Customer Reviews

Learn Math

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I bought this game after successfully convincing my daughter to play "Personal Trainer: Math". Compared to the later, "Learn Math" is very colorful and school-friendly. Unfortunately the game has somewhat poor code execution. The result: an unresponsive game which gives little feed back. Most buttons have to be clicked in a very small area and the place to click seems randomly distributed. It would have been nicer if the pieces were to be dragged in place than clicked. If you answer a question wrong the mascot only shakes his head but does not offer a feedback. Toggling around the fill-in spaces is horrible and surprisingly it does not take any inputs from cursor buttons of console. Nevertheless, the game must be praised for fairly high standard of problems. However I have modified my previous review because the game has managed to keep my child motivated and she has not been put off by the quirks of the game. She enjoys playing it though our favorite remains "Personal Trainer: Math". I wished the developers could fix the technical aspects of this game.

After reading some great reviews of this game, I had high hopes of being able to use it with my boys in 2nd and 3rd grade to help reinforce their math skills. Neither of them seemed enthusiastic about it, so I sat down myself to give it a try.

I went to the 3rd grade multiplication section, and immediately had issues with it. It shows you a grouping of objects (such as five groups of four playing cards), and has a space to enter both the addition answer (4+4+4+4+4=20) as well as the multiplication - which was where I first found problems. I entered "4x5=20." The vampire shook his head no. What? Has it really been that long since I did multiplication? I tried it again - "4x5=20." Still no. So I switched it up - "5x4=20." Oh, NOW the vampire said I had it right. Why on earth would I not want to reinforce the idea that 4x5 is going to be the same as 5x4?

Next I went to the time section, and again got the vampire shaking his head over what was a correct answer - I just somehow didn't enter it in the order he wanted it! I'm sorry, but if it's confusing and frustrating to me, I'm not going to inflict it on my kids! I'd return it if I could.

I bought this game for my 6yr old son. Given the choices of problems available, I'd say the game is a great fit. However, the lack of feedback from the game doesn't allow a kid to learn from its mistakes. For example, the game asks the child to calculate the results of 10 additions (one number remains the same and has to be added to 10 different numbers - 3+1 =4, 3+5= 8,...). So, when the kid does all the calculations correct, the game acknowledges that. However, if one or multiple answers were incorrect, the game just says that this was wrong. It doesn't tell which calculations were incorrect or what the correct answers would have been. Similarly, the game only acknowledges a correct answer if it has been entered in a certain way. As another reviewer pointed out here, you have to enter a multiplication in the right order - without the game telling you what the right order is. So, the game accepts 5x4=20 as correct, but claims that 4x5=20 is incorrect. The same issue appears in puzzle games. If you have to create a shape out of smaller shapes, the game seems to expect that you come up with one very specific solution - even though there are several possible solutions to the problem.
Needless to say, the game was "played" a few times and never touched again.

I hated math when I was a kid and I was not so good at it, either. Now, I use math in my job every day. Some of my co-workers are better at doing numbers in their heads than I am, which is why I bought this game. If you do some math drills, you will get better! And you will not need a calculator for everything. I've been using the game a few times a week, whenever I have a little spare time. The drills are fun, they are repetitive enough to help you improve, but not so repetitive as to be boring. It is a fun and interesting challenge to see how many problems you can get right and to work up the levels. As a professional instructor, I think this game will actually teach you something worthwhile. This game is suitable for kids ages 10 and up and also for adults who need to keep their job skills competitive.

Great game, entertaining and educational. I am using it to help my granddaughter get a head start for 2nd grade. It worked wonderfully on vacation. Kept her occupied on a 8 hour drive.

Great variety of challenging problem types and puzzles. Easy to navigate for young and old. Clever, intuitive design and operation. I can't wait to wrest the game away from my 6 year old daughter! Highly recommended!

The following review was written by Sadie, one of my fourth graders. On a personal note: $39.99 (the current price of it) is WAY too much to pay for this game. We got our classroom copy of it through Scholastic for $19.99 and you can find it even cheaper than that elsewhere. Now, on to Sadie's Review:

Learn Math is a fun educational Nintendo DS game that we have here in our classroom. It's kid-friendly, (vampire themed) has the basic math units for kids grades 1-4, and each time you complete a certain amount of categories in a grade level, you can play challenging logic games too!

This game is for the Nintendo DS game console, so it is portable. That means you can take your math lessons on a trip, or just study in your room. It's an excellent study guide also.

Pros: Vampire themed, portable, educational, and made so that both boys and girls will like it.

Cons: Not enough grade levels, needs instructions on how to work a problem, and needs more levels in general.

I bought this game to help make math fun for my 7-year old son who needs help w/ math. He knew the answers but we couldn't figure out what we were supposed to do w/ the game.

It is a great game...but what I like most about it that it goes up in grades so my 6 year old daughter can play with it for years to come...

Educational games are not usually a big hit in my house. This game, however, has been enjoyed by both of my children. They have fun and get a math review at the same time. Though the box says it is for grades 1-4, it is really for grades 2-5. My first grader can play some of the games but is more easily frustrated by it than my second grader. In a few months, it will be a great game for both. I do wish the game would show the correct answer when the wrong answer is chosen as this would help with the educational value. My children also found some of the directions a little too vague to be helpful, so I had to explain the rules to the game, but then they were on their way. All in all, a good game that makes both parents and kids happy.