• Editor Rating

  • Rated 4.5 stars
  • Highly Recommended

  • Quality
    Editor: 70%
  • Education
    Editor: 90%
  • Value
    Editor: 100%
  • Child Friendliness
    Editor: 80%
  • Entertainment
    Editor: 0%

Review Summary:

So many apps focus on basic math skills for kids in elementary school, but few offer quality math practice for older kids. ThUMP Ultimate Calculus and Algebra Training is designed to appeal to those kids.

Overview

ThUMP Ultimate Calculus and Algebra Training is designed to appeal to appeal to older kids. While the app creators promote the app for high school students, its content is also appropriate for students in many middle school math courses. Categories in the app range from number skills, exponents and basic algebra to more complex topics such as radicals and intermediate algebra, with option of purchasing more advanced categories.

The app gives students a chance to build their skills through quizzes. Incorrect answers are followed by an explanation, teaching students as they go. The ability to practice at multiple levels of difficulty and multiple skills makes this app a strong math resource for students

Features include:

  • Advanced math concepts
  • Increasing difficulty levels
  • Rewards for completing quizzes

Quality

While ThUMP offers a lot of high-quality content, its design lacks a little quality. Students can easily find and click on the categories they want, but the simplistic design of the app is almost too simple. Many students may find the app boring. There is no background music and there are no encouraging sound effects to motivate students as they take the quizzes. The quietness of the app takes a lot away from the experience.

Another lack of quality is evident as students take quizzes. Sometimes when a student answers a question incorrectly, a short definition or explanation pops up and students are given the opportunity to answer the question again. Other times, the question is simply marked incorrect and the next question appears.

Education

The content of the app is highly educational and covers areas of mathematics not frequently found in apps. Students will be challenged by the levels of questions they can answer and the explanations for incorrect answers, when provided, are helpful. Every quiz features a variety of questions, giving students multiple ways to practice their skills.

One negative to the educational content of the app lies in the choices connected with the multiple choice questions. Each question has three choices, but for many of the questions, one of the choices is often a throwaway answer, making the question slightly less challenging for students.

Entertainment

While we haven’t rated the app for entertainment, the app tries really hard to be entertaining for students. They are given the opportunity to earn stars for their performance and share their scores on Facebook. The app also uses a lot of exclamation points, cool motivational phrases and examples designed to appeal to student’s interests.

One thing the app cannot make up for is the fact that it is a math practice app. Taking quizzes related to math may not be entertaining to a lot of students. The lack of music, sound effects and other bells and whistles does not help the app appeal to teens.

Value

For the amount of content it offers, ThUMP is a great value. The free version of the app comes with six different categories. Additional categories and quizzes can be purchased for less than a dollar, which is much less than traditional workbooks and other math practice materials.

Child Friendliness

Some parents may be turned off by the app’s suggestion that students connect their activity within the app with their Facebook profiles. However, this app is geared toward teenagers who may have their own Facebook accounts and know the rules for what they are and are not allowed to post.

So many apps focus on basic math skills for kids in elementary school, but few offer quality math practice for older kids. ThUMP Ultimate Calculus and Algebra Training is designed to appeal to those kids.

Editor rating
Rated 4.5 stars