Frequently Asked Questions

Using Sumdog

What is Sumdog?

Sumdog has lots of free games and teacher tools aimed at improving numeracy. If you want to learn more, read our Welcome to Sumdog, or just jump right in and sign up for a free account!

I'm a teacher. How can I find out more about using Sumdog?

Go to the Teacher Portal to see what tools we offer and learn more about our features. If you're having trouble, see the Teacher Help below.

How can I give you my ideas about improving Sumdog?

Many of the new features and fixes we have made come from user feedback. If you have an idea, please Contact Us and tell us about it. Every email gets read by a member of our team.

Signing up for Sumdog

Is Sumdog really free?

Most of Sumdog is free forever. You only have to buy a subscription if you want to access reports on your students' progress. Read more about Sumdog's features...

How does Sumdog use my information?

At Sumdog, we do our best to make sure that your personal information is protected to the best of our ability. To learn more, please read our Privacy Policy.

When I try to log in, I get a message saying my email address isn't verified.

When you register, Sumdog sends you an email containing a link. You must click on this link to activate your account. If you didn't receive your email, see the question below.

I didn't receive an email with a link to activate my account.

The email may have been filtered. Check your email "Junk" or "Spam" folder and add info@sumdog.com to your email address book.
Double check that you have entered the correct email address.
Once you have done the above, request a new welcome email - we'll send you another copy.
If you're still having trouble, please see Using Sumdog > "I emailed you, but nobody responded!" above.

I've signed up using the wrong email address.

Please Contact Us and we will change it for you.

I've forgotten my username or password.

If you've forgotten these you can recover your username or password.

I have my username and password, why can't I log in?

Make sure that you have verified your email address (you can request a new welcome email).
Please check that you are entering your password correctly. Student passwords are a 5-letter word followed by a number, make sure you are not typing one of the letters as a number.
Check that you do not have "Caps-Lock" turned on.
If your school created your account for you, please check that your teacher hasn't changed your password.

Can I create more than one account using the same email address?

Unfortunately, no. We require that each account has a different email address. However, there are a couple of ways to work around this:

If you are a teacher or parent who would like to sign up some students, you can sign up for a teacher account. You can then create as many student accounts as you like without having to use an email address. Signing up for a teacher account also gives you access to the teacher tools, and allows you to track your students' progress.
You can also use plus addressing, if your email provider supports this option. If your email address is my@email.com, for example, you can sign up for multiple accounts using my+1@email.com, my+2@email.com, etc.

My avatar doesn't look like me. How do I change it?

Click here to change your avatar, or what you're wearing. You'll need to log in first.

When I try to log in, I am logged back out/logged in as a guest/logged in as someone else. What is happening?

For help with this issue, please see our Technical Support.

Using Sumdog

I'm having problems running Sumdog.

Games and Activities

How do I play the games?

If you're having trouble figuring out how to play, please see our Sumdog's free maths games page.

I think I won, why wasn't I shown first on the end screen?

This can occur if you are playing on a slow connection. Sumdog has to send information from your opponent's computer to yours in order to update how far they have gotten along. If your connection is very slow, it will take longer for your computer to update their position. If this is a consistent problem, please see our Technical Support.

How do I earn points?

Currently, to earn points you have to play in one of the Addition, Subtraction, Division or Times Tables activities. You will earn one point for every question you answer correctly and five points when you master a topic.
Points which can be spent in the shop are different from the scores in competitions or challenges.

I have requested to join a school. How do I get approved?

Another teacher at your school will need to approve your request before you can join. We do this to protect student information. There are two ways that they can do this:

They should receive an email notifying them of your request. They can click the link in the email to approve or reject you.
They can sign into Sumdog and go to the "School" tab. From here they will see a link which says "pending requests". They can click this link to approve or reject your request.

How can I claim a class that another teacher has created?

If another teacher at your school has set up your class already, you will need to claim it as your own before it will appear in your class list. To do this:

Sign into Sumdog and go to the Teacher portal.
Go to the Classes tab.
Click the link above the table which says "view all classes" and find the class(es) you wish to claim.
Switch the table into Edit mode by clicking the "Edit" button in the top right.
In the "My Class" column, tick the classes you want to claim.
Press "Save" to save your changes.

What features do I get with a Sumdog subscription and how much does it cost?

You can find out what features we offer for free and with a paid subscription on the Sumdog's Features page.

Do you have any teacher resources for Sumdog?

If you're stuck on ideas for using Sumdog, see our free Classroom Resources. We have lesson plans, handouts, and other printables with plenty of tips for using Sumdog in class.

Other teacher help

Try reading our teacher help pages for tutorials to walk you through common tasks like setting up classes and creating activities.