5
Where to Buy

Quick Fractions App Review

App Info

Price: $1.99

Overview

Quick Fractions offers four levels of practice with each of seven basic fractions skills, including conversion, inequalities, and all four operations. Problems also include comparisons and conversions among improper fractions, mixed numbers, decimals and percents.

Features include:

  • Wide range of difficulty levels
  • Self-paced
  • Handwritten answers to eliminate guessing from choices
  • Embedded help sections for each skill
  • Records kept for multiple users

Quality

Quick Fractions is a very high-quality app that will provide hours of practice with fraction, decimal and percent skills. The app is very easy to use, with clear directions and help sections for each skill. Answers are hand-written, and can be nearly any size or place on the screen. Though it occasionally confused 7’s and 1’s for me, if the system cannot read a number, it usually does not count the problem as incorrect but puts a question mark where the answer should go.

Education

This app does a great job of presenting fraction skills from changing fraction names (equivalencies or conversions) through comparisons to operations with fractions. Each of the four modes includes four levels of difficulty, which means that everyone from young beginners to experienced students will find to be a challenge. Because rounds are scored based on accuracy and speed, it is very difficult to achieve the highest rating even on the “Beginner” level. The “Extreme” level is a true challenge to mental math skills, and many of the problems would require paper/pencil or calculator help, even for most adults.

The upper levels of the app mix fractions, improper fractions, mixed numbers, decimals and percents into the tasks. This really will help most students to develop a more clear understanding of the connections among these skills. The app does a great job of encouraging mental math skills as well as beginning strategies for algebraic thinking, as well.

One of the nice features of the app is the help system. At each level, users can access hints and explanations by touching the question mark on the screen. This pauses the game and shows a graphic outlining how to solve that type of problem. The help section would be improved if, instead of a single screen, users were given a video demonstration or multiple screenshots showing a step-by-step solution. Some struggling students or special needs users may not be able to benefit from the help system as it is currently set up. It would also be nice if the help system were responsive to the exact type of problem being displayed on the screen at that moment. Since the app mixes fractions, decimals and percents, the example given for one type of problem would be very difficult to generalize if a student is weak on that particular skill.

Entertainment

This app isn’t meant to be particularly entertaining, but the developers did a good job of building fun into it. The games are timed, though there are no time limits. This means that students won’t feel any pressure to perform, but can watch themselves speed up and become more accurate with each practice session. This type of self-improvement competition is a wonderful confidence and self-esteem builder. After each round, confetti flies and a running figure moves across the screen, stumbling once for each missed or skipped problem. It’s possible to see Game Center rankings for each player at each of the levels, as well. Most students, especially older ones, will find this to be very engaging.

Value

This app is a very good value. It covers basic fraction skills taught in grades 2 through 6, and will provide practice and limited instruction to students who struggle with these skills. Most students will benefit from the focus on speed and mental math, even through high school and even adulthood. The capability to keep records for multiple students is a real plus for classroom or family use, as well.

Child Friendliness

Quick Fractions is very child-friendly. There are no outside advertisements, in-app purchases, links to the open internet or to social media. The app does connect to the App Store, where users can find other offerings from this developer, but the link is protected by a gate requiring complex mental math, and most students (even older ones) aren’t likely to want to put the effort into breaking through it. It is possible for children to access the settings section, but all they can do there is to modify the handwriting style, change the decimal style or delete user records.

Quick Fractions
Quick Fractions
Quick Fractions offers no-frills practice with fractional equivalencies, fractional inequalities, and all four operations with fractions.
Quality
Education
Entertainment
Value
Child Friendly
5
Where to Buy