Math Workout Pro

It’s fair to say that Math Workout won’t win any prizes for visual presentation. It is clearly laid out and the questions and input buttons are large and easy to read, but those who like graphical flair will be disappointed. There are no particle effects or slick animations. What is there, though, is a set of maths practice activities that are ideal for building your child’s mental arithmetic skills.

Parents looking through their child’s school books look for a grasp of complicated maths concepts but often forget that these concepts are built on fluency and accuracy in arithmetic. A teacher can demonstrate new concepts but only practice leads to mastery and so it is with arithmetic. Children need to develop mental strategies to quickly multiply, divide, add and subtract. The only way that they can do this is to practise frequently.

That’s where this app’s strength lies. It isn’t seeking to be an app that is played for hours on end.  Its purpose is to be played little and often. Children can play one of the quick-fire quizzes to answer a series of rapidly delivered questions in just a few minutes.  Another mode gives a starting number followed by a series of arithmetical manipulations that challenges players to hold numbers in their head as they manipulate them to reach the final answer.

A nicely graded set of parameters controlling the thinking time for each question lets children start at a comfortable level in the app and then build up the challenge as they progress. This gives the app a broad target audience. Upper primary children through to secondary children and even adults can all seek improvement in this app. Its graphical simplicity even becomes something of an advantage as it does not lock it aesthetically to a single age group.

Many educational apps are most at home on a tablet and this one works well on one but it is, perhaps, best on a phone. On a child’s device, it gives them the chance to complete their practice on journeys. If parents put it on their phone, they can use it for quick, but educational, parent/child competitions whenever there are a few minutes to pass.

Little and often will help build arithmetical fluency and this is just the app to help with that.