Pure Math - Math, Brain, Memory

What is Pure Math – Maths, Brain, Memory app?

Pure Math makes it easy for its users to practice arithmetic in short practice sessions wherever they are.

The app's main screen has options to access three sections:

Math Arcade provides an ongoing challenge where the difficulty of the questions increases as players progress. It contains five sections to let its users focus on the arithmetic they most want to work on. Four options focus on a single arithmetic operator, while the fifth covers a mix of subtraction, addition, division, and multiplication.

Math Practice provides a fixed-time practice session which users can customise. They can choose which operations to include, how long the challenge lasts (1, 3, 5, or 10 minutes), and the range of numbers that form the calculations.

Math Tables provides practice on tables of numbers. Interestingly, this includes the familiar times tables but also has a similar set of tables for division, subtraction, and addition.

Players enter answers from an on-screen calculator-style pad, making the app's challenge more realistic than a multiple-choice quiz. It doesn't matter whether you prefer an ascending or descending number pad as you can show choose.

The latest update to this app added more language options to the app — it now supports nine languages.

What we love about Pure Math app.

Pure Math has a beautifully crafted and elegant visual design, and its options let players choose the practice session that suits them. They can play the Math Arcade for an ongoing challenge and to see their skills improve. For a quick burst, they can visit the tables or practice sections. 

Users who want to focus on their strengths can choose the operations they find easiest, while those who wish to address their weaknesses can select the operations they find trickiest. 

This flexibility makes it an app with many uses. Schools can provide it to let their kids engage in some self-marking practice while students could have it on their devices to fit practice in with their lives.

Pure Math's design is age-neutral. It is colourful and attractive enough for young kids to play without looking like a kids' app.   

What age is it appropriate for?

Mental arithmetic is a skill that people of any age can work to improve. Kids can establish the foundations of their abilities, while adults can work on them as a practical brain-training activity.

Pure Math has progressive difficulty levels that let its users build up to the challenge most appropriate for their current skill level.

Is Pure Math app easy to use?

Pure Math's elegance continues to show in its user interface. The main screen is clear and uncluttered yet provides access to every app feature, including a brief description of what it does. 

The practice sessions are self-explanatory, and entering the answers is done via well-sized buttons.

How will students benefit?

Practising arithmetic has many benefits. Constantly answering simple arithmetic questions commits them to memory rather than demanding calculation. Calculations are slower and prone to errors, especially when the arithmetic forms part of a bigger math problem. When kids become fluent in simple arithmetic, including learning the times tables, their performance, even in higher-level math tests, can increase too.

How will parents benefit?

Pure Math is an app for the whole family. Kids can use it to become better at arithmetic to help increase their accuracy and speed in tests, while parents can use it to keep their brains sharp and refresh their math skills.

Its visuals are attractive but age-neutral, and its difficulty levels cater for all. As the app supports Family Sharing, a whole family could try the app and see who improves the most.

How will teachers benefit?

Pure Math is the sort of app that is great to have on a class device as it allows teachers to direct kids to an educationally useful task that they can pick up quickly and fit into a fixed time. It is an excellent alternative to getting kids to do a written arithmetic test, as the app will do all the marking!

The app provides the crucial classroom feature of allowing teachers to reset the data between uses. This facility makes the app useful for classrooms without a one-to-one device ratio as one student can play, the teacher can record their scores, and then reset it for the next child to play.

What can Pure Math app improve on?

Apps that use in-app purchases are not the easiest for schools to administer, so we'd like to see a version of the app that they can buy outright.

Another helpful feature for schools is an easy data reset. When the app is on a personal device, players probably won't want to reset its scores, but this can be essential when it is on a shared school device. At the moment, the only option is to delete and reinstall the app to reset the scores in the Math Arcade, which isn't ideal.

We initially thought in this review that the app did not have a data reset, but it does! It isn't app-wide, as is typically the case, but the option exists as a small icon on each activity's menu. This option lets teachers provide a granular clearing of data but not an app-wide one, which could be more convenient and possibly easier to find.

The Math Tables option only has tables up to ten, while most school curricula ask kids to learn up to 12. Rather than fall short for those schools, we'd rather it offered too much for any curricula that only go up to ten.

How much does Pure Math app cost?

Pure Math is easy to test for free, simple to upgrade to premium, and offers good value. You can download a cut-down version of the app for free and fully unlock it with a single in-app purchase. There are no further purchases or subscriptions.

Pure Math is compatible with Family Sharing allowing your download and in-app purchase to be used across devices linked to your family.

Is Pure Math app safe to use?

There is no inappropriate content within Pure Math. The app shows occasional advertisements in the free version, which are served by an ad network making their exact content outside the developer's direct control. These do not appear often.

Users do not need to register or sign into the app. It does not contain any social media links.

Overall rating of the app.

Pure Math is a simple app but an excellent one. Practising arithmetic is an engaging and helpful activity for anyone, whatever their age or motivations, and Pure Math provides an excellent value and enjoyable way to do it.

Due to some of the limitations we mentioned earlier in this review, the app could be a bit more difficult for schools to use, but everyone else should download the free version of this app and give it a try. We've awarded Pure Math five stars.