How to use math competitions
Competitions are a fun way to allow your students to compete with their classmates for a place on the leaderboard either as individuals or as a team. You can create a competition for your class, or classes within the school, and have them compete with each other.
Students will be able to take part in the competition while practicing or revising the skills you have selected for them.
How to create a competition where students compete individually
These instructions explain how to create a competition where students compete individually.

Click ‘Set Work’

Click ‘CREATE & VIEW’ in the ‘Competition’ box

Click on the green ‘Create a competition’ box at the top.
Tick ‘Math’ and click on ‘Next’

You will now be able to choose the student/class/classes you would like to include in the competition. By default, your current class will be selected.
To view all of the classes in the school, go to the student filters in the top left corner and untick ‘Only my students’. Tick the classes you would like to include.
If you would like to select individual students from a class, click the blue arrow next to the class name. Tick the names of those you would like to include.
If you want to deselect a class, click ‘Clear All’ in the bottom left corner. To select all classes displayed, click on ‘Add All’.
Once you have selected the classes or students, click ‘Next’

Select the skills you would like the students to work on.
If you do not want to assign skills to the students, click ‘Next’ and skip to Step 10.
If you do not select any skills, they will by default work on skills assigned by Sumdog. In this case, the questions will be based on their diagnostic test score

If you would like to assign skills to your students, first click ‘Deselect all’ (on the bottom left of the page).
Tick the boxes next to each student’s name. These will be the students you are assigning the selected skills to.
Once you have selected the students, click ‘Set Skills’

Select the skill you would like the selected students to work on.
To filter skills, you can use the Grade/Year level and Topics filters located in the top left corner of the page.
If you would like to know more details about the skill or see some sample questions, click on the arrow located to the right of each skill. Click on the ‘?’ to see some sample questions.
Tick the skills you would like students to work on and click ‘Next’.
We recommend that you select 1 or 2 skills at most. This is because of the progression system, whereby students will need to get 80% accuracy in each step before they can move onto the next step or skill

On this page you will see that your chosen skills have been assigned to the relevant students.
If you would like to assign skills to the other students, repeat Step 7 to 9.
Once you are happy, click ‘Next’

Set up the competition.
Name – give your competition a title. Your students will be able to see this title on their accounts, and it will help them identify the activity in their Tasks list.
Message to your students – You can personalize a good luck message for the class.
Activity starts and Activity ends – this is the period during which the competition will be available for your students.
Leaderboard size – this will be the size of the leaderboard visible on the students’ accounts. On your teacher account, you will be able to see the leaderboard for all the students.
Students take part – You can choose whether they take part as individuals or as teams. Tick the relevant option.
Click ‘Create’ to create the competition
Don’t worry if you make an error when setting up the competition, you can edit it after it has been created!
How to create a competition where students compete individually
This video shows a walk-through of the steps described above.
How to create a competition where the students compete in teams
These instructions explain how to create a competition where the students compete in teams.

Click ‘Set Work’.
Click ‘CREATE & VIEW’ in the ‘Competition’ box

Click on the green ‘Create a competition’ box at the top.
Tick ‘Math’ and click on ‘Next’

You will now be able to choose the student/class/classes you would like to include in the competition. By default, your current class will be selected.
To view all of the classes in the school, go to the student filters in the top left corner and untick ‘Only my students’. Tick the classes you would like to include.
If you would like to select individual students from a class, click the blue arrow next to the class name. Tick the names of those you would like to include.
If you want to deselect a class, click ‘Clear All’ in the bottom left corner. To select all classes displayed, click on ‘Add All’.
Once you have selected the classes or students, click ‘Next’

If you do not want to assign skills to the students, click ‘Next’ and skip to Step 10.
If you do not select any skills, they will by default work on skills assigned by Sumdog. In this case, the questions will be based on their diagnostic test score

If you would like to assign skills to your students, first click ‘Deselect all’ (on the bottom left of the page).
Tick the boxes next to each student’s name. These will be the students you are assigning the selected skills to.
Once you have selected the students, click ‘Set Skills’

