The question on this page is live. Try a wrong answer too, and see what the tutor says.
The tutor that teaches, not just tells.
Pencilwick helps Australian students from Foundation to Year 10, with homework help for Years 11 and 12, work things out for themselves. It gives a hint before an answer, checks the maths step by step, and follows the curriculum your school teaches.
Free while we get started: every feature, no card needed.
Solving linear equations
Year 8 mathematics, algebra
1.Solve for x.
3(x−4)=2x+5
The tutor writes here when you ask for a hint.
One login can hold more than one role, so a teacher who is also a parent switches views instead of juggling accounts.
For the student, the parent and the teacher
Get unstuck without being handed the answer
When you’re stuck, Pencilwick asks what you’ve tried and gives the smallest hint that gets you moving. If you need the full working, it’s there, and every step has been checked.
- Snap & Solve. Photograph a question from your textbook or worksheet. Free accounts get five a day.
- Unlimited maths practice. Fresh questions for every year from Foundation to Year 10, marked the moment you answer.
- Notes and flashcards from your own material. Upload class notes, a PDF or a photo of the board. Pencilwick writes a summary and flashcards that come back just before you’d forget them.
- Help in your language. Ask for an explanation in the language you speak at home, then switch back to English for class.
Today
- Review 6 flashcardsCells, Year 8 scienceAC9S8U01
- Practise solving linear equations10 questions, about 12 minutesAC9M8A02
- Lesson: expanding bracketsPicked because of yesterday’s mistakesAC9M8A01
Expand the brackets first: multiply each term inside by 3.
See what they’re learning, not just how long they were online
A weekly report shows the skills your child practised, what they’ve mastered and where they’re stuck, in plain English, with the curriculum code if you want to look it up.
- You approve the tutor for under-15s. Lessons and practice work straight away. The tutor and photo uploads stay off until you say yes.
- You can read the tutor conversations. For children under 15. Your child is told that you can, so nothing is hidden from them either.
- Safety alerts. If your child writes something that suggests they’re not safe, the tutor stops, shows them who to call, and lets you know.
- Free for the whole family. Add as many children as you like, whatever their year levels. No payment details needed.
Mia’s week
Worth a chat: Mia needed three hints on comparing fractions with related denominators (AC9M5N03). A short practice set is waiting for her.
Plan, differentiate and see who needs help, by content description
Pick a year level and a content description. Pencilwick drafts the lesson plan, a worksheet with an answer key and an exit ticket. You edit, and you decide what reaches students.
- Worksheets with answer keys. Every question tagged to its content description, with worked solutions you can print or assign.
- Differentiation in one step. EAL/D, learning support and extension versions of the same resource.
- A heat map by content description. See who has mastered AC9M8A01 and who hasn’t started, then group students in a click.
- Report comment drafts. Built from what each student actually did, for you to edit before they go anywhere.
8B maths
| Student | 8A01 | 8A02 | 8A03 | 8A04 | 8N04 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ava K. | |||||
| Ben T. | |||||
| Chloe L. | |||||
| Dev N. | |||||
| Emi M. |
Suggested group: Ben, Dev and Emi haven’t got solving equations yet (AC9M8A02). Assign a practice set with hints only?
We delete the photo once the question has been read. We keep the text of the question, not the picture.
How Snap & Solve works
Take a photo of the question you’re stuck on. Pencilwick reads it, checks it read it right, and then helps you solve it yourself.
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Snap
Point your camera at one question, printed or handwritten, and crop to the one you want.
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Confirm what we read
Pencilwick shows you what it read, so a smudged 7 doesn’t quietly become a 1. Fix it before anything else happens.
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Hints or full working, checked
Start with a hint, or ask for the steps or the full solution. A maths engine checks each step before you see it.
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Practise the same skill
The question is matched to its content description, and you get similar questions until it sticks.
We align to content descriptions, the part of the curriculum every school must teach, and not to the optional elaborations.
Every content description from Foundation to Year 10
Pencilwick is mapped to the Australian Curriculum v9.0, code by code. This is how many content descriptions sit in each learning area and year.
