How it works

On a computer

1. The bar across the top carries the owl, the menu, and two switches: EN / 中文 for language and light / dark for the theme. Both remember your choice on that device.
2. The dark column on the left is the directory. Every subject we teach is in it, grouped by exam, along with the two portal entrances. Click a group to open it.
3. The main column starts with the three ways to work with us: join a class, buy practice on its own, or buy teaching material.
4. Below that are the Guides & FAQ and the free English placement test. The guides explain the exam systems; the test tells you which level a student is actually at.
5. The noticeboard at the bottom carries syllabus changes and any current offer. It is the only part of the site with dates on it.

On a phone

1. The top bar shrinks to the owl and the two switches. Everything else moves.
2. The directory becomes a panel near the top of the page. Tap a family — IGCSE, UEC, proficiency — to open it.
3. If your phone can install the app, a card offers it here. It is the same site, opening from your home screen without an address bar.
4. The guides, the placement test and the noticeboard follow in the same order as on a computer, just stacked.
5. The five icons fixed to the bottom are the menu on a phone. They change with where you are: the public site, the Learners Portal or the Teacher Portal.

Nothing on the public side needs an account. The placement test, the guides and the noticeboard are open to anyone.

Account, then code

1. Choose which side you are entering: the Learners Portal for students, the Teacher Portal for teachers. If you later hold both, a link in the menu switches between them without signing out.
2. Create an account with the same name and phone number you gave us when you bought your code, then sign in with your email and password.
3. Enter the access code — it looks like AOE-XXXX-XXXX — and press Unlock. One code opens one subject, works once, and belongs to one account.

Two things people trip over

1. One device at a time. Your account works on any device, but signing in somewhere new signs you out everywhere else. Sharing an account means neither of you can work.
2. Codes have an end date. Your portal home lists every subject and when it runs out, and marks anything inside 14 days as due for renewal. When one expires, the subject locks and your progress stays where it is.
3. No access code yet? Every button in the store opens WhatsApp with the message already written, naming the subject and you. We reply with what is available and what it costs.

Your portal home

1. Four figures across the top: days practised in a row, points earned, accuracy over every question so far, and sets finished.
2. The chart under them is the last 30 days. Short and often fills it better than one long session.
3. Then one card per subject, showing your own figures, how far through the cycle you are, a Continue button that picks up where you stopped, how many questions are waiting to be fixed, and the top five on that subject's board. A subject you have not unlocked sits here locked.
4. Recent essay marks appear when you have used the essay checker. A teacher's mark replaces the machine estimate as soon as it arrives.
5. The access card lists every subject's end date, so a renewal never arrives as a surprise.
6. On a phone the five icons at the bottom carry the rest: your profile, the store, the game room, friends and back to your subjects.

Doing a practice set

1. The bar along the top shows how far through the set you are, and lets you leave without losing what you have done — an interrupted set resumes where you left it.
2. One question at a time. Every attempt at a set deals a different selection from a larger pool and shuffles the options, so there is no pattern to memorise.
3. Tap an option to answer. Options are lettered A to D, and the keyboard works too.
4. It is marked the moment you answer, and the explanation names the trap you fell into. There are three seconds before the next question, deliberately — long enough to read the reason.

Playing against other students

1. Anyone can open a room and becomes the host. The host picks the subject, the topic, the clock and the scoring, and gets a six-letter code to share.
2. Everyone answers the same questions, but the options are shuffled for each player, so copying a neighbour's screen does not help.
3. The scoreboard down the side re-orders as answers land. Highest score wins; on a tie, whoever finished first.
4. Everyone in the room must have that subject unlocked — including you. Game room points are kept separately and never touch the subject scoreboards.

The rest of it

1. Questions to fix. Every question you get wrong goes into your own list for that subject. Redo only those; a question leaves the list after two correct answers in a row. Fix runs are practice only and are not scored.
2. Glossary drills. Where a subject has a glossary, there is a matching game and a type-the-term drill. All the checking happens on the server, so nothing can be read out of the page.
3. Scoreboards. One per subject — never a site-wide one. Switch between this week and all time, and between points and accuracy. You appear under your nickname, and you can hide yourself entirely in your profile.
4. Friends. Added by friend code only — there is no search and no student list anywhere on the site, and both sides have to agree.
5. Essay marking. Paste an essay, pick the task, and get a report against the real mark scheme. It is checked by the server, not by AI, so the estimate never reaches the top band and the page says so. Three checks per subject per day.
6. The store. Every subject we run, with a button that opens WhatsApp with the message written for you. No prices are shown on the site.

Your profile is where the nickname, the friend code, the class-joining box and the privacy switches live — and, in the app, the Reset button.

Your classes

1. Each class has a join code. Give it to a class and students ask to join; their requests queue for you to approve or reject. You can also add a student directly using their friend code or their account email.
2. The roster is the class in one table: points, accuracy, sets finished, this week and all time. It is scoped to the subjects your teacher code covers.
3. Each student has a report — chips, a 30-day chart, the tables — and the whole class exports as CSV for your own records.
4. Essays your students have submitted are waiting to be marked. You read the essay and the machine report, then type your own mark and comment — which replaces the estimate on the student's screen.
5. The material library holds the graded teaching material for the subjects you subscribe to.
6. The smartboard game is the classroom version: team rounds on the screen at the front, options hidden until you reveal them, reshuffled every lesson so answers cannot be passed between classes.

Worth knowing

1. A teacher account needs a redeemed teacher code, not just a teacher label. An account merely marked as a teacher is sent back to the learners side, and that is correct behaviour rather than a fault.
2. You can hold both sides at once. A link in the menu switches between the Teacher Portal and the Learners Portal without signing out.
3. Everything a teacher sees is limited to their own students and their own subjects. There is no site-wide list of students anywhere, for anyone.
4. You can open a game room for one of your classes, and the questions come from the same bank the students practise on.

Teacher codes are bought the same way as student ones — a button in the store opens WhatsApp with the message written.

Putting it on your phone

1. On Android, a card on the homepage offers to install it — one button. On an iPhone, Safari has no such button, so the card shows the three taps instead: Share, Add to Home Screen, Add.
2. Once it is on your home screen it opens like an app, with no address bar, and keeps you signed in between sessions.
3. If a page ever looks wrong or out of date, open your profile, then Settings, then Reset the app. It clears what the app has stored and loads everything fresh. Nothing you have done is lost.

What it does and does not do

1. It is the same website, not a separate app. Nothing is downloaded from a store, and there is no second account.
2. It keeps its own styling and scripts on the phone so it starts quickly, but it never stores a page or a question bank — those are personal and they change, and a stale one would mark you wrong.
3. Without a network you get a card saying so. Practice needs the network, because every answer is marked on the server.
4. It updates itself. When a new version is published it is picked up quietly, and it never reloads while you are in the middle of a set, a game or a report.
5. The one-device rule still applies in the app. Signing in on another phone signs this one out.