Multiplication with Ibbleobble

Right from the outset, this app feels child-friendly.  From the child-like voice that announces the opening of the app and announces the names of the characters, to the large, bold, and easily readable typefaces used, the app takes great care over its presentation.  It provides the player with a comfortable and welcoming experience.

The app is all about multiplication practice and provides this through a multiple-choice quiz.  Each character in the game is associated with a different level and players earn rewards as they achieve correct answers.    Questions appear and the player must choose one of three possible answers.  Each round lasts one minute and the score achieved is saved to the score table.

The challenge can be adjusted through the use of a difficulty setting that switches between easy, medium, and hard.  Rather than change the questions, this determines whether the questions are timed or not.  On easy, there is no time limit, whereas the other two settings pitch the player against the clock for each question also within an overall time.  

This is a far more useful facility than merely adjusting the difficulty of the questions as it allows the experience to be better tailored to the individual.  Without the pressure of time on easy, there is still a challenge of achieving the best score over the duration of the round.  There is no penalty for incorrect responses but, obviously, the best scores will be achieved by going straight to the correct answer.  Medium and hard have a timer bar - one that decreases leisurely on medium but at a furious pace on hard.  These time allowances nicely match the different stages in learning times tables from just beginning to fluent.

There is no penalty on any of the levels for giving an incorrect answer.  This feels a little less inspired than the difficulty settings as children often gain deep satisfaction from learning how to 'game' educational apps.  Tapping all of the choices in quick succession could be quicker than working out the correct answer and yet, in the worst case scenario of clicking the correct answer last, the time lost to doing this could well be quicker than doing the mental calculation.  The game could really do with a delay after each button press or a time penalty to undermine this strategy.

The app saves high scores to its built-in score tables which is great to allow children to try to outdo each other with the best scores.  The app presumes a single user so, thankfully, these tables are easy to reset so that as another child takes over, they can start with a clean slate.  Teachers may want to record the best scores to act as a target for other children to beat.

You have probably seen similar apps to Multiplication with Ibbleobble - the multiple-choice practise app is a staple educational resource.  Its smooth and polished execution, however, makes it one of the better ones and its features make it especially useful.  As a fun bonus, it even includes a sticker pack for use in the iMessage app.  The app is also a universal download that can work with the Apple TV.

Multiplication with Ibbleobble is part of a suite of apps made in the same style so children can transfer their enthusiasm for this app to the others and then they can engage with other areas of arithmetic.  Every educational device needs an app for practising multiplication and Multiplication with Ibbleobble should be one that you consider.

You can download Multiplication with Ibbleobble on your iOS devices from the Apple App Store.