did not collect like terms.” AQA examiner report, 7357/1, June 2024
What your student sees
How it works
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Send the question you’re stuck on
A photo of the page is best — typing maths out loses the powers and the fractions.
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Answer a few short questions
Usually a handful. Multiple choice, and “I don’t know” is always an option — more useful than a guess, and never marked against you.
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Get the first thing to fix
What it means, what it’s like, one worked example, the usual mistake, and a line telling them what to practise.
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Come back and run it again
Same question, fresh questions. If the gap has closed it goes straight past it and finds whatever is behind it — the only way to know the work landed.
The obvious question
Couldn’t you just ask a chatbot?
You’ll get something that looks a lot like this. The difference is what happens to the answers. When a model writes a question, it also decides which option is right — and nothing checks it.
That’s the worst thing a diagnostic can get wrong, because it’s invisible: a student answers correctly, is recorded as having a gap, and a session goes on teaching something they already knew.
Who it’s for
Simple: it’s free
Students and parents
No sign-up, no email
- Photo or typed question
- The first thing in the way, explained plainly
- What to practise, and how to check it worked
Tutors
With one extra question at the end
- Everything a student gets
- The whole route it walked, and what held on the way
- Say whether the diagnosis was right — it corrects the map
Common questions
Before you try it
What does it cover?
A-level Pure — differentiation, integration, logs, sequences, quadratics, functions, indices and surds, binomial expansion, coordinate geometry and polynomials. And the GCSE underneath it: linear equations, simultaneous equations, inequalities, standard form, expanding and factorising, ratio and proportion, and fractions, decimals and percentages.
Not trigonometry, statistics or mechanics yet. If it can’t place a question it says so rather than guessing.
Will it give my student the answer?
No, deliberately. They can show the result to a teacher without it looking like they cheated, because they didn’t.
Will it feel like a test?
Nothing is marked or scored, and there’s no count of how many are left, because there isn’t a fixed number — it stops as soon as it knows. “I don’t know” is always allowed.
How long does it take?
A few minutes. Most runs are a handful of questions; it keeps going only while it still needs to.
What if it gets it wrong?
Tell me — there’s a form just below. The map of what rests on what is one tutor’s theory, and someone saying “no, it was this instead” is the only evidence from outside my own reasoning.
Who made it?
A maths and physics tutor, because the question a student is stuck on is almost never where the problem is — and finding it by hand takes a whole lesson.
The part I actually need
Tell me where it’s wrong
A wrong diagnosis, a topic you teach that isn’t covered, a question that wouldn’t place, or something that just reads badly. It goes straight to a page I read.
Bring the question they’re stuck on
A photo of the page works best. It takes a few minutes, costs nothing, and there’s nothing to sign up for.