Customer Reviews

Math Advantage 2010

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I brought this software after reading the great reviews for math advantage 2008 and ignoring math advantage 2009 reviews. The reason I need the software is I am a college student about to take Calculus. So far I am unimpressed with Math Advantage 2010 it has small sections with animations that repeat the same examples in the lesson. Each section contains one excerise and it's always the same exercise.

The software I was looking for would identify the problems I have with math and contain multiple exercises along with detailed explanations. This software provides concise information that is clear and understandable but very few excerises that go along with the lesson. Furthermore, the animations are the same examples as in the lesson.

Highlights are the math games, the information is presented in a clear and easily understood way. Furthermore each section is brief. It'll probabley be great just for a quick math refresher.

My idea of Math Advantage 2010 is a quickly put together with no real idea of what a person who is bad in math needs.

However, I am going to give it a few more days before I send it back. I want to at least give it a week.

My recommdention is for 19.99 buy it as a supplement to a good textbook-the information is easily presented but if you really need good math software with lots of examples and exercises. Save your money.

P.S. the calculus section is just the Idiot's Guide to Calculus book.

I am currently a 16-year-old, about to take Precalculus next year. I bought this program in preparation for my classes. However, I was disappointed. The interface is very crude; it forces your computer into full-screen mode (without an option to change) and the voice takes forever to speak and slows down the program. And when you take a quiz, its always the same 15 questions, but in a different order, so its impossible to get any decent practice.

Plus, when I tried to use the calculus program (even reinstalling windows XP to do it) the program didn't work at all! I've never seen a worse computer program.

This is a terrible program.

This review is for the 2008 version of this product because the newer versions are HORRIBLE and should be avoided.

First two thing you need to know:

1. No amount of cutesey flowery multimedia is going to make your kids excited to learn math - we ALL have to choke it down. Math is fun only AFTER you learn it. But As far as any software goes to help you learn math, this is as good as it gets. And it's fantastic and worth every penny.

2. This 2008 version is the best version you can get - avoid the newer releases of this product, they have been cheapened with PDF files of "For Dummies" books that replaced previously included online learning CDs/products. These new versions are basically nothing more than glorified adult-level books on CD that have been graphically wrapped in kiddie graphics.

Years ago, I bought the original 8-CD set of this product (for Win3.x/95) and it was fantastic. It was sold as The Princeton Review math product. I'd still be using them for my kids if I could install them on 64-bit versions of Windows.

The original product I have was all originally made by The Learning Company and sold as The Princeton Review, many of those CDs are still included in this new 2008 version of the product, complete with updated content and formatting.

This 2008 version is also far better in that all is installed from a DVD in better packaging. The content has been updated for modern computers, including Vista (and thus Win7) and will be good for at least another 10-12 years just because of being 64-bit Win7 compatible. Now that I have kids, and the fact that we're now 5 more versions of Windows down the road from Win95, this is the perfect upgrade of basically the same product that I purchased years ago.

The educational material itself is a mixture of standard text reading, voiced narration, exercises, coaching, lessons, quizes, bookmarks, graphic visuals, interacticve multimedia games that act as quizes, etc. Navigation is extremely simplistic and very effective.

Some people (including me) might not like the rather childish menu screens and presentation. It literally looks like it was developed by Nickolodeon, complete with little cartoon characters, "boink"-type sound effects and colorful "TimBurton-esque" crooked TV screens that material is presented in. It's perfect for smaller kids, but junior high school students and even 6th graders will find the appearance onscreen to be quite chidlish. If you also got it for re-learning some math as an adult (like I did), you'll just have to put up with the kiddy screens. The math, however, is just as Newton and Einstein gave it to us, so have no fear - you will be learning the math, and it will hold your hand from the basics of 2+2 all the way up to Newtonian differential calculus, which put men on the moon. This is as close to "Reader Rabbit does Rocket Science" as it's gonna get, if that's what you're looking for for your kids. For adults, just don't let your teenage (or older) kids see you using it - you'll never hear the end of it.

Remember: AVOID the 2009 and 2010 versions of this product - they are absolutely terrible. Get the 2008 version of this product while it is still available. I just bought mine from a 3rd party vendor from Amazon because they are no longer in stock directly on Amazon. Best 8 bucks I've ever spent.

5 stars for the product, but dropping to 4 stars because of the chidish menus and appearance throughout that are bafflingly aimed at the toddler age group instead of the "teen plus" age group this level of content is clearly intended for.

This package's calculus section is only a pdf version of calculus for dummies... no interactivity, slides, or quizzes available.

So, I bought this to help my son get through Freshman Algebra (all of my kids were born with a genetic defect that makes them (pardon my slang) "SUCK" at Math.
Suffice it to say my son still sucks at math, but I'm becoming a bigger math geek than I was before.... If only they had included instructions on how to get your kid to use the stupid software!

I hear over and over that the 2008 version is much better/helpful/useful and that this version has issues. The 2008 doesn't run natively on a Mac except using something like Parallels Desktop running Windows 7 (which is how I use it). I'm going to check out the 2011 version that came out April 1, 2010 and compare at some point, but I can attest that the 2008 version is VERY useful. If my college algebra teacher can't explain something well I can look up the same stuff on Math Advantage 2008, and the combination gives a better understanding than I'd have with school alone.

The math counselor at my school even suggested that I just teach myself algebra with Math Advantage 2008 and then challenge the class rather than take it. That's how much confidence she had in the program, which she said a lot of home schooled children use.

We purchased this product as a tool for our children to use in order to review math basics which they have already learned, and be introduced to new concepts which they will see in the coming years. The software is not fun or entertaining. It is however informative and well presented. The lessons are fairly short and provide a lot of examples. In my opinion the quiz at the end of every chapter is the best feature. If an answer on the quiz is incorrect the software will explain why the answer was wrong. The software also keeps a record of the scores that were earned on the quiz. We can then review those scores and determine how well our children are absorbing the material. Our children are entering the sixth and eighth grades, and I would probably not recommend this for children much younger than eleven or twelve.

The old Math Advantage was good. This software is designed to divert you to a new company, or something. So, you will spend twice the money!!! Don't do it!

Excellent transaction. Received timely and in advertised condition. I would do business with this seller again.