§ 01What it is
Simu JHS is exam preparation done properly: every indicator of the NaCCA Common Core curriculum for Core Mathematics (Number, Algebra, Geometry & Measurement, Handling Data) and Integrated Science (Diversity of Matter, Cycles, Systems, Forces & Energy, Humans & Environment), each tagged with its official code — like B7.1.1.1.1 — and a BECE priority badge showing how often that topic has appeared in past papers.
Open it from the Student Portal's app grid or at jhs.simusim.com. The bottom navigation has five tabs: Today, Maths, Science, BECE, and Me.
§ 02The Today screen
Home base. From top to bottom:
- Live stats — your mastery count, your streak, and the daily-goal ring.
- The greeting — “Maakye” / “Maaha” / “Maadwo” with your name, the date, and “1 lesson today” — the app always nominates one lesson so you never face a blank page.
- The Continue card — straight back into today's lesson, tinted in its strand's colour.
- Your strands — a grid of all strands with progress bars (tap any to browse).
- Review due — mastered topics that are due for a spaced-repetition check (see § 06). Clearing these is the highest-value ten minutes in the app.
- Continue practising and the Weakness clinic — topics still in the “learning” state, and the ones that keep tripping you up.
- Daily quest — e.g. “Get 5 questions right in a row” for XP and gems.
- Flash drill — “Two minutes of typing. Sharpens speed for BECE Paper 1.” → Start a drill.
§ 03Strands & mastery tiles
Open a strand and you'll see its content standards (e.g. B7.1.1.1 — “Place value, rounding, significant figures”), each with a BECE priority badge, and under each one a row of indicator tiles. The tile's look tells you its state at a glance:
| Tile | State | Meaning |
|---|
| Solid colour, ✓ | Mastered | Learned and holding — will resurface for review on schedule. |
| Light tint, ↻ | Review due | Time to confirm you still have it. |
| Pale tint, · | Learning | Started, not yet secure. |
| Dashed outline | Not started | Untouched. |
Tap any tile to open its lesson.
§ 04Inside a lesson
- Concept — the idea in plain language with Ghanaian grounding (GH₵ notes for place value, charcoal and gari for matter).
- Simulation — an interactive widget: drag digits into a place-value chart, heat particles and watch the state change.
- Worked examples — stepped walkthroughs you tap through.
- Practice — multiple choice (A/B/C/D) or keypad answers with instant feedback: “Correct”, or “Not quite” with the specific mistake addressed. A hint sheet is always one tap away.
- Working (BECE mode) — a free-writing box for showing your working the way Paper 2 demands.
- Done — a quiet “Lesson done”. No fireworks; the progress is the reward.
During a lesson the navigation hides — it's just you and the work. The indicator code and subject stay visible at the top.
§ 05Practice sessions
- Open Practice and set up the session: pick the strand, choose 5, 10, or 15 questions, toggle the timer, and pick Random or Adaptive (adaptive weights questions toward what you're weakest at).
- Answer each question — A/B/C/D buttons, or the on-screen keypad (it has fraction entry and a √ key). The working box is there if you want to think on paper.
- Questions you miss requeue at the end of the session — you leave having got them right, not having got them wrong.
- The results screen shows your score, a per-indicator breakdown (e.g. “B7.1.1.1: 2/2”), and your XP and gems. Practice again goes straight into another round.
§ 06How mastery works
The app uses spaced repetition — the same technique medical students use — tuned for a school term:
- Answer an indicator's questions correctly enough times in a row and it moves from learning to mastered.
- A mastered topic comes back for a quick review — first after 1 day, then at growing intervals (each successful review multiplies the gap by about 2.5×), capped at 30 days so nothing disappears for a whole term.
- Miss a review and the topic returns to review due with the clock reset to 1 day — no shame, just a tighter loop until it sticks.
The habit that works
Clear the Review due list first, every day, before new lessons. Ten minutes of review protects weeks of past work.
Streak language is deliberately calm: “Your daily streak reset to 0. Pick it up today.” There are no leaderboards anywhere in the learning flow.
§ 07BECE prep & flash drills
- Mock exams (BECE tab) — full-length, timed papers built from past-paper patterns, with a working box per question. Finishing shows your mark and a question-by-question review with model answers.
- BECE priority badges throughout the strands show which topics earn their place in your revision plan (high = appears constantly in past sittings).
- Flash drills — two-minute rapid-fire rounds for the mental-arithmetic speed Paper 1 punishes you for lacking.
§ 08The science side
The Science tab mirrors the maths structure across the five science strands, with two extras: a “Start here” featured lesson (“Solids, liquids and gases”), and practical investigation sheets for B7–B8 — printable, offline-friendly practicals that cover the curriculum's hands-on indicators. For full virtual experiments, pair it with Simu Science Lab.
§ 09Progress & settings
The Me tab holds:
- Mastery — “A quiet record of everything learned. No leaderboards.” Counts of mastered / learning / review-due / not-started, per-strand progress bars, per-indicator detail with attempt counts, and a 14-day practice-score graph.
- Settings — light/dark appearance, sound, and the interface language: English today, with Twi, Ga and Ewe shown as coming soon.
§ 10For parents & teachers
- Parents get a weekly summary — per-strand mastery bars and recent activity, updating live as the child practises. Calm by design: no panic triggers, no comparisons. The same numbers surface in the Parent Portal.
- Teachers with staff access get a class view highlighting which indicators the whole class is weak on — useful for planning the next lesson the old-fashioned way.