Select the skill you would like the selected students to work on.
To filter skills, you can use the Grade/Year level and Topics filters located in the top left corner of the page.
If you would like to know more details about the skill or see some sample questions, click on the arrow located to the right of each skill. Click on the ‘?’ to see some sample questions.
Tick the skills you would like students to work on and click ‘Next’.
We recommend that you select 1 or 2 skills at most. This is because of the progression system, whereby students will need to get 80% accuracy in each step before they can move onto the next step or skill

On this page you will see that your chosen skills have been assigned to the relevant students.
If you would like to assign skills to the other students, repeat Step 7 to 9.
Once you are happy, click ‘Next’

To have the students take part as teams tick the option ‘in teams’ under ‘Students take part’.
Set up the team name. Team names – If this is your first time creating the teams click on ‘Create new set of team names’.
If you have created teams before you can select them from the dropdown box.
At the top give a name to this set of teams

Type in the names of the teams you would like to place the students into in the boxes. To confirm the set up click on the blue tick.
Once you have created 2 or more teams click on ‘Save’

Scroll down and select which team you would like to place the students into.
You will need to assign the students manually to their teams. Select the name from the dropdown box next to each student.
If you select ‘Put students into teams automatically’ the system will assign them into random teams

Before you create the competition remember to fill in the competition details:
Name – give your competition a title. Your students will be able to see this title on their accounts, and it will help them identify the activity in their Tasks list.
Message to your students – You can personalize a good luck message for the class.
Activity starts and Activity ends – this is the period during which the competition will be available for your students.
Leaderboard size – this will be the size of the leaderboard visible on the students’ accounts. On your teacher account, you will be able to see the leaderboard for all the students.
Click ‘Create’
Don’t worry if you make an error when setting up the competition, you can edit it after it has been created!
How to edit a competition once it has been created
These instructions explain how to edit all features of a competition once it has been created.

Click ‘Set Work’.
Click ‘CREATE & VIEW’ in the ‘Competition’ box

Click ‘edit’ next to the competition you would like to edit.
Click ‘Next’. This will scroll through the set up pages. Keep clicking until you find the page including details you would like to edit

If you need to change the start or end date, or the correct answer target, you can do this on the ‘Create competition’ Page.
Click ‘Save’ to confirm the changes
How to view the results of competition
These instructions explain how to view the results of a competition you have set.

Click ‘Set Work’.
Click ‘CREATE & VIEW’ in the ‘Competition’ box

Click ‘view’ next to the competition you would like to view the results for

Click ‘Show results’

An overview of the competition will be displayed. Below, a pie chart will be displayed detailing how many children have:
- Started
- Completed
- Not started
Scroll down to view the leaderboards. If you have set students up in teams, you will see the team scores. Below the team leaderboard, you will be able to view each individual student’s score, including:
- Questions attempted
- Questions correct
- Accuracy
- Score

Click ‘Done’ to return to your dashboard
How to restrict students so that they can only work on the competition you have set
If your students have not been set any other activities, the competition you created will automatically appear on their dashboard. If you have set multiple activities for them, they can click on Tasks to view their list of available activities.
These instructions explain how to restrict your students so that they can only work on the competition you have set.

Click ‘Set work’

Select ‘Live Controls’.
Ensure you have selected your desired class. You can choose which class you have selected using the drop down box at the top left corner

Click ‘RESTRICT’ in the ‘Focus Work’ box

To restrict your students to a competition, tick the ‘Challenges and Competitions’ option. You can select multiple activities.
Your students will be restricted to the selected activity or activities for one hour

Click ‘Restrict’ to confirm
How to answer questions in the competition as a student
If your students have not been set any other activities, the competition you created will automatically appear on their dashboard and they should just click ‘Start’. If you have set multiple activities for them, they should follow the instructions below which explain how to answer competition questions.

Click ‘Task’

Select the competition from the tasks list

On their dashboard, they can see their current score. They can also see when the competition will end.They can scroll down to view the leaderboard.
If you have set up the competition so that the students take part in teams, then they will see their team placement.
If they are competing as individuals, they will see their individual placement

Click ‘Start’

Select a Sumdog game to play.
The questions asked in the game will be based on the skills you had selected
Frequently asked questions - Math competitions
Select which question you would like to find out more about: