Children's Software Review of:
Mathematics
for Middle School 
From the November, 1999 issue of PC Alamode Magazine 

First of all, the program comes with 5 CDs. Your PC must fit these minimum requirements to run them: 486/66 MHz or higher, Windows® 98/95, 12MB RAM, and 30MB of free disk space. Since my family’s computer met all of these requirements, I found no problems installing or using the program. But, if a problem did occur, there is a phone number on the back of the box for customer service. Whether they can give you Tech. Support, there was no specific number. 

Middle School Math covers 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade math. I am an 8^th grader, however, I take an honors math class, in which we’re covering more 9^th grade material. As I tried out the CD labeled "8^th Grade Math," I found that the material the program covered was more for a regular 8^th grade class. (I was somewhat expecting that.)  If I had used this program last year during my 7^th grade honors year, it would have been more beneficial for me than this year. Something else I saw was that on the program’s box it claims to cover Pre-Algebra, which is what I am studying. It does cover that material, but the examples given were just too easy, especially on the quizzes provided for the user to take. The geometry section, I felt, had more challenging problems to solve. 

After being slightly bored by the 8^th grade math CD, I decided to install the CD entitled, "Real Genius." On this CD, you can find all sorts of math and logic games. Some of the games, like "Marble Jump" and "Polyominos," were logic-type games; but others such as "Math Sequences" and "Math Sliders," were true math-oriented games. All of the 20 games were fun and challenging. They kept me interested and excited about solving puzzles and trying to find correct solutions. 

If asked to recommend this program to someone, I would say to use it. Even though it wasn’t very helpful for my personal needs, I believe it would be suitable for a student beginning middle school. It will give them a good idea of what they’ll be seeing in their future middle school math classes. 

The program sounds pretty good! So where can you find it? Locally, some stores I called have it for $29.99. Office Depot said they had many copies in stock. Also, you can surf on over to www.thelearningco.com where you can buy it from their online store. 

The main vendor of the program is The Learning Company. They have a wonderful website: www.thelearningco.com. A visit there takes care of many questions and you get to see what else they have to offer, including an Online Store, and product information.