🖥 Online vs 📄 Paper

To keep it simple, here’s a side-by-side comparison.

Topic	🖥 Online Practice	📄 Paper Practice
Feedback:	Instant. Marks are given immediately with explanations.	Encourages slower reflection and independent marking skills
Progress Tracking:	Instant marking + performance analytics	Promotes active review and deeper error correction
Time Awareness:	Built-in timers develop pace control	Builds realistic pacing and timer awareness
Realism:	Good for computerised 11+ exams.	Good for paper-based exams.
Parent Involvement:	Can be completed independently with automated insight	Creates opportunities for parent-child discussion
Cost:	Monthly subscription (£3 – £60 p/ month)	One-off cost (£6 – £10 p/book)

What We Recommend (as parents, teachers and data scientists):

As parents, we’re also conscious of excessive screen time, especially when children are staring at a screen and concentrating intensely (which is cognitively very different from passive screen exposure).

At the same time, identifying weaknesses, automatic analytics, standardised scores and independent learning are all valuable benefits.

Depending on which schools you’re applying for, your child could be sitting an online exam, a paper-based exam, or both.

We believe the right balance is to combine paper-based work with short, structured practice on an online platform, each serving a different purpose. A lot of our successful, former students have also balanced their work in the same way, having a variety of ways to study is important for motivation and broader exposure.