About IXL

IXL is a subscription practice platform covering maths, English, science, social studies and Spanish, built around short skills that adapt as a learner works through them.

Practice built out of thousands of small skills

The catalogue is broken into tens of thousands of individual skills rather than into lessons, and each one is a run of questions on a single idea. Get answers right and the questions get harder; get one wrong and the platform explains the step you missed before moving on. Coverage runs from the earliest years through to the end of secondary, including algebra, geometry and calculus, and there is a separate track for adults returning to a subject. A UK edition organises the same material by the curriculum used here.

The score is not a percentage

The number a child chases on each skill is a mastery score, not the proportion of questions answered correctly. It climbs quickly at first and then slows near the top, and a wrong answer late on costs more than a wrong answer early. That design is deliberate, and it is also the single biggest source of frustration at the kitchen table, so it is worth explaining before a child hits it: the score is measuring how reliably they can do something, not how many they got right today.

Start with the diagnostic, not with the year group

The diagnostic asks a spread of questions and works out the actual level in each strand, which is usually not the same as the school year. Run it first and let it point at the gaps, because practising at the labelled level when a foundation is missing underneath is the fastest way to make a child hate the subject. Skill plans line the content up to particular curricula and textbooks, and those are worth finding before you start assembling your own list.

Choosing between a family and a school subscription

Subscriptions are sold per subject and per child, with bundles for more than one of either, and separately to schools and districts. Two things are worth checking before paying. First, whether you want one subject or all of them, since the difference in price is real and most families only genuinely use one or two. Second, whether the child's school already has a licence, because a school account often covers home use at no extra cost and many parents pay twice without realising it.