CTCMath

CTCMath is an Australian-built, K-12, online math curriculum that arrived in the American homeschool market around a decade ago and quietly became one of the most common answers to the question, "What do I do about math?" It is not the most elegant program, the most rigorous program, or the most conceptually deep program. It is the program most families actually finish.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Subject-specialist / video-plus-practice / mastery with diagnostic routing
Worldview	Secular
Grades	K-12 (through single-variable calculus)
Formats	Digital (video lessons + interactive practice + printable worksheets)
Cost tier	Budget
Parent intensity	1
ESA-common	Yes, approved on several state ESA programs
Accredited	No
Established	2007 (founded by Pat Murray; US brand launched ~2010s)
Website	ctcmath.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	3	Solid through Algebra II; calculus coverage is thinner than dedicated high school programs
Ease of teaching	5	Near-zero parent presentation; the platform does the instruction
Content quality	4	Clear, well-sequenced short-form video; excellent elementary drill
Flexibility	4	Students can move forward or back at will; diagnostic routing helps
Value for money	5	The family plan covers up to five students at every grade for one annual fee
Worldview scope	5	Fully secular and neutral; used by every worldview family
Visual/design	3	Functional and clean; aesthetically plain beside modern consumer ed-tech
Support resources	3	Weekly reports to parents; customer service; no human tutoring tier

Who the publisher is

CTCMath was founded by Pat Murray, a former Australian high school mathematics teacher with more than three decades in secondary classrooms and ten children of his own. The program began as MathsOnline in Australia in 2007 and was subsequently rebranded for the American market as CTCMath, the "CTC" inheriting from the earlier Australian name. Murray and his wife Maree, together with their family of ten, are based in Sydney; the company still operates from Australia while maintaining a US support phone number and US-aligned content.

The pedagogical premise is personal. Murray has written publicly that CTCMath grew out of his observation, across years of classroom teaching, that students failed mathematics mostly because they did not truly master earlier steps, and that traditional grade-level pacing forced them forward before they were ready. The curriculum's answer is a library of short, self-contained video lessons (most four to nine minutes) covering kindergarten through first-year calculus, paired with immediate practice, diagnostic tests, and progress reports that allow a student to move at whatever pace the material requires.

The program is secular. There is no religious framing, no worldview-integrated word problem (or its inverse), and no theological footnote. This is a neutral tool, useful across every worldview family on the homeschool landscape. It is also marketed directly to classroom teachers, private tutors, and small schools, not only to homeschoolers, which keeps the content professional in register rather than family-blog cozy.

The core pedagogy

The house method is short-form direct instruction plus immediate interactive practice plus diagnostic assessment. A typical lesson runs five to eight minutes of video in which Pat Murray (or another instructor in later additions) works through a concept at a whiteboard with voice-over and on-screen animation. The student then answers a short set of interactive questions; CTCMath grades them in real time. The platform generates a weekly workbook, a PDF of problems drawn from recent lessons, that the student completes on paper and the parent checks or marks as complete. At larger intervals, the student takes diagnostic tests that identify which topics are mastered and which require revisiting.

Signature mechanics: (1) Short videos. Every lesson is tight. A student who zones out for thirty seconds has missed ten percent of the presentation, which forces engagement without being punitive. (2) One-flat-fee family subscription. A single family membership covers up to five students across every grade CTCMath offers, which is unusual in online math and which changes the math of using it for multi-child families. (3) Diagnostic-first routing. Students can (and are encouraged to) take diagnostic tests before committing to a grade-level track. A fourth-grader who tests out of fraction arithmetic moves to decimals; a student who fails a long-division diagnostic returns to multiplication. (4) Grade-level independence. The subscription is not locked to one grade. A family can move a child up or down the K-12 catalog at any time, and siblings on the same subscription can be on entirely different levels.

The pedagogical register is Australian in origin, which shows in small ways: the spoken accent in Murray's videos, early module structure resembling Australian stage-band schooling, and a preference for orderly skill-building over discovery-based exploration. American families report this as neutral-to-helpful; students tend to find Murray's voice calm and readable.

A day in the life

A fifth-grader using CTCMath as a primary math program sits down at 9:00 AM with a tablet or laptop. The platform shows the next lesson in sequence (or the one the diagnostic sent them to), say, multiplying decimals. The student watches a six-minute video, then works ten interactive questions on screen, then prints or opens the weekly workbook page and solves a further ten problems on paper. Total time: twenty-five to forty minutes. The parent receives an emailed summary at the end of the week showing lessons completed, quiz scores, and time on task. If a topic scored below the threshold, the platform recommends a review lesson.

A ninth-grader working through Algebra I runs the same cycle at higher duration, eight-minute lesson, fifteen questions of practice, a fuller weekly workbook page, totaling forty-five to sixty minutes. A high school student preparing for calculus uses the diagnostic tests deliberately before committing to the next course, which saves a semester of remediation when gaps surface.

