Description

Math Monster (SALE - 50% off for a LIMITED TIME!)
TWITTER: @loneappdev

Math Monster is a timed math test program for anyone, young or old. It helps students improve their math skills by identifying areas they should focus their attention on -- not just the problems they got right or wrong, but the problems they responded slowly to. Instructors can use Math Monster to create blank math tests and keys. Math Monster also facilitates remote testing with user-selectable, pseudo-random tests and e-mailing of test results.

What can Math Monster do?

Timed testing of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division
Randomness can be controlled (totally random, or pseudo-random)
Test times of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 minutes
Number of problems: 10, 25, 50, 100
Control the upper range of math problems: 10, 11, 12, 13, 20
Control the Common Multiplier: 0 - 13, or random (based on upper range)
Enable/Disable automatic advancement to the next question if the answer provided is correct
E-mail report of the actual test, the duration, the number correct and percentage. Wrong answers (with correct answers) and "slow" answers are highlighted, too!
E-mail Blank Test and Answer Key - very useful for teachers who'd like to print tests.
Pseudo-Random: This feature was added for instructors to be able to tell their students, "using Math Monster, take test # 348 (for example)." Any student using Math Monster will get the exact same problem set!

Common Multiplier: This is useful for teaching a small set of multiplication. For example, a student might want to brush up on his or her, "4s." The tests that would be generated would all have 4 in them.

Automatic Advancement: We found that forcing the student to click OK after each answer slowed them down. By enabling Automatic Advancement, right answers would automatically move the test to the next question. However, this also opens up the possibility of the student easily seeing that the answer they provided was wrong (because it wouldn't advance!), so they'd correct it. It's a useful feature for building confidence and learning the math, but better when it's turned off to more closely approximate the time used during written tests.

How did Math Monster get started?

A couple of weeks after school started, my 8-year old daughter complained to me about a boy in her class who passed his 4-minute/100-problem addition test. She was nowhere near finishing. What upset her most was that she ended the previous school year working on multiplication, and here she was having problems with, "simple addition!"

"I can write an app for that!" I thought.

Over that weekend I wrote a bare-bones version of Math Monster for my daughter to practice taking timed math tests with. The following week her score had improved. She went from completing 85 problems in 4 minutes to completing 98 problems in 4 minutes! The timed math drills were helping!

Another week went by, but she still hadn't managed to get all 100 problems done during the test. Something else was wrong.

I printed a few test sheets for her and watched her take them. On certain problems she'd stop and count. She'd actually make dots on her paper and count them! In her case, she always got stuck on "8+5."

hmm...

I coaxed (more like bribed) her into taking one more test. Only this time, I had her repeat, "8+5=13!" a few times before taking the test. Not only did she finish all 100 problems, she did it with time to spare. Over the rest of the week she repeated the routine, while I integrated the idea of looking for, "unfriendly numbers," in Math Monster's report.

Friday rolled around and she got another crack at that math test. She passed the test… in 2 minutes and 40 seconds! She passed both the 4-minute AND the 3-minute test she'd eventually have to take! She repeated the feat a week later, completing her subtraction test in 2 minutes, 55 seconds, relying solely on Math Monster to practice with.