Welcome to Cinnamon Studies v13 - a maths practice, rote learning, quiz and puzzle website. Unlike many other sites:



What the site is ideal for:

What the site is not suitable for:


Most of the the site is built around maths practice. The main advantage of this site over others is that there are a large number of 'mental arithmetic' learning and practice options, and as such it emphases the importance of distinguishing between three skills areas: mental, paper and calculator maths - unlike the maths GCSE which only has paper and calculator sections. As such it is ideal for those wishing to build a much better, more rounded maths ability. However the site is not designed to 'mark' scores or track progress; you are simply presented with questions and answers, or a worksheet to use either online or printed. It is intended for diligent study or by tutors to aid tutoring.


There are two modes to choose from:

On the front page, the main area of the screen is a checkbox area for subjects. These are organised into different subject areas, which you can select via the drop-down list, the left and right buttons, or by using the left and right keyboard keys. These include for example ( there are lots more ) :

  1. Mental maths
  2. Paper Maths "number"
  3. Paper maths "algebra"
  4. Memory systems
  5. Anagrams
  6. Puzzles
  7. Subject fact flashcards ( various - languages, science, geography etc )


Subject pages and checkboxes

Each major subject areas has its own page of options, each with a checkbox. You can navigate between pages via the drop-down list on the top left.

The checkboxes allow you to select the combination of specific areas more suitable with what you are currently teaching or helping your student with. Be aware that the system allows you to select checkboxes on different pages; thus you could in theory choose five maths boxes and an anagram - the result would be a sequence of 5 maths questions and an anagram, which is sometimes nice to break things up a bit.

One of the downsides of the GCSE maths exam, and syllabus, as of 2024, is that students are tested on a 'non-calculator' paper and 'calculator' papers, as if that's the only thing that matters. By contrast, a major set of checkboxes here are purely for 'mental' arithmetic. Students and tutors should not be using paper for these practice areas! GCSE 'Non-calculator' maths is deemed 'paper' maths on this site, and it is intended that these sorts of questions are more involved so do require 'paper and pen' to arrive at an answer. As such, you should also not be using a calculator for these areas.

Mental arithmetic becomes a lot easier when you can 'see' an image in your head representing a number. This is because humans can recall images ( and sounds and smells ) a lot easier than complicated numbers. As such, this website provides a Memory systems module. There are three types in here: The simple number-shape system ( which allows you to visualise individual digits ) , the rhyme/pop culture link system and the more complicated 'Major' system, the last two of which allow you to visualise double-digit numbers with a single image, thus making harder calculations with bigger numbers possible. If nothing else, it would be a good idea to get students to practice the simple number-shape system, but it's also very educational to at least explore the rhymes and cultural links, as there is a bunch of historic links as well.


On top of the maths, the other checkbox areas are anagrams and puzzles which you might enjoy for general brain training, followed by options for flash card facts in a number of different areas - science, geography, languages and so on. Remember there's nothing to stop you mixing up a practice session with different subjects. Some research has shown that including 'friendlier' facts along with harder ones makes the harder ones more memorable. You could have 10 maths practice areas mixed with memory images, some science or even football facts.


Subjects with bracketed numbers
If a subject is shown with a bracketed number, for example World cup tiddlywinks winners (37) , then this means this is a learning deck / table containing that has a fixed number of questions and answers, 37 in this case. These are the checkbox subject options which you can control with the 'selection via' drop-down option ( see below. ) However, these types are not affected by the difficulty setting.

Some younger students especially boys love to have the football facts mixed in with the maths. However these are large lists based on all winners ( over a 100 years' worth ) of FA cup winners and the like. These lists are ideal for use with the advanced range option, described below, where you could for example restrict the questions to just the first 10 in the list, i.e. the 10 most recent winners.

By contrast, options without numbered brackets are always generated randomly, on the fly, for example "Basic term substitution." Nearly all of these options are affected by the 'difficulty' level. To be sure, check the learning card when in the practice mode, scroll down and it will tell you how the generated material is affected by the difficulty, if indeed it is.

Note also that the maths pages tend to offer a mixture of randomly-generated maths and set learning tables.


The upper controls


The more questions you view, the more 'rewards' are built up internally. To see how many total questions you have viewed and your current rewards, click the reward button.

The number of questions to earn each reward increases, but the rewards get better.
Rewards are awarded at 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500, 600, 700, 800, 900, 1000, 2000, 3000, 5000, 10000, 20000, 50000 and 100000 questions.



The checkbox controls

The lower button controls


Note Questions are generated based on the checkboxes selected on all module screens, and are generated sequentially. So for example, if you have Times tables selected on the mental maths screen, and Animals selected on the anagrams screen, you will get an alternating mixture of the two during practice, so as said, this feature is for tutors or students who like to 'mix it up' when studying.

Options for study / review / practice

Start Practice: In this mode, you Have to actively press the generate button to get a question, and then press the same button again to see the answer. This is the standard mode.

Worksheet: This generates a worksheet with multiple rows. You can also print a paper copy of this for offline study.

Slideshow A / Slideshow B: In this "hands free" mode, the subject is presented automatically, on a timer. It is ideal for people wanting to get on with something else whilst learning or reviewing a topic, for example, doing mild calisthenics or stretching. Slideshow A shows both the question and answer at the same time, so should be used if a topic has not been studied before. Slideshow B shows the questions and answers consecutively, as per the normal practice screen. This is good if the user has studied the material before, but needs to review. The timer delay gives you a chance to remember the fact before it is presented.



The 'Selection via' option in more detail:



Set ranges
Clicking set ranges will take you to the range setting screen. This allows you to specify a range ( minimum 5 questions ) on any of the learning deck options. This is particularly useful on the larger sets. So for example, say you just wanted the student to concentrate on the same 20 times-tables to begin with, or the same 50 items of French vocabulary, then you can go here and set the range. Click 'Set' to confirm, and the fields will turn red to indicate the range option is 'live.' In this mode, all items are presented *sequentially* i.e. none of the usual selection options ( e.g. Repeat 3x ) are active. However there is one more that will work in this mode - random. So say you have set a range of 20-30 for some table, then it will randomly select questions and answers from within this range.

(To see the full content of a table before setting these ranges, you will need to select the checkbox for the table you want and click worksheet, then select 'all' from the worksheet option. This will show all items numbered. Use these numbers to determine the range of material you want to study.)

There is also a 'reset all' button in this page which clears all ranges back to a clean slate - use with care.


Save
Clicking 'save' will save your current question count ( and thus your cat rewards ) , all your checkbox options and any advanced ranges that have been set into to a local cookie ( no server cookies are used this system. ) This means that as long as you access cinnamon-studies from the same computer, you can re-load your saved state, for example, after a reboot or a browser restart or page refresh. However, it will not work from a different computer, precisely because there are no server cookies.


Load
Loads the session saved previously from the above.


Clear all
Clears all checkbox options. This is useful when you have been mixing up material but want to then just study a particular option. ( Without this Clear all option, you would have to select every single checkbox page - maths, French, football and so on - and manually unselect all the checkboxes, which would be a right pain. This option 'nukes' everything to give a clean slate. )




Stats
Clicking 'stats' shows the statistics screen. There is a row for every subject area in the system, and there are three different time stats on display:


Note: Session times are reset every time you press "start practice" from the main screen.
If you want to save the all-session average and best times, you will need to click "save" from the main screen.