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Improve your everyday maths with the National Numeracy Challenge
National Numeracy is an independent charity working to improve numeracy across the UK
The Challenge is a free website to help you check and improve your numeracy - the maths you use in daily life and at work, like managing your money, working out measurements or understanding percentages, rather than algebra or trigonometry.
In March 2020 the Challenge was updated with a whole new look, a new quick check so that it only takes around ten minutes to practise or check your skills, videos to show that however you feel about maths, you’re not alone, and increased flexibility, so that you can choose what you want to do.
However you feel about maths, you can use the Challenge to:
Quickly check your everyday maths
Improve your skills
Increase your confidence with numbers
Find out the level you’re working at, your strengths and weaknesses, and print a certificate
Get the ‘Essentials of Numeracy’
Get yourself ready in your own time to take a more formal maths course
How it works
After a couple of questions about how you feel about maths, sign up to get started – it only takes a minute.
First, we’ll ask you some everyday maths questions. This takes about ten minutes and you’ll get a score which you can use to get a rough idea of your skills.
It also populates your home screen so that you can see the questions you got wrong, resources to show you how to answer them correctly, and other resources chosen at the right level for you.
When you’re ready, practise by answering some more questions, see which ones you get wrong, and repeat the cycle until you feel you’re improving.
If you prefer, you can browse more general learning pages or build your confidence by watching videos about how other people have improved their skills.
The check-up and the Essentials of Numeracy
When you feel ready, you can use the site to take a detailed assessment of your maths skills, called the ‘check-up’. This will show you the level you’re working at, your strengths and weaknesses and set you a target to work towards. You can print a certificate too.
You can also use the check-up to see if you have the Essentials of Numeracy, which shows that you have the core numeracy skills needed in daily life and the workplace.
You can see which questions you got wrong in the check-up and visit resources to help you answer them correctly. Then once you are ready you can retake the check-up to see if you’ve improved, reached your target, or got the Essentials of Numeracy.