MATHCOUNTS Prep, for grown-ups
In short: practice for the MATHCOUNTS Competition Series, in the browser. No account needed and no ads. Progress stays on this device, unless a grown-up turns on the optional Numberdale family account. Otherwise we receive only anonymous counts, and the problem reports your child chooses to send.
What it is
MATHCOUNTS is a middle-school math competition (grades 6–8) held at school, chapter (February), state (March) and national level. Each student's score comes from two written rounds: the Sprint round (30 problems in 40 minutes, no calculator) and the Target round (8 harder problems in 4 pairs, 6 minutes a pair, calculator allowed). MATHCOUNTS Prep makes fresh practice problems for both: every problem is generated on the device, with its own numbers and, where it needs one, a drawn figure, and comes with a worked solution. Nothing is copied from real competitions.
How it works
- Typed answers, checked the MATHCOUNTS way. Your child types each answer. As at a real competition, the answer must be in the form the problem asks for: a common fraction in lowest terms, simplest radical form, or in terms of π. The right value in another form is shown as "right value, wrong form" and counted as a miss, with how to write it. When a wrong answer is a common slip, the page says what probably went wrong.
- Today's plan. About ten problems a day. Problems your child missed come back first, as a similar problem a few minutes later and as reviews one, three and seven days later.
- It adapts. Each topic has its own level. The next problem is hard enough to learn from but usually solvable; a right answer moves the level up, a miss moves it down. Topics show a band (New, Building, Solid, Ready), not a percentage.
- Hints, Show me and Come back to it. A hint shows the key idea before answering; a right answer after a hint counts half, and the problem comes back for review. Show me gives the answer and solution without guessing, which is fine: it tells the page honestly what still needs work. Come back to it saves a problem for the end of the session.
- Sprint and Target rounds. Timed like the real rounds and marked at the end, with every problem, its solution, and what to practice next. A Target pair, once handed in or out of time, can't be reopened, as on the day. The page shows each round's score; it doesn't predict ranks or cutoffs, which vary by chapter.
- Topics. Arithmetic, algebra, counting and probability, number theory, ratios and rates, statistics, geometry, and logic and patterns. More problem types are added over time.
Privacy
- Progress stays on this device. The name your child types, their answers, levels, reviews and round scores are saved in this browser only. We never see them. Clearing this site's data in the browser erases them. Progress can also be moved by hand: the report page copies a progress code to paste into another browser.
- The family account (optional). A grown-up can sign in with a Numberdale family account (the same one for every Numberdale game, made at accounts.numberdale.com with an email address). A player added to the family then has their progress copied to our server, so it follows them to another device: their nickname, grade, answers, levels, reviews and round scores, and a short summary the parents' page shows (problems practiced, topics ready, Sprint and Target rounds and their best scores). Nothing is sold or shared, and a grown-up can remove a player or delete the whole account there at any time. Without signing in, nothing about the player leaves the device.
- No ads, no tracking across websites, and no cookies. We never ask for a child's real name, email, photo, voice or location.
- Anonymous counts. So we can tell which problems are too hard, too easy or confusing, the page sends a few anonymous counts to our server (api.numberdale.com): that it was opened today (once a day, with how many days since this device first opened it), that a practice session or a round was started, a finished round's score, and, for each answer, the kind of problem, whether it was right, right in the wrong form, wrong, shown or right after a hint, and roughly how long it took (up to a minute, one to two minutes, or longer). Nothing goes with them that could tell who practiced: no name, id, cookie, account, device, address or browser. We keep only the day's totals, for 400 days.
- Problem reports. Under each solution, "Report a problem with this question" sends us the problem's code (which rebuilds that exact problem), a reason such as "the answer looks wrong", and an optional short note of up to 300 characters. Please ask your child not to write names in the note; email addresses, links and phone numbers are removed by our server before a report is stored. Nothing else goes with a report. We keep reports for 180 days.
- A page counter. The page loads Cloudflare Web Analytics, a small counter from our host. It reports that the page was opened, the site that linked here, the country and the kind of browser, with no cookies, no local storage and no fingerprinting, so it cannot tell one visitor from another.
- The page's fonts come from Google Fonts. Like any website, requests pass through our host, Cloudflare. Our site does not keep request logs or IP addresses.
Questions
If anything here changes, we will update this page and its date. Questions and ideas are welcome: hello@numberdale.com. MATHCOUNTS Prep is made by Numberdale.
MATHCOUNTS® is a registered trademark of the MATHCOUNTS Foundation. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by the MATHCOUNTS Foundation.