Learn
How to judge an AI study app for your child
A new AI study app is advertised to Indian parents almost every week. Some are free, some cost a few hundred rupees a month, and most promise the same thing: better marks, less stress. The adverts all look alike. The apps are not.
You do not need to understand the technology to tell a good one from a bad one. You need fifteen minutes, your child's school notebook, and the five tests below. They work for free and paid apps, and for any class from 1 to 10.
This guide is about whether an app helps your child learn. Whether it is safe (who sees what your child types, age limits, what happens if your child is upset) is just as important, and we cover it in a separate parent's checklist for AI tutors. Do both.
The 15-minute test
| # | Test | Time | A good sign | A warning sign |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The homework test | 3 min | It asks your child a question back | It hands over the full answer |
| 2 | The wrong-answer test | 3 min | It finds the mistake and explains it kindly | It says "Great job!" anyway |
| 3 | The language test | 3 min | It answers well in the language your child thinks in | Good English, broken Hindi or Marathi |
| 4 | The syllabus test | 3 min | It matches your child's textbook and class | Content for another board or a different level |
| 5 | The money test | 3 min | You can see what you pay and what you get | Ads, pressure to upgrade, or no clear price |
1. The homework test: does it teach, or just answer?
Take one question from your child's actual homework, the kind they find hard. Let your child type or say it into the app.
- Good: the app asks something back. "What do you already know about this?", "What is the first step?", or it gives a hint and waits.
- Warning: a full worked answer appears in two seconds, ready to copy.
An app that always gives the answer can make homework look finished while your child learns nothing. That is the most common problem with AI study apps, and it is easy to see in three minutes.
2. The wrong-answer test: is it honest?
Ask your child to give a wrong answer on purpose, for example "7 × 8 = 54".
- Good: the app says it is not right, without making the child feel bad, and helps them find the mistake ("Let's check: 7 × 8 is 7 eights. What is 7 × 4? Now double it.").
- Warning: it praises the answer, or quietly corrects it without explaining. An app that praises everything is built to keep your child happy, not to help them learn.
Then try the opposite: ask the app a factual question you know the answer to, from a chapter you remember. AI tools can sound confident and still be wrong. If it gets a simple school fact wrong, it will get harder ones wrong too, and your child will not notice.
3. The language test: does it speak your child's language?
Many children in India understand a topic best in Hindi, Marathi or another home language, even if their school is English-medium. Ask the same question in the language your child thinks in.
- Good: the answer reads naturally, uses words your child knows, and keeps the maths and science terms your child's teacher uses.
- Warning: strange word choices, wrong grammar, or the app switching back to English halfway through. Read it aloud. If it sounds like a bad translation to you, it will confuse your child.
For younger children, also check voice. A Class 1 or 2 child who cannot yet read comfortably needs an app that can listen and speak, slowly and clearly.
4. The syllabus test: does it fit your child's class?
Open your child's textbook to the current chapter and ask the app about that exact topic.
- Good: it explains at the right level, with examples like the textbook's, and it does not jump ahead to methods your child has not been taught yet.
- Warning: content from a different board, a level far above or below the class, or vague answers that could be from any book.
Be wary of claims like "100% NCERT aligned" unless the app shows you which chapters it covers. Anyone can write that sentence.
5. The money test: who pays, and how?
Every app costs money to run. Each answer from an AI model has a real cost to the company. So if an app is free, it is fair to ask how it pays for itself. There are honest answers: a free version with limits, a paid version for more, a government or school programme, a grant. There are also bad answers.
- Good: a clear price (or a clear "free, paid for by ..."), what the free version includes, and how to cancel. No card needed to try it.
- Warning: adverts shown to children; pop-ups pushing an upgrade during a lesson; a free trial that asks for card details and renews on its own; prices you only learn on a sales call; long contracts paid up front.
A child's app should never show adverts or collect more than it needs. If it does, the business is built on your child's attention or data, and India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act says companies must get verifiable parental consent before processing a child's data and must not track or target children with ads.
Five quick questions to ask the company
If an app passes the 15-minute test, ask these before paying. A good company answers them clearly, in writing.
- Can I see what my child did? A short summary after each session (what was practised, where they got stuck) is worth more than a points score.
- Does it follow my child's syllabus? Which board, which classes, which chapters?
- What happens to what my child types and says? Who can see it, and for how long is it kept?
- Is an adult involved for younger children? For Class 1 to 7, an adult should start or watch the session. UNESCO's 2023 guidance on generative AI in education sets an age limit of 13 for the use of AI tools in the classroom.
- How do I stop, and get my child's data deleted?
Paid is not the same as better
Price tells you very little. Some free tools are excellent for one job (for example, explaining a single concept). Some expensive packages are mostly video lectures with a chatbot added. Judge the app on the five tests, not on the price or the advert.
A useful rule: pay monthly, not yearly, until the app has shown you, with your own child, that it helps. One month is enough time to see whether your child uses it without being pushed, and whether their school work changes.
Signs it is working, after two weeks
- Your child explains a topic to you in their own words, not the app's.
- Homework mistakes change: fewer of the same mistake again and again.
- Your child uses it for practice, not only to finish homework the night before.
- They still do some work on paper, without the app.
If after two weeks the only change is faster homework, the app is doing the homework.
Where CMDLearn fits
We are building CMDLearn, an AI tutor for Classes 1 to 10 in Hindi, Marathi and English, and we hold ourselves to these same tests: it guides to the answer instead of handing it over, a parent or teacher starts every session for younger children, there are no ads, and the adult sees a summary afterwards. It is not available yet. If you want to hear when early access to the AI tutor opens, join the waitlist. Meanwhile, our free printable worksheets for Class 1 to 10 come with answer keys you can check against any app.
Sources
- UNESCO, Guidance for generative AI in education and research (2023): www.unesco.org/en/articles/guidance-generative-ai-education-and-research; the age limit of 13 for AI tools in the classroom, from UNESCO's press release of 7 September 2023, UNESCO: Governments must quickly regulate Generative AI in schools: www.unesco.org/en/articles/unesco-governments-must-quickly-regulate-generative-ai-schools
- Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023, section 9 (processing of children's personal data), and the DPDP Rules 2025, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology: www.meity.gov.in
This is general guidance for parents, not legal advice.