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What is a DoodleAge, and what if I think my child’s DoodleAge is wrong?
What is a DoodleAge, and what if I think my child’s DoodleAge is wrong?

How DoodleAges are calculated and what to do if you think your child's DoodleAge is wrong

Jo Kiddell avatar
Written by Jo Kiddell
Updated over a week ago

DoodleAges are our way of measuring each child’s overall level of understanding.

Every maths topic in our programme is allocated a DoodleAge value which represents the age at which the average child fully understands that topic. We calculate a child's DoodleAge by looking at the point a child is in their programme in terms of the level of questions they are currently being asked.

When a child first starts using the app, all the questions they receive are designed to calibrate the work programme to their level. We call this baseline assessment.

When a child completes baseline assessment, they'll be given a DoodleAge, and the proportion of calibration questions will drop significantly. 

Occasionally in these early stages or after using Doodle for a little time, it can be possible that either:

  1. A child can have a bad day, in which case the DoodleAge can become a little too low

  2. A child can receive help from a parent or input their details incorrectly, in which case the DoodleAge can become too high


My child's DoodleAge is too low

Where the DoodleAge is too low, we recommend you leave it (unless the work programme is excessively easy), as the app will calibrate up to the correct level quickly, without any loss of confidence to the child.

My child's DoodleAge is too high

If child can receives help from a parent or inputs their details incorrectly, the DoodleAge can become too high. If this happens, we recommend starting a new baseline assessment.

*Please note - you will not be able to set a baseline assessment if you are a parent of a child with a school subscription. This will need to be actioned by the teacher.

To set the account into Baseline Assessment please follow the steps in this article.


My child's DoodleAge is lower than their real age why is this?

Don’t be alarmed if your child has a DoodleAge lower than their actual age – statistically this is the case for half our users and becomes more likely as children are introduced to more complex topics.

The most important thing is that the questions they're being asked are appropriate for their strengths and weaknesses, set at just the right level for them, being challenging enough to ensure progress without being excessively difficult and leaving them demoralised.


Boosting each child's confidence in maths is key to ensuring continual progress and raising their ability in maths.


In order to understand your child's understanding within the parameters of their school year's objectives or in comparison to their peers, we recommend viewing the percentile metrics on our View > Progress page of the Parent Dashboard. More information on this can be found here.

If you’d like to chat to our team about DoodleAges, please click on the chat bubble in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.

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