With the “TEAN – Read the Clock” app, everyone can learn how to read the time on an analog clock at their own pace and in their own individual way.

The innovative didactic concept makes it possible to learn both accompanied and alone

The app contains three quizzes with different learning objectives:

• Learn to read the time
• Learn to tell the time
• Learn the 24 hours of the day

The learning concept is divided into stages and is based on the variation of three parameters:

• the representation of the clock dial with or without numbers
• the level of difficulty: full hours, half hours, quarter hours, etc.
• the response time

How to work with this app

Step 1: Read the time

The first thing you need to learn is to deduce the hour and minute from the position of the two hands on the analog dial. To do this, you choose the “Digital Quiz”

To run the quiz, the user first selects a clock dial (#1 .. #9) by clicking on the arrows at the top. Then he selects the level he wants to work with by clicking on the arrows below the clock dial.

This quiz is divided into 20 levels forming 5 groups from very easy to very difficult.

How to move up the levels

The first group (levels 1-4) uses only full hours, the second (levels 5-8) adds half hours, the third (levels 9-12) quarter hours and in the fourth group (levels 13 -16) we work with 5-minute intervals. Then there is still the “super-fast” group (levels 17-20) which starts from peak hours to arrive at 5-minutes with a very short response time. Within each of the first four groups the same type of question is asked to the user, but the time available to answer becomes increasingly shorter.

For the first level of each group (1,5,9,13), the response time is not limited. For the second it is 7 seconds, for the third it is 5 and then 3 seconds. Super-fast levels (17-20) require a reaction in less than 2 seconds.

Levels 1-4: BEGINNER

We work full hours here. The goal is to locate the position of the red hand that shows the hours. The blue minute hand is always at 12. It is advisable (as with the other groups) to start with dial number 1, which shows the hours and minutes by numbers. With a little practice, you can gradually move on to abstract dials that only show the hours (#2), then only the dots (#4), and finally only the hands (#6). Dials with Roman (#7) and Arabic (8) numerals allow you to familiarize yourself with other clock dial representations.

Levels 5-8: MEDIUM

Now we start working with half hours too. The aim is to learn that for half hours the red hand is always in the middle between two numbers, the smaller of which represents the hour and that the blue hand on the 6 and shows the 30 minutes. This mode sometimes also shows the full hours to rehearse them.

Levels 9-12: ADVANCED

We now also add the quarter hours. The goal is to recognize that the red hand is still between two red numbers as before, but the blue hand can either be at 3 to indicate 15 minutes or at 9 to indicate 45 minutes. This mode sometimes also shows the half hours to rehearse them.

Levels 13-16: EXPERT

The transition to expert level is a bit challenging as eight new positions for the blue minute hand are now added. Before we only had 0′,15′,30′ and 45′. Now we also get 5′, 10′, 20′, 25′, 35′,40′, 50′ and 55′. So do not be discouraged when you are a bit confused – you will get there, with training. Just start with clock dial #1 as usual. It shows you all the minutes for the new positions.

Levels 17-20: SUPER FAST

These levels are super fast levels. Learning them is not essential; in fact, they can provide a fun challenge for students who are already very advanced.

On the quiz start page the user can read each time what difficulty and what speed is associated with the selected level. Then press “Start Quiz” and the quiz begins.

Now he has to answer 10 questions. For each question, the app indicates a random time on the analog dial and the user must tap the digital clock below which indicates the same time.

A sound confirms when you’ve given the correct answer, and a green box appears at the top. If the answer is incorrect (or not given within the available time), the sound is different, the wrong answer(s) are shown in red and the correct answer(s) are shown in green. A red box appears at the top. The goal is to answer all questions correctly (all green boxes) before moving on to the next level. But the app doesn’t restrict this, you can choose the levels freely.

Once the level is achieved (10 correct answers), a green check mark appears on the right.

By pushing the “Level” button you can see an overview of all levels, with the levels you have already achieved marked by a green dot. This makes your progress visible to a companion, for example.

Step 2: Tell the time

Once you’ve learned how to read the time on the analog clock, it’s time to learn how to express it, which means to correctly answer the question “Can you tell me the time, please?”

The easiest way is, of course, to say the numbers from the digital clock and just answer: “It’s 3:55.” On the one hand, that’s not very elegant and, on the other hand, it’s not very practical. Because the time is actually closer to 4 o’clock than 3 o’clock. So why complicate the task? Isn’t it more intuitive to simply say: “It’s 5 to 4?” Imagine you’re driving from Lausanne to Geneva and someone asks you shortly before you arrive “Where are you now?”. Wouldn’t you rather say then “I’m 5 km to Geneva” instead of “I’m 50 km after Lausanne”? The same principle applies to the expressions “quarter past”, “twenty to”, etc.

These time expressions simply developed with common sense and their learning is still part of school education in Switzerland and other countries today.

With the TEAN app you can learn these expressions step by step. The levels of the questions, the display on the analog clock and the times are identical to step 1. However, the answers are displayed differently: Instead of four digital clocks, there are three text answers, including a correct one and two incorrect ones, arranged randomly.

The evaluation of the answers is also identical to step 1: green colors and sound for the correct answer and red with a deeper sound for the incorrect ones.

This quiz is again divided into 20 levels and if you can answer level 16 correctly 10 times on a clock face without numbers, you can actually be sure that you have mastered time expressions sufficiently for daily use.

With the TEAN app you can choose from a variety of languages ​​for this exercise. The student can also use this app to learn expressions in French and German, as required by the school curriculum. In addition, the user can use the voice over function, which also announces the correct time via audio every time.

When achieving level 16, you can be quite sure that you have well integrated all the time expressions in the chosen language.

Step 3: Learn the 24 hours

The analog clock shows the twelve hours of the day, from six in the morning to six in the evening, in exactly the same way as the twelve hours of the night, from six in the evening to six in the morning.

The digital clock, on the other hand, makes the difference by counting from 0:00 to 23:59. To learn the concept of 24 hours, we designed a special dial (#9) that displays the corresponding numbers for the 24 hours in addition to the twelve hour numbers.

Step 3 is about learning this correspondence using a quiz. The structure of the quiz is identical to the other two steps. Displaying the answers from which the correct one must be selected is similar to step 1. However, this time the answers are displayed as 24 hour numbers, so there are always two possibilities. For example, sometimes the correct answer is 8:25 and sometimes 20:25. The two answers are both correct for the same position of the hands on the analog dial. To avoid confusion, the app never shows both of them at the same time. After the first training with dial #9, the student can gradually move on to the abstract dials (#1 -> #6) in order to determine the correct time over the 24 hours. By reaching level 16, the student will be able to master the 24 hours perfectly.