Let me repeat this again, for the folks who may not have read it before: I loathe math. I’m awful at it, it confuses me, it makes my brain hurt. If the App Store existed when I was a kid I may be singing a different song about math, but fortunately for kids these days they don’t have to go through the torture of textbooks and private tutors to help learn math skills. (I’m not exaggerating – math is my own personal torture.)
Last February we reviewed Sakura Quick Math, a well-executed math app that had a few minor flaws. We liked the basic format of the app – math questions that players can answer by writing the problems anywhere on the screen – but a few technical glitches were holding it back from being a real All Star app. The folks over at Shiny Things noticed and in October released the follow-up called Quick Math+.
Quick Math+ follows the same format as its predecessor but is more streamlined and less buggy. The app is targeted at school-aged kids from 5th grade on up and teaches math skills on a mental level – meaning that the problems are to be solved in the player’s head and the answers written on the iPad screen. This method promotes arithmetical fluency through basic functions such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and more.
One of the biggest issues we had with the original Quick Math was that the app didn’t recognize correct answers a good portion of the time. Admittedly, school-aged kids don’t have the best handwriting so this presented a problem and contributed to player frustration. In Quick Math+ there was not one single case of mistaken mathematical identity. I also appreciated that progress is tracked through charts and can be shared on Facebook or Twitter, or even in the Game center.
While the price point on this app is $1.99 and the same as it is for the original, the latest release is definitely more bang for your buck(s). Shiny Things took a fun and exciting way for kids (and some parents, achem) to learn and improve math skills and made it even better.
Pros:
– Original concept was enhanced
– Promotes mental math skills while encouraging players
– Progress can be tracked, charted, and shared
Cons:
– None; this app is mathtastic!
Price: $1.99
Age: 8+
