Cheap Mindpower Math Middle School (Software) (Unix, Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows Me, Windows 98, Linux) Price

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Customer Reviews of Mindpower Math Middle School

Little green math tutor...
I'm a homeschooling mum and I bought this for my 9 year old son who loves math. It's an absolute dream! I had no problems whatsoever installing the program and my son was captivated from the start. The package is presented by a green alien by the name of Digit who is totally engaging and explains carefully everything your kid needs to know. The only problem I have with it is limiting my son to one lesson per day. <
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>The 4 cds are a whole course, designed to be worked through systematically. I would imagine it would get pretty confusing if you just dipped in at random as the lessons build on one another and rely on concepts and terminology introduced in earlier lessons. It is assumed that the player (student?) can add, subtract, multiply and divide competently. If you get stuck, you can click 'Show Me' and you are guided through a step by step breakdown of the current problem. If you make a mistake, a relevant explanation is usually given. After every lesson there are practice problems to work through, usually with a good 'real life' theme. <
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>The only drawback I've found is that the program is so good at teaching your kid mathematical terminology that they end up asking you awkward questions like 'Mum, do you know what the multiplicative inverse of 22 over 7 is?' at inopportune moments...

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Horrible
This package appears ideal: it covers a lot of Middle School math subjects, over 4 CDs. The problem is, the creators of this software (which runs very slowly in your web browser!) have been a little too cute -- instead of just presenting the material, they run you through these elaborate scenarios requiring that you keep track of an entire fictional situation, and in using this with kids, they lose interest immediately because they're expending far too much time and mental energy just trying to figure out either what the question is, or trying to whittle down the real math problem inside of some elaborate story. It's a huge time waster and is monumentally frustrating. For example, one such headache, the 'Estimating Quotients" lessons, revolve around a story about connecting the intercontinental railroad, measuring the railroad ties, space between, etc., etc., with lots of other information that confuses the child. This is the common theme. I run the software, and the kids can't figue out what the h&ll the question is!
It might not be so bad if these 'mathematical problem scenarios' were used after the basics had been covered, but instead are the norm in presenting the material for the first time. The result is that the kids are totally lost and just don't get it.

Also, this software takes an extraodinarilly long time to cover a miniscule amount of mathematics. They could have easily fit the entire course on one CD, with plenty of room to spare, had they simply covered the basics, instead of making everything a 'challenging problem, or game, or complicated scanario. I can see where they might have thought that this would make learning math enjoyable, but in practice the kids are lost half way through each lesson.

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This program is revolutionary, avoid its competitor
This is an ABSOLUTELY EXCELLENT PROGRAM, so much so that easily threatens the job security of a better than average math teacher.
The presentation relative to the rest of the field is revolutionary. I really don't see how a teacher scribbling on a chalk board or even trying to answer questions in a class room session would be as effective as this program. Every presentation is perfectly clear and the explanations are driven by the amount of information the user needs.

The comments about the graphics are irrelevant, the graphics do exactly what they are supposed to, which in part involves not distracting the user...

The only thing I could recommend to the Learning company about this product is that spice up the packaging a little, because that is all their competitor really has.