What Timeback Is.
Timeback is where your child does their learning at Alpha Anywhere. It's the home base they'll open every day. This guide walks you through the main sections of Timeback and what your child will be doing in each one.
If you just joined and you don't have any activities assigned yet, you may need to take your Placement tests first.
Before starting placements, ensure your child has watched the Player’s Guide and completed the introductory quiz to unlock further sections. Ensure that the video is watched in its entirety, as subjects and assignments will only become accessible after completing the full video.
Your Learning Home
Students will see their Daily Goal Tracker, Assigned Tests, Subject Courses, Mastery Track, Streaks, and how many XP and Alphas they earn.
Your Learning Home
Date Filters: Show dates to see what has been worked on for the day, week, or a past day or week.
Daily Goal Tracker: Shows in one glance how much focused learning was done on the selected day and week, with a simple breakdown by subject so you can see what's done and what's left.
Assigned Tests: Any tests assigned to your child appear near the top of the page. This includes placement tests, MAP tests, and Grade Test outs. Click the test block to start the test.
Learning Courses: These blocks open the subject courses where your child completes their activity.
Menu panel: Use this to move to the other pages in Timeback: Home, Mastery Track (with each subject), Learning Badges, Alpha Bank, Life Skills, and the Hive.
Notifications: You will see all your notifications (bell icon), Alpha balance, an option to replay feature walkthroughs (question mark icon), and account profile (blue smile icon) at the top right of your screen.
Streaks Tracker: Track your current streak, view your streak Calendar, and purchase available streak Shields.
Daily Goal Tracker
Your daily goal, at a glance
In one glance, students see how much focused learning was done on the selected day and week, with a simple breakdown by subject so you can see what's done and what's left.
You'll see the day's progress as rings. As your child completes lessons (at 80% accuracy or better) or finishes a test, each subject lane fills up.
The goal should be to complete as many subject daily goals as you can. Get at least 4 subjects, and the ring closes and turns orange.
Important Note: If you earned 35 XP in a subject but your daily goal is 25, only 25 counts toward closing the ring and earning the streak. Don’t worry, though - the entire 35 still earns you Alphas.
Win the Week
Hitting every counting subject’s weekly goal unlocks a mystery prize and 1 streak shield. Writing does not count.
You also see all your XP and Alphas earned for your work. This goes up as you earn them.
Streak Tracker
On the right side of the Home screen, your child can track their current streaks, view their streak Calendar, view available streak Shields, and purchase new streak shields.
Streak multipliers are applied after the student accumulates 5+ streak days in a row. Writing - AlphaWrite earnings are not eligible for streak bonuses.
To earn a streak day, they need to meet the daily XP goals in at least 3 subjects, or at least 4 if they have 5+ subjects.
Streak Shields
If they don’t earn a streak day at the end of the weekday, a shield will be used to protect their streak. If they didn’t have any shields, they lose the streak.
Streaks apply only on weekdays (Monday - Friday). Students can still work during the weekends to earn the “Win the week” chest. This chest will always include a shield, which would allow flexibility for skipping a weekday and making up during the weekend.
Students can only have a maximum of 5 Streak Shields at a time.
Mastery Track
Progress toward goals
In the Mastery Track, you will be able to see exactly how you are progressing toward your goals.
Students can jump into their lessons, start their tests, book post-test coaching sessions, see their results, and review the tests from here.
Mapping and Rebuilding (Placements)
All students start with Placement tests. These confirm the best starting point so your child builds on solid foundations - this is called the Placement process.
"In the Assigned Tests section, click the subject block you'd like to work on to open its Test page. Then click Start Placement Test to launch the placement test in AlphaTest
For step-by-step instructions, see How to take tests in AlphaTest.
Here's how the process moves:
Your child's first test grade is set by their MAP screener.
First test:
90%+ → the next day, you'll test up a grade.
Below 90% → you'll start testing down.
Testing Down:
A test one grade lower until your child passes at 90%.
One grade at a time.
Testing Up:
After a 90% pass, tests move up a grade.
A 60–89% score gives Foundation Rebuilding lessons first, then a retest.
A score below 60% places your child in that grade and finishes placement.
Note: After you finish the Placement process in a subject, you may need to wait up to 30 minutes for activities to be assigned in that subject.
Track your time - Pomodoro Timer
The Pomodoro timer sits in the background as a guide, not a hard rule; it simply tracks how long the student has been working.
Learning time counts as learning time, so if a child steps away and comes back, the timer keeps running. Students can pause it anytime, and if they finish their work early, they can end the session early (no need to wait out the clock).
Once they've mastered and completed all the available XP, they're done.
Track your progress - Parent Portal
The Learning Goals page on the parents' portal is where you review your child's daily or weekly progress.
Important:
Your numbers will not update right away for every app. We need time to collect, process, and display the information in Timeback.
Rather than checking metrics constantly, we recommend your child focus on completing their work in each subject uninterrupted.
How much XP will students get in each app?
You'll find this in the interactive XP Guide. XP is earned for high-quality work, not just for completing lessons - so encourage your child to stay focused and give it their best effort.
Having Trouble?
I don't see any login details when I start an activity
Try signing in to the learning app with Google, using your child's student email credentials. You can find it in your parents' portal
My child doesn't have any activities assigned
New students may need to complete Placement tests first. Reach out to support if you are unsure. After completing onboarding, verify that assignments and lessons are visible in the app. If content still does not appear, ensure all required steps have been followed correctly before reaching out to support.
Ensure your child has completed the Player’s Guide and quiz before proceeding to Placement tests. Make sure the video is watched completely, as content will not appear until the onboarding process is fully completed.
My metrics aren't updating
This is usually normal - some apps take time to report. Focus on completing the work, and check back later in the day. If content is still missing after completing onboarding, try restarting the app as a troubleshooting step.
For any other Timeback issues
Need help? Talk to Alphie, our smart AI assistant, in the Parent Portal. If he can't sort it out, he'll connect you with our team.