What is the MINDSpeak Assessment?

MINDspeak is Study Smart’s holistic assessment platform, scientifically evidenced with two research grants at the University of PEI. It was developed by doctoral scholars to help teachers efficiently identify and effectively support the diverse needs of all students in the classroom.

Through an engaging, age-appropriate experience, students uncover their unique strengths, interests, motivators, and learning preferences. These insights are transformed into clear, actionable strategies that can be used in the classroom, during tutoring sessions, and at home.

How it Works

Learn how MINDspeak works in the video below.

How MINDSpeak Works?

1. Student Voice

Students complete a fun, gamified assessment designed to capture how they learn best. Through short, engaging activities, MINDspeak identifies:

  • Learning strengths
  • Interests and motivators
  • Study and learning preferences

The experience is interactive and age-appropriate, helping students feel engaged and confident as they move through each level.

2. Insight Results

Once the assessment is completed, students, parents and educators receive:

  • A clear, easy-to-understand student profile
  • A personalized learning plan
  • Practical, ready-to-use learning strategies

These insights make it easier to understand not just what they struggle with, but why.

View Sample Learning Plan
3. Impact

The results from the MINDSpeak assessment can be used to:

  • Guide homework and test preparation
  • Support confidence and motivation
  • Personalize instruction and tutoring sessions
  • Share consistent strategies between home and school
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What is in the Assessment?

Three Progressive Levels

MINDspeak is structured into three progressive levels of activities designed to meet students where they are. Each level adapts to grade and ability, ensuring the assessment remains engaging, age-appropriate, and informative.

To keep students motivated throughout the process, the experience is designed with interactive, gamified elements—such as puzzles, challenges, and achievement-based progression. This approach helps maintain focus, encourages participation, and allows students to move through the assessment with a sense of accomplishment.

Affective & Cognitive Insights

Beyond academics, Mindspeak also explores five affective and cognitive areas, including learning skills, learning preferences, multiple intelligences, motivational tendencies, and executive functioning skills — highlighting how students learn best.

Academic Skill Areas

Each level includes short quizzes and activities that assess six core acdemic skills: reading fluency, reading comprehension, writing, math operations, oral expression, and listening comprehension.

Time & Structure

Each activity takes about 5-10 minutes to complete. The full assessment takes about 75 minutes in total, relative to each student’s grade level and ability.

The assessment is designed to be flexible and can be completed in multiple sittings, allowing students to stay focused without feeling overwhelmed. Its structured, step-by-step format helps guide students through the process in a way that feels clear, supportive, and achievable.

Designed for students, built for impact

Educators & Tutoring Teams

MINDspeak helps educators deliver more effective, personalized instruction by saving time identifying student strengths and needs while providing holistic student and class profiles. With ready-to-use, UDL-aligned strategies, it supports consistent, high-quality instruction across classrooms and tutoring teams.

Parents

MINDspeak gives parents clarity and confidence in supporting their child’s learning by helping them understand how their child learns best. With access to a personalized learning plan and practical strategies, parents can better support homework and study habits while building their child’s confidence and independence.

Students

MINDspeak is designed to help students better understand how they learn, empowering them to feel more confident, capable, and in control of their learning. By discovering their strengths and preferences, students can build motivation, use strategies that actually work for them, and take ownership of their learning journey.

frequently Asked Questions

The holistic assessment was designed to help students understand how they learn and give students a voice and choice of strategies that work best for them. Students want to learn when they know how they learn. The learning plan can also be shared with educators who support the students inside and outside the classroom so educators can better understand the student’s strengths, needs, interests and learning preferences and build positive holistic relationships with them.

It is sometimes difficult for educators to identify the diverse strengths and needs of students, and build holistic relationships with limited tools and resources. Study Smart’s class profile enables educators to receive a one page snapshot of the learning plan summaries of all their students. Since the assessments are initiated and completed by the students, the educators save time in efficiently identifying and effectively supporting the needs of all their students.

No. Our holistic assessment is a screening that can be completed within 75 minutes by each student instead of waiting for an IEP which could take months or years to identify the student’s needs, and develop and implement strategies. All students in a class or educational setting have access to a holistic assessment instead of only those with diagnosed needs that qualify for an IEP. This ensures no student falls through the cracks and minimizes the stigma of being one of the few students in the class to have an IEP.
Finally, the holistic assessment is initiated by the students instead of the teacher. After the student completes the assessment, a learning plan and customized instructional strategies are generated aligned to each student’s strengths and needs. The most effective strategies are then selected by the student and can be used by an individual student with a tutor or with the entire class by a classroom teacher. The individual plans are then consolidated into a class profile so the tutor or teacher can easily access a one summary snapshot of the profiles of each individual student. 

No. Our holistic assessment is an affordable condensed version of a psychological assessment that is accessible to all students regardless of their socioeconomic status. The holistic assessment includes a screening of students’ academic and cognitive skills as well as their interests, learning preferences and motivational tendencies. The strategies recommended by the holistic assessment are practical and can be used by the student as well as the entire class.

The total time to complete the assessment is approximately 75 minutes but the assessment is broken down into 3 modules with a series of 5-10 minute activities, so students can complete the assessment at their own pace.  We do not recommend the assessment to be completed in one sitting as the assessment contains a lot of information for students to absorb and reflect on. Students will be more engaged and motivated if they complete the assessment within 3-5 sittings. 

Educators are not obligated to follow the strategies in the holistic assessment; however educators may appreciate having a better understanding of each student’s strengths, needs, interests and learning preference as well as strategies to support the students. Unlike the strategies within an IEP or psychological assessment which may be difficult to implement with a large class size, the strategies in our holistic assessment are based on the principles of universal design for learning. This means the strategies can be used by all students in the class which makes them easier and faster to implement.

Absolutely.  In fact, the strategies were designed to be used by individual students independently or with the support of an educator within or outside the classroom. One of our goals is to help students learn how they learn so they can become confident, self-directed learners who want to learn regardless of the support available to them.  We make it easy for students to implement the strategies with step-by-step instructions which illustrate the strategies and guide students to apply and reflect on the effectiveness of each strategy. 

Although each student can complete the assessment independently, an educator or parent is recommended to be in the room while students complete the assessment to help students stay on track and minimize distractions of phones and other computer activities. The assessment can also be completed in a small or large group setting where each student is separated and guided to complete it independently. More supervision is required by the educator in a group setting to keep students on track and offer support as needed. 

Students can complete the assessment on a computer, laptop, tablet or phone. Since there are videos and audio recordings embedded in the assessment, it is recommended that students in the group settings use headphones to minimize distractions by others.

We offer affordable solutions to ensure all students are able to access the support they need. Compare the different price options for students.

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