Our Story & Purpose. Aura Tycoon is a free, independent revision app for Cambridge-track students. Practice questions, Aura Points, the Weakness Log, and every arcade mini-game are free and stay free — there's no paywall on the core loop. Answer questions correctly to earn Aura Points, spend them on real-world rewards your own family agrees on, and let a parent follow along and approve rewards through a password-free Parent Portal. This manual covers both sides: what a student does day to day, and what a parent can see and do. Look for the 👪 Parents tag on sections written specifically for you.

🚀 Getting Started

Sign in with a Google account — that's the only way in, and the only account needed. There's no separate Aura Tycoon password to create, remember, or lose. The app collects a name, email, and answer performance to run the learning loop and the leaderboard; nothing more, and it's never sold, rented, or shared with advertisers. Full detail lives on the live Privacy Policy.

Once signed in, the dashboard has four things to reach for: Missions (start practising), the Weakness Log (revisit what's still shaky), the Aura Store / Inventory (spend and track rewards), and, in Inventory, Get Parent Code — the one-tap way to invite a parent into the Parent Portal.

🎯 Missions & the Study Vault

A Mission is a focused set of practice questions for one subject and chapter — pick the year, subject, and chapter, and the app pulls questions that match.

  1. Open the Study Vault first

    On the very first question, the timer is paused and a Vault Link is available — read the study material before any pressure begins, instead of being timed from question one.

  2. Answer against a shrinking timer

    Every question after that has a shrinking timer bar that rewards quick, confident recall — across multiple-choice, written, and short-answer questions.

  3. Score on the first try, or later

    A multiple-choice question correct on the first attempt earns 50 Aura Points; other question types earn more. Getting it right on a later attempt still counts — just for half the original points.

  4. Never lose your place

    Closing the app mid-mission isn't a problem — Aura Tycoon remembers the last position by subject, so it picks up from the same question instead of starting the chapter over.

💡 Pro tip: points are highest on a first-try correct answer, so it pays to actually read the Study Vault material before guessing — a wrong first attempt only earns half, even if it's corrected a moment later.

📋 The Weakness Log

Every wrong answer is filed automatically into the Weakness Log, organised by subject and chapter — no manual tracking needed. Unlike a normal "revise this" list, nothing is ever deleted from it. Getting a question right again marks it mastered on [date] instead of removing it, so the full history of what was actually struggled with stays visible right up to exam week.

🕹️ Frenzy Mode & the 8 Arcade Games

Answer a question correctly, and Aura Tycoon drops straight into a 10-second round of your chosen arcade mini-game. Scoring is performance-scaled — the better the round, the bigger the bonus Aura on top of the points already earned for the correct answer. A weak round never costs anything; it just means a smaller bonus.

The arcade roster (more games are on the way)

⚡ Space Attacker

A space shooter — dodge and shoot down descending aliens for bonus Aura.

☄️ Meteor Storm

Steer clear of falling meteors while scooping up gems for bonus Aura.

🛡️ Bouncing Shield

Keep the ball in play with a paddle — every bounce banks more Aura.

🏎️ Lane Racer

3-lane top-down driving — dodge traffic, collect gems and power-ups, survive.

⚔️ Aura Slash

Swipe fast across gem orbs to slice them for points and chain a combo — avoid the red bomb, which ends the round early (score already banked stays).

📦 Stack Drop

Tap to drop a sliding block onto your tower — perfect alignment keeps it full width and builds a combo; a total miss ends the round.

💥 Aura Cannon

Aim, hold to charge, release to fire — a bigger charge means a bigger, piercing shot. Avoid the red Overload Core.

🥊 Solo Brawl Arena

Tap enemies before they reach the Aura Core in the centre — quick knockouts chain into a combo.

🏆 Aura Points, XP & the Leaderboard

Aura Tycoon tracks two separate numbers, and mixing them up is the most common confusion for new players:

AURA POINTS · SPENDABLE
  • Earned from correct answers and Frenzy Mode rounds
  • Spent on rewards from the Aura Store
  • Balance goes down when a reward is redeemed
  • Shown as the current "wallet" total
XP / LIFETIME · PERMANENT
  • Every Aura Point ever earned, added up
  • Never drops, even after spending Aura
  • Powers the Ranking Leaderboard position
  • A true record of total effort, not just current balance

The Ranking Leaderboard shows the top 5 accounts by Lifetime XP — because it's XP-based rather than current Aura balance, spending points on a reward never costs a student their rank.

🎁 The Aura Store

The Aura Store isn't a fixed catalogue the same for every family — it's a reward list your own family builds together, up to 6 items at a time, each with a name and an Aura Points cost you agree on. A screen-time slot, a weekend treat, a small gadget — whatever's worth working toward.

  1. Agree on rewards together

    Either a parent (from the Parent Portal) or the child (in the app) can add or remove a reward — it's the same shared list either side edits.

  2. Redeem a reward

    Spending Aura Points on a listed reward moves it into Inventory as pending — the reward itself stays on the list afterward, so it can be earned again.

  3. A parent approves it

    Nothing is handed over automatically. A student cannot self-approve a redemption — a parent reviews and approves each pending item through the Parent Portal, and it's logged to a permanent redemption history.

👪 The Parent Portal For Parents

The Parent Portal is a separate, password-free page where a parent can see a child's progress and help manage rewards — no parent account to create, and no password of your child's to hold.

  1. Your child generates the code

    In the app, they open Inventory → Get Parent Code to reveal a 6-character code. This is always the child's action — a parent can't trigger it remotely.

  2. They share it with you

    The code is meant to be read aloud or typed by hand — nothing sensitive is embedded in it beyond a link to their existing account.

  3. Open the Parent Portal and enter it

    No sign-in, no email, no parent profile — just the code, entered once.

  4. Your child can cut access any time

    Generating a fresh code instantly invalidates the old one.

YOU CAN SEE
  • Progress by subject and chapter, including weak topics
  • Current Aura balance, HP, and Lifetime XP total
  • Rewards awaiting your approval
  • Full redemption history, once approved
YOU CAN DO
  • Approve a pending reward redemption
  • Add a reward to the shared family list and set its Aura cost
  • Remove a reward from that list
  • Nothing else — redemption always needs your approval first
This feature collects no new categories of personal data — it only changes who can see data that already exists and who can help shape the family reward list. See the live Privacy Policy for the full detail.

👪 Open the Parent Portal

❓ Quick FAQ

Do I need a parent to use Aura Tycoon?

No — a student can sign in with Google and start practising alone. A parent's involvement through the Parent Portal is optional, adding progress visibility and reward approval, not a requirement to use the app.

Is any of this behind a paywall?

No. Practice questions, Aura Points, the Weakness Log, every mini-game, the Aura Store, the Leaderboard, and the Parent Portal are all part of the free core, and that core stays free.

Does redeeming a reward hurt my leaderboard rank?

No. The leaderboard ranks by Lifetime XP, not current Aura balance, so spending points on a reward never lowers a student's position.

Can my child approve their own reward?

No. Redemption always requires a parent's approval through the Parent Portal — a child spending Aura Points moves a reward to pending, never straight into their hands.

Do I need my own account to use the Parent Portal?

No — there's no parent account and no password. The link code your child generates is the only thing needed, and it stays valid until they regenerate it.