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How many?

Dots flash on a board for a moment, then a mask: how many were there? More dots and shorter flashes, with no top count.

  • Attention and speed
  • Timed
  • Endless levels

How it plays

A few dots flash on a board, then every cell fills for a moment to wipe them out. Say how many there were — type the number, or pick it.

Up to about four you see the number at a glance; past that it has to be built from groups. Levels raise the largest count without end and shorten the flash. Beyond nine dots an answer within about a tenth is right, because a flash that short cannot be counted one by one.

The working gives the dots row by row, so you can see where a count went wrong. The mask is a setting: without it, an afterimage lets you count after the dots have gone.

Keys

Space starts and skips ahead · 1–9 pick · Enter submits · Esc stops. On a phone, tap.

What it trains

This practises seeing how many at a glance, and grouping when there are too many for that. It improves this task; it claims nothing about mathematics or intelligence in general.

Learn

How to get better at how many?: the method, the techniques, what each new level asks of you, and the traps the wrong answers are made of.

Your approach to each question

  1. Before the flash, rest your eyes on the middle of the board so the whole of it is in view at once. Do not chase single dots.
  2. Up to four, trust the number that arrives without counting: one look is enough.
  3. Above four, see the dots as two or three small groups, each one you can take at a glance, and add the groups.
  4. Answer at once. The mask wipes the dots and the picture in your head fades fast, so type or pick before it goes.

Techniques and tricks

  • Group and add

    Split what you saw into groups of two, three or four, which you see without counting, and add them. Grouping is how a short flash of seven or eight is read.

    e.g. Three in the top half and four in the bottom: seven.

  • Halve the board

    Take the left half and the right half, or the top and bottom, as two quick glances of the same picture. Two small numbers are easier to hold than one large one.

  • Know the shapes of small numbers

    Three dots make a triangle, four a four-sided shape, five a four-sided shape with one extra. Learn to see the shape and you have the number.

  • Estimate in fives past nine

    From 10 dots on, an answer within about a tenth counts: within 1 for 10 to 14, within 2 for 15 to 24. Build the estimate from groups of about five, not from single dots.

    e.g. 18 dots: anything from 16 to 20 is right.

  • Check against the rows

    The working gives the dots row by row, such as “1, 0, 2, 1”. Compare it with the groups you saw to find where a count went wrong.

As the levels climb

  • The top count rises by one every level or two without end, and each count is drawn from within four of the top. Past four you can no longer see the number whole, so start grouping at level 1.
  • The flash shortens from 700 ms to 560 at level 2, then 450, 360, 290 and 230, down to 190 ms at level 12. After that only the count grows.
  • Counts of ten and more arrive at level 11. From there an answer within about a tenth is right, so switch from exact grouping to estimating in groups of about five.

Traps to avoid

  • Counting one by one. In a flash of a few hundred milliseconds the picture is gone half way through the count, and the answer falls short.
  • Two dots that touch at a corner read as one blob. The dots are spread so none touch side by side, but corners can meet — count a blob of two as two.
  • When choosing, the options are in order and one step apart, so the usual slip is the option next to the truth. Pick from your groups, not from which number looks likely.

How to practise

  • Keep “Mask the dots after the flash” on. With it off, an afterimage lets you count after the dots have gone, which is easier and trains something else.
  • “Answer by” starts on “Typing the number”. Switch to “Choosing it” and lower “Options shown, when choosing” only if typing is slowing you down.
  • After a miss, read the row-by-row count in the working and find the row where your groups went wrong.

Levels

Each question has a clock that comes from the work it asks for. There is no last level: at least one dial turns without end. Your level is judged on your last ten answers, every ten: 90% moves you up, below 80% moves you down, which holds most people near four in five right.

All of it is in the settings beside Start — how many answers a judgement looks at and how often it recalibrates, the thresholds, the time, which questions, how many options, and whether you see each verdict at once or review them together at the judgement. You can also jump to any level.

More attention and speed

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