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Your child's report card shows marks in the 90s. But ask why a plant needs sunlight and the answer trails off. You can check understanding directly, without turning home into an exam hall.
Can a child get high marks without really learning?
Yes. A mark shows how your child did on one school test, and that test can be easier than the skills it claims to check.
For the Fordham Institute, economist Seth Gershenson of American University studied Algebra I grades and state exam results for North Carolina public school students from 2004-05 to 2015-16. Many students got good grades, but few earned top marks on the statewide end-of-course exam, and exam scores predicted maths ACT scores much better than class grades did.
In a follow-up Fordham study, Gershenson found that students learned more from teachers with high grading standards, with gains in later maths classes up to two years on.
In India, the PARAKH Rashtriya Sarvekshan 2024 tested more than 21 lakh students in Classes 3, 6 and 9 in December 2024, according to the Ministry of Education's release on PIB. The average Class 9 maths score was 37%, as ThePrint reported. A national average is not your child's score, but school marks alone can't tell you whether the basics are in place.
How can you check real understanding at home?
Pick one chapter your child scored well in. Try these three checks, about ten minutes each, spread over a week.
Explain it to me. Ask your child to explain one idea step by step, with an example, as if you were a younger cousin. Psychologists Leonid Rozenblit and Frank Keil called the trap here the illusion of explanatory depth: people feel they understand complex things far more deeply than they do, and the illusion is far stronger for explanations than for facts or procedures (Cognitive Science, 2002). So asking “why” tends to show a gap faster than asking “what”.
Blank page. With the book closed, ask your child to put everything they remember on one page: definitions, a formula, a diagram. Then open the book together and circle what is missing. Henry Roediger and Jeffrey Karpicke found that students who practised recalling a passage remembered substantially more two days or a week later than students who reread it, though rereading made them more confident (Psychological Science, 2006). So this check also helps learning stick.
Same idea, new question. Take a solved textbook question and change the numbers or the wording. Or turn it around: “The answer is 12. Make up a question that gives it.” Memorised steps tend to break here, while real understanding carries over.
What does a gap look like in practice?
Say your Class 8 child scored 19 out of 20 on a unit test on linear equations.
Explain it to me: they say “move it to the other side and change the sign” but can't say why that works.
Blank page: they write the method out correctly.
New question: given “double a number and add 7 to get 31”, they get stuck writing the equation.
The method is solid; the gap is turning words into an equation, which direct test questions can miss. The fix: two word problems a day, saying the equation aloud before solving.
What should you say when marks and understanding don't match?
Your child didn't set the paper, so don't make them defend it. Try:
“Your marks show you've worked hard. I want to see which parts feel easy and which still feel shaky.”
“Teach me this bit. Wherever I get confused is the part we'll look at together.”
Avoid: “So your marks mean nothing?” That blames your child for how the school marks.
At the next parent-teacher meeting, ask: “Which questions in this test were the hardest, and how did my child do on those?” If a gap keeps showing up, ask the school for extra help in writing. A quick weekly check of school notebooks also shows whether work is understood or copied.
When is outside practice worth it?
Only once a check has found a specific gap. Extra classes for a vague worry can add stress without fixing anything.
Name the gap in one line, such as “can't set up word problems” or “can't explain photosynthesis without the book”.
Practise only that gap, a little every day, for a fortnight.
Run the three checks again. If the gap has closed, stop. If not, talk to the teacher before paying for anything bigger.
If the gap is a concept, the Fermi Concept Library has its own lesson for every concept in physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics and computing, so your child can revisit just the idea that slipped. If it is a method, the Fermi Problem Library has worked problems with a step-by-step solver that explains the reasoning rather than printing an answer.
If schoolwork starts to cause real distress, like lost sleep, tears before tests or refusing to go to school, speak to a counsellor or doctor. You can also call the government's free Tele MANAS helpline on 14416.
Start with one chapter this week, to know what's behind the marks.
