Customer Reviews

Math Advantage 2003

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

 

 

With taking Geometry this year, I got stuck with a not so great teacher, and decided I needed extra help. We saw this product, and decided to purchase it. So far, it has great animated examples, quizzes, and tests. It also includes a "game" for when you pass a test with a good grade. This program contains eight discs starting at pre-algebra going up to calculus and also statistics, and "real life math." A great deal for brushing up or using for high school, like I am!

I was so surprised when I started using this software. There is so much you can learn. It takes you step by step through each subject, until you have mastered it. I never thought I would ever understand pre-calculas until now.

--> Stay away from all products from this company! <--

- wouldn't install on xp/pro (product box and Amazon state this works on XP, but website indicates product doesn't support this configuration)
- installs on mac os9, but works poorly (unreadable dark blue text on black background, sound is either too loud or too soft, fields not editable that should be, etc.)
- even worse, company (Encore) wouldn't honor 30-day money-back guarantee -- after attempting to return product in original box, etc. to Encore, I received a letter back stating I need to return product to place of original purchase (contrary to product documentation), and they didn't return product back to me to even be able to do this! [attempts to contact via phone didn't work -- on hold for 30+ min's]

As hard as this is to admit, but I bought this program for myself! I wanted to refresh my math skills and it certainly did the trick! My oldest son will get a lot of use out of it as well in a couple of years. For a person such as myself who has a hard time understanding concepts of mathematics, I thought that it explained most of them in clear and concise ways. Another great thing is that it comes with a voucher that you can send in with your receipt to receive another free "Encore" game.

After installing the sound did not work on the computer (returning to a restore point fixed that). Their online support seems to indicate that this is a common problem. We run Windows XP with multiple users. I assume it couldn't handle that, at any rate I received many errors in path names when I tried to run it, although it did seem to come up. We are relatively computer astute, and maybe could have gone in and fiddled with things to make it work - but I don't want to. Its going back.

Another down-side for me is that it consists of single CD's for each level of math, all of which need to be installed separately. Plus it has to be run from CD, not from the hard disk which is a negative for us since we want to make it as easy as possible for our kids to use!

This uses Macromedia Director software to accomplish it's animation . .which is all fine and well until you realize they are stuffing you into a tiny box . . .with black backgrounds and white text. Do they know nothing about usability?

I can't get very far into this, but throwing up some text on a small screen and reading it . .. is hardly dynamic.

Might help some . .but with my screen resolution at 1024x768 I'd actually like to use more than 1/4 of my screen to learn.

Lame, lame, lame.

If you're a MAC user here is some software that really works. Maybe MAC software is not readily available, but even this older version software works with MAC Classic 9.0 and MAC OS 9.2., as well as OS 8. I find that amazing. PC operating systems are each so different that newer software will not work across systems. And for grades 6-9, it is wonderful. Did not try anything but the Geometry and Pre-Algebra.