What they do exceptionally well

Elementary drill and fact fluency. CTCMath's K-5 content is its strongest segment. Short lessons, lots of interactive practice, and the platform's built-in "Times Tables Challenge" feature produce measurable arithmetic fluency with minimal parent scripting. For elementary students who simply need the facts and the operations to become automatic, CTCMath delivers.

Pricing per student. The family plan is $197.50 per year when paid annually or $397 for a lifetime subscription per the publisher's current pricing as of April 2026, covering up to five students across every grade. For a family with three elementary students, the per-child annual cost runs roughly $66, below nearly any other math program of comparable scope.

Diagnostic routing. The diagnostic tests are not a gimmick. They genuinely map a student's knowledge and suggest a starting point. For families who have pulled a student out of public school or switched from another curriculum mid-stream, this is an uncommonly graceful onboarding.

Parent transparency. Weekly reports go directly to the parent email with real data: lessons attempted, scores, time spent. A parent with six children across ages four to sixteen can monitor math progress in ten minutes a week without ever having to administer a test.

What they do poorly

Conceptual depth at higher levels. CTCMath through Algebra II is solid and well-presented. At precalculus and calculus, the program becomes thinner. The videos still teach the material competently, but a student intending to take AP Calculus or a college STEM sequence will likely need supplementation from a more rigorous program, Derek Owens, Art of Problem Solving, or a dual-enrollment course. CTCMath covers the content; it does not build the mathematical maturity.

Problem-solving versus skill practice. The practice sets favor procedural questions. A student who completes CTCMath Algebra I will know how to solve a linear equation; they will have done fewer non-routine word problems or multi-step applications than a student who completed Saxon, Beast Academy, or AoPS. Families who want a strong problem-solving foundation should pair CTCMath with a separate challenge source.

Plain visuals. The platform is functional rather than polished. The interface is readable and the videos are clear, but the design aesthetic is roughly 2015 ed-tech. Students who want the production value of Khan Academy or the gamification of consumer apps will find CTCMath subdued by comparison. This is usually neutral for students, but worth noting for families whose children resist visually plain materials. The upside of the restraint is that students tend to focus on the mathematics rather than on the presentation, which is the point; the downside is a student who expects polished interface signals may initially read the program as stale.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick CTCMath if: you want a low-parent-intensity, fully-prepared K-12 math program; you have multiple children and want one subscription to cover all of them; you need diagnostic routing to place a student accurately; your child does well with short direct-instruction videos; you value a flat annual fee over per-course pricing; your highest-priority student is in elementary or middle school.

• Skip CTCMath if: you want conceptual-depth problem solving as the centerpiece of your math education (AoPS, Beast Academy, Singapore); your student is heading into AP Calculus or a STEM major and needs a more demanding high school program; you want glossy or gamified ed-tech; you prefer a single-author printed textbook over a video-based subscription platform.

Cost honest assessment

CTCMath's family plan lists at $197.50 for a one-year subscription or $297 for 18 months per the publisher's pricing page, with individual student subscriptions available at a lower single-child rate. Rainbow Resource lists the family membership at $397 for a 12-month subscription through its storefront, prices vary slightly between the publisher-direct channel and retail, but all sit in the same general band.

Compared to Teaching Textbooks at roughly $55-$75 per student per grade (needing new purchase per student per grade each year), CTCMath's math per family is dramatically better for families of three or more. Compared to Math-U-See at approximately $140 per level plus manipulatives, CTCMath trades the physical manipulatives and parent-led instruction for platform-delivered video. Compared to Saxon Math, CTCMath is far less parent-intensive at the cost of less conceptual repetition.

A realistic all-in estimate for a three-child family using CTCMath as the sole math program: $200-$400 annually.

ESA eligibility notes

CTCMath is approved on multiple state ESA marketplaces as a digital curriculum subscription. The publisher lists eligibility on its website and maintains a dedicated ESA page for families with state funding. Approved state programs historically include Arizona's ESA, Utah Fits All, Florida's Step Up For Students, Iowa's Student First Scholarship, and several others; specific eligibility varies year to year as programs revise their approved-vendor lists. Because the product is secular, it is typically straightforward to approve in states that restrict religious curriculum. ESA families should verify through their specific state portal before purchasing; CTCMath customer service responds directly to ESA eligibility inquiries.

Alternatives

• Teaching Textbooks, a family would choose Teaching Textbooks over CTCMath for a slightly more structured, US-designed platform with integrated textbook-style lesson pacing and a math program that more closely mirrors traditional American textbook sequence.
• Derek Owens, a family would choose Derek Owens over CTCMath for substantially deeper high school math and physics, especially precalculus and calculus, with optional instructor grading and a paid feedback tier.
• Beast Academy / Art of Problem Solving, a family would choose AoPS over CTCMath for problem-solving depth at the elementary and middle school level, accepting a significantly higher parent-intensity in exchange for a program aimed at mathematical maturity rather than computational fluency.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed CTCMath's product pages, pricing tables, diagnostic description, and founder bio at ctcmath.com and w.ctcmath.com/pat in April 2026. We cross-referenced pricing against Rainbow Resource's current listing and independent reviews at Cathy Duffy Reviews and OpenEd. Prices verified April 2026.