Frequently Asked Questions
General
IXL is an educational tool that helps students improve their maths skills through practice and tracks their performance.
For technical support, send e-mail to help@ixl.com. For questions about your membership or subscription, send e-mail to support@ixl.com. To contact IXL by phone, call +44 20 3318 5967.
Memberships and Subscriptions
Memberships are offered to parents who want to help their children achieve their maths goals. Subscriptions are offered to teachers and institutions who want to offer their students a way to practise skills that are aligned with their testing requirements.
Go to uk.ixl.com, and click the Membership tab.
You add and remove child accounts from the Account management page. Sign in and click the Membership tab, then click Manage your account.
With a classroom licence, you add and remove student accounts on the Roster tab. Sign in and click Roster. If you have a site licence, IXL loads your roster for you.
If you paid with a credit card, your membership is renewed automatically. Otherwise, you can renew by going to the Membership tab and clicking Renew.
If you are on the monthly plan, you can put your membership on hold from the Account management window. Sign in and go to the Membership tab, then click Manage your account. You cannot put your membership on hold if you have an annual plan.
You can cancel your membership from the Account management window. Sign in and go to the Membership tab, then click Manage your account.
Signing In
If you enter an incorrect username or password, IXL prompts you to request the information. Click the appropriate link for either your forgotten username or your forgotten password in the pop-up window and follow the screen prompts. IXL will e-mail the information to you. If you do not have e-mail access, contact IXL at +44 20 3318 5967.
Parents can change the password for the membership in the Profiles & settings window. Children cannot change a password, but they can manage their secret word in the Profile & settings window. Sign in, and click on the welcome drop-down menu in the upper right corner. Then, select Profile & settings.
Teachers can change their own password in the Profile & settings window. Sign in, and click on the welcome drop-down menu in the upper right corner. Then, select Profile & settings. On the Roster tab, teachers can also change passwords for their students. Sign in, and click the Roster tab.
Students can change their passwords in the Profile & settings window. Sign in, and click on the welcome drop-down menu in the upper right corner. Then, select Profile & settings.
If a child forgets his secret word, the parent can sign in to retrieve it from the Profiles & settings window. If a parent forgets the secret word, click the Forgot secret word link in the user selection window. IXL will reset it and send the parent an e-mail with the information necessary to proceed.
Skill Practice
Yes, you can practise up to 20 maths problems in a 24-hour period without a membership or subscription. However, you will not be able to earn awards or run reports, and IXL will not save your work.
You earn medals when you master skills, and you win prizes based on the challenges IXL poses to you on the Awards tab.
Family memberships provide you with a free parent account, which you use to manage and monitor your membership. If you need another account that has full access to practice and awards, you must add a user to your membership.
Educator subscriptions for site and classroom licences provide free access for teachers so that they can manage rosters and monitor student progress. If you need more student accounts than you currently have, you must request more student accounts from IXL.
When you begin working on a skill, your initial score for that skill is zero. When you answer a problem correctly, your score increases. When you enter a wrong answer, your score decreases. This is IXL's sophisticated SmartScore technology. It analyses your answers and determines your current level of understanding, continually reassessing you.
SmartScore takes into consideration such factors as number of problems completed, number of problems correct and incorrect, problem difficulty, and consistency. You'll only find SmartScore on IXL.
As you work through a skill and your score rises, the problems become more difficult and your score increases in smaller jumps. Likewise, your score may decrease only slightly if you enter a wrong answer when you begin working on a skill, but as you progress towards mastery, wrong answers cause your score to decrease in larger and larger dips.
If you leave an answer blank when you submit it, IXL treats it like a wrong answer.
IXL also rates your score as Needs Improvement (<70), Satisfactory (70-79), Good (80-89), Excellent (90-99), Mastered (100), and Provisional. A Provisional rating means IXL cannot accurately rate your score because you have answered fewer than 4 problems in that skill. If you have mastered a skill, your rating for that skill remains "Mastered" even if you continue to practise it later and score lower.
IXL provides comprehensive reporting features. Sign in and click the Reports tab.
User Information
A secret word is similar to a password but it is used to secure user accounts within family memberships. You need the membership password to sign in to IXL. Then, you use the secret word to access your user account.
Customisation
By default, IXL displays year levels as Reception, Year 1, Year 2, and so on. You can hide these designations. IXL will replace the text with Level A, Level B, Level C, and so on. To hide year levels, sign in and click on the welcome drop-down menu in the upper right corner. Then, select Profile & settings. In the Settings section, select the Hide year levels check box. Click Submit to save your change.
Many students feel pressured when faced with a timer while practising, so IXL allows you to hide the timer. Note that IXL still records the amount of time students spend practising, but the time is hidden from the student. To hide the practice timer, sign in and click on the welcome drop-down menu in the upper right corner. Then, select Profile & settings. In the Settings section, select the Hide timer check box. Click Submit to save your change.
Privacy
Yes, IXL Learning takes the privacy of all our users seriously. When you sign in to your account, IXL uses Adobe Flash to protect your privacy. Therefore, if you do not have Flash installed on your computer, if you have blocked Flash, or if your browser cannot run Flash properly, you can sign in securely at uk.ixl.com/signin.
Need more help? .
If you still have questions, contact us at +44 20 3318 5967, or e-mail your question to help@ixl.com.
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