Akros vs. the Russian School of Math
Every day, built for your child, at home.
The Russian School of Math meets once a week, in a class of about 12 children who move through the curriculum together. Akros sends a lesson built for your child every morning. It reads every step they write, coaches the step where they went wrong, and brings each skill back right before it would fade. It all happens at home, with no device and no class to miss.
- A lesson every day, not one class a week
- No class to miss and no make-ups needed
- Built for your child, not a class of 12
- No homework battles at the kitchen table
7-day money-back guarantee · Siblings half price · Cancel online anytime
How Akros and the Russian School of Math compare
| Akros | RSM | Why it matters for your child | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How often | Every day: a new lesson each morning | One class a week, 36 in a school year | Consistency is key to successful learning: skills get practiced most days, not once a week. |
| A missed week | There’s no class to miss | No make-up classes | Sick days and trips don’t cost you lessons. |
| What you see | Every skill, and a photo of every graded answer, every day | Two report cards a year | You always know exactly where your child stands. |
| Built for | Your child: every lesson comes from their own answers | A class of about 12, at one of 3 levels per grade | Your child works on exactly what they need next. |
| Stuck on a problem | The next lesson brings it back with a hint aimed precisely at the wrong step | Try again, take a break, or move on, and ask at the next class | Help arrives the next morning, not a week later. |
| Homework | None: the lesson is the practice, about 20 minutes | After every class, up to 1–2 hours for a 2-hour class | No homework battles at the kitchen table. |
| Price | From $19.99 a month; each sibling adds $9.99 | Not published; news reports put it at about $2,000 to $4,000 a year | A full year of Akros Daily costs $239.88. |
Why Akros is the better choice for your child
Your child practices every day, not once a week.
Consistency is key to successful learning. RSM meets once a week, 36 times in a school year. Akros sends a new lesson every morning, so your child can practice every day, and on Akros Premium, Instant Grading delivers the next lesson in about 10 minutes when your child wants to keep going. Psychologists who reviewed 10 popular study methods rated spaced practice one of the 2 most effective: short practice spread across the week beats one long session.
There’s no class to miss.
RSM doesn’t offer make-up classes, so a sick day or a family trip means a lost lesson. Akros has no class, no appointment, and no drive to a branch. The lesson waits in your inbox, and your child does it whenever suits your day: before school, after soccer, on a Saturday morning, or on vacation. Your part takes about 5 minutes.
You see exactly what your child knows, every day.
RSM sends two report cards a year. Your Akros parent dashboard shows the whole map every day: every skill your child has learned, where Akros is fixing gaps and teaching new concepts, and every graded question beside a photo of your child’s handwritten work.
Every lesson is built for your child.
An RSM class of about 12 children moves through the curriculum together, at one of 3 levels per grade. Akros builds each lesson from your child’s own answers: recent misses to fix, skills due for review, and the next topic they’re ready for. It skips what your child already knows and repairs a missing building block before moving on, so your child always works on exactly what they need next.
Help arrives the next morning, not next week.
RSM’s Parent Handbook tells a child stuck on homework to try again, take a break, or move on, and ask the teacher at the next class. Akros reads every handwritten step, pinpoints where the thinking broke, and brings the problem back the next morning with new numbers and a hint aimed precisely at that step. After this coaching, children answer that type of question correctly on a later lesson 97% of the time, with no hints.
No homework battles.
RSM assigns homework after every class, up to 1–2 hours for a 2-hour class, on top of school math, and asks parents to help with concepts. An Akros lesson takes about 20 minutes, and the teaching is on the page, so your child learns on their own and you never have to teach.
Skills stay learned.
Akros tracks every question your child answers and every skill they learn, so it knows exactly when each skill is due for review. Each topic comes back 2 days after it’s taught, then at widening intervals of a week, 2 weeks, a month, and 2 months. Memory research finds that this widening spacing is one of the best defenses against forgetting. Every review uses fresh questions, so your child recalls the method instead of recognizing an old problem. As a result, 85% of fixed mistakes are still answered correctly a week or more later, with no hints.
No screens and no devices.
RSM Online is taught live over video. Akros is completely device-free: every lesson is printed, and your child writes out each step with a pencil. Children get more math problems right when they write out their steps: in a study of Dutch 6th graders who found math hard, answers with written-out steps were right 40% of the time, compared with 19% for answers worked out in their heads. In another study, accuracy rose when children were asked to write out problems they had been doing in their heads. Screens get in the way, too: when Massachusetts moved its state math test from paper to computers, students in grades 3–8 scored lower.
What Akros does for real children
of questions answered correctly on brand-new topics after one Akros lesson, up from about 25% before it
of missed questions fixed: answered correctly on a later lesson, with no hints
of those fixes still answered correctly a week or more later
A full year of daily Akros for a fraction of RSM’s tuition
Every first payment comes with a 7-day money-back guarantee, and you can cancel online anytime.
Choosing between Akros and the Russian School of Math
Is Akros challenging enough for a child who loves math?
What happens when we miss a day?
Can Akros help with a test coming up?
Can Akros read messy handwriting?
Sources, checked November 2026. Writing out work: Fagginger Auer et al. (2018) and Hickendorff et al. (2010). Paper vs. computer math tests: Backes and Cowan (2019). RSM schedule, class size, homework and policies: RSM FAQ, RSM programs and RSM Parent Handbook. Tuition: Boston Globe (May 2025) and Harvard Crimson (October 2025). Study methods: Dunlosky et al. (2013). Akros results: real Akros students, as reported on our homepage. Akros is not affiliated with the Russian School of Math (RSM).
You’re the coach.
Akros is the math teacher.
Start today, because every lesson builds on the one before: your child’s first lesson shows exactly where they stand, and tomorrow’s is built from it. Siblings are half price, and every first payment comes with a 7-day money-back guarantee.