| Learning area | Foundation | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| English | 29 | 30 | 27 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 23 | 24 | 23 | 23 | 25 |
| Mathematics | 12 | 15 | 18 | 23 | 23 | 24 | 24 | 30 | 27 | 23 | 21 |
| Science | 9 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 18 | 19 | 19 | 19 |
| Humanities and social sciencesHistory, Geography, Civics, Economics from Year 7 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 14 | 16 | 15 | 15 | 55 | 60 | 67 | 62 |
| TechnologiesDesign and Digital Technologies | 5 | 17 | 21 | 24 | 29 | 28 | |||||
| Health and physical education | 10 | 11 | 19 | 19 | 19 | 19 | |||||
| The ArtsDance, Drama, Media Arts, Music, Visual Arts | 20 | 25 | 25 | 25 | 35 | 35 | |||||
| Languages | 16 languages, plus frameworks for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages and for classical languages: 1,283 content descriptions across every sequence. | ||||||||||
| 2,678 content descriptions in all. | |||||||||||
Years 11 and 12
Senior courses are set by each state: WACE, the HSC, VCE, QCE, SACE, TCE, the ACT Senior Secondary Certificate and NTCET. Pencilwick supports Year 11 and 12 students with the tutor, Snap & Solve, and notes and flashcards made from their own course materials.
If we ever introduce paid plans, we’ll email you well in advance. Nothing is ever charged unless you choose it.
Free for now
Pencilwick is free to use while we get started. Parents just sign up, add their children and go. No payment details needed.
- Every lesson, Foundation to Year 10, and unlimited maths practice
- The tutor and Snap & Solve, with hints before answers
- Notes from uploads, flashcards, exam practice and essay feedback
- A parent dashboard and weekly report for every child
- Classes, assigning, heat maps and resources for teachers
Our privacy policy and terms are drafts until a lawyer has reviewed them. You can read the drafts now.
Promises we make to families and schools
Written down, so you can hold us to them.
No ads, on any plan
There are no ads and no advertising trackers, and we never market to children.
We never sell data
Not to advertisers, not to data brokers, not to anyone.
Student work doesn’t train AI models
We don’t use students’ questions, answers or chats to train AI models, and our contracts require the same of the AI providers we use.
Parents consent for under-15s
Children under 15 need a parent’s approval before they can use the tutor or upload photos. For class accounts, the school gives consent.
Hosted in Australia from launch
Accounts, learning records and backups will be stored in Australian data centres.
A tutor, not a friend
The tutor sticks to learning. It won’t role-play as a friend, claim to have feelings or try to keep a child chatting.
Names stay out of AI prompts
The AI model sees the year level, the state and the question. It doesn’t see a student’s name, email or school.
Download or delete, any time
Parents and students can download their data or ask us to delete it. We act on deletion requests within 30 days.
If a student is not okay
If a student writes something that suggests they’re unsafe, the tutor stops tutoring, says so kindly, and shows these numbers. Their parent or teacher is told. How the tutor behaves with children
Something we haven’t answered? Email hello@pencilwick.com. A person replies.
Questions parents and teachers ask
Does Pencilwick just give students the answers?
No. The tutor starts with a hint and asks what the student has tried. Students can ask for the steps or the full solution when they need them, and teachers can switch full solutions off for a set task.
Does it match what my child does at school?
Pencilwick follows the Australian Curriculum v9.0 from Foundation to Year 10, and uses the name your state gives the first year of school: Pre-primary in WA, Kindergarten in NSW and the ACT, Prep in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania, Reception in South Australia and Transition in the Northern Territory.
NSW, Victoria and WA adapt the national curriculum for their own schools. Most content lines up, and we show where it doesn’t. How alignment works.
How do you know the maths is right?
AI language models can make arithmetic slips, so they don’t get the final word. In maths, every answer and worked step goes through a separate maths engine that checks it, for example by substituting the answer back into the question. If a step can’t be checked, Pencilwick tells the student so.
What does it cost?
Nothing, for now. While we get started, Pencilwick is free for families, students and teachers, with every feature switched on and no payment details needed. If that ever changes, we’ll let you know well in advance, and you’ll never be charged unless you choose to. More about free for now.
How do I close my account?
Email hello@pencilwick.com from the address on your account and we’ll close it. You can also download your data or ask us to delete it at any time.
My child is under 15. What do I need to do?
When a child under 15 signs up, they give us your email and we ask you to approve their account. Until you do, they can use lessons and practice but not the tutor or photo uploads. If they joined through their teacher’s class code, the school looks after consent.
Can my child get help in another language?
Yes. Students can ask the tutor to explain in the language they speak at home and switch back to English whenever they like. Lessons and curriculum wording stay in English, as they are at school.
What devices does it work on?
Any up-to-date browser on a phone, tablet, laptop or Chromebook. There’s nothing to install.
Is Pencilwick endorsed by ACARA?
No. Pencilwick uses ACARA’s curriculum under its Creative Commons licence. ACARA does not endorse any product that uses the Australian Curriculum. Read the full notice.
Start with tonight’s homework
Pencilwick is free while we get started. Sign up in a minute, no payment details needed.