Too Much Pressure (but it did make me better)
If you ever ask me whether I like XtraMath, this is what I would say: On one hand, it helped me remember facts I forgot because of lack of practice. It also helped me keep an momentum when practicing facts. On the other side, it is really frustrating that I need to use the keypad to click the answer. It would be nice if you can have a choice where you could write it. Plus, you should add more activities to practice. Some that you don’t get timed, so it could be more relaxing and be a nice break. It gives me pressure when I have to do one race after another. Mr. C (I think that’s the name of the red-shirt guy who is also bald that users see before and after activities) can also give more advice, such as writing the facts down on paper to help memorize. All in all, Xtra Math is a great resource but has space to improve.
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An anxiety inducing nightmare.
I grew up using this and felt pressured to get every question correct and get them all right in time. From my memory, this program was used first for my class in either first or second grade, and then again in 4th. The emphasis on time made me panic, trying to put in the right answer as quickly as possible, before moving onto the next one an repeating the process. And when I got a question wrong?
I felt dumb. Like I had failed this test, and that I wasn’t doing good enough. I eventually got a specific play my hand would be in, as to answer as fast as possible, while also being correct. After all, that was the only way I’d succeed. That’s the only way I’d get those green smiles instead of thumbs down or neutral faces.
The fact the creators smile never leaves doesn’t help either.
This app may have even worsened my ability to take my time on tests, which has messed with me in the past. Heck, it might have even made a afraid of math as a subject, thinking if I try it on my own I’ll do something unacceptable and fail.
My mom used to have me use this at home to, back when we first had to. Until she watched me use this program, that is.
Also, please be aware I instilled the ‘Failure = bad’ into myself, and my parents never contributed to that.
So all in all, please don’t have your child or school use this.
Why my school did is beyond me, considering the reviews.
I felt dumb. Like I had failed this test, and that I wasn’t doing good enough. I eventually got a specific play my hand would be in, as to answer as fast as possible, while also being correct. After all, that was the only way I’d succeed. That’s the only way I’d get those green smiles instead of thumbs down or neutral faces.
The fact the creators smile never leaves doesn’t help either.
This app may have even worsened my ability to take my time on tests, which has messed with me in the past. Heck, it might have even made a afraid of math as a subject, thinking if I try it on my own I’ll do something unacceptable and fail.
My mom used to have me use this at home to, back when we first had to. Until she watched me use this program, that is.
Also, please be aware I instilled the ‘Failure = bad’ into myself, and my parents never contributed to that.
So all in all, please don’t have your child or school use this.
Why my school did is beyond me, considering the reviews.
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Updated review
I go back and forth between hating and loving this app, but now my mind is made up. My daughter passed her addition and subtraction facts with this app, which I thought was great and I thought meant she knew her math facts. Then, we switched from Rod and Staff math to Singapore Dimensions and my daughter definitely does not know all of her addition math facts! And when I say she doesn’t know all, I really mean she pretty much doesn’t know any of them without counting. So, she pretty much wasted her time on an app she hated anyways and from which she learned very little. We’ll just stick to flash cards and speed drills from now on, and skip Xtramath. Definitely frequently assess your child to make sure she/he is actually learning her/his facts and able to solve addition problems presented to her/him in various ways if you plan on using this app or any math program that focuses on drill and rote learning. Unfortunately, this app only presents the problems in one way, so if your child is later confronted with an addition problem written in a different way, she may not understand how to solve it, which I didn’t think about until we started Singapore math, which wonderfully does present problems in multiple ways and expects children to actually think about the problems (I’ve learned that this is important for solving novel and unfamiliar problems!). And now I’m kicking myself for being lazy and leaving my daughter’s math facts learning to an app.
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Response from developer
Hi, I'm sorry to hear about problems you've run into with your daughter deleting her account. Making changes to a student account is only possible through a parent or teacher account. Most likely your parent sign-in is "remembered" on your device, which means you (or she) can sign into your parent account without your password. If you have questions (or need us to restore a recently removed student account) we are most happy to help! You can reach us at erika@xtramath.org.
A great app for kids to become comfortable with basic arithmetic
Xtra Math has helped my children excel at mathematics. If you want this app to be effective you have to encourage your kids to use it as often as possible, preferably daily. If you do this, it should be impossible for your child not to grow. This app does not teach the concepts, it is exactly what the name suggests: “extra” practice. Your child should already have learned the concepts before sitting them down with this app.
I like this app for my kids because it’s no nonsense, no fluff, just straight up timed addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. With reading, we expect our children to move on from sounding out each word to “sight reading”; this app basically does same thing but for mathematics. My kids are no longer calculating each answer in their heads, they now sight read the problem and spit out the answer super fast.
At first, it was a bit of a grind trying to get the kids into the habit of using the app but after awhile they started to enjoy it and loved that they would receive a score at the end of each session and would use that to challenge themselves and each other. Often they would proudly tell me how many happy faces they were awarded at a time.
This app gets results and I highly recommend it.
I like this app for my kids because it’s no nonsense, no fluff, just straight up timed addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. With reading, we expect our children to move on from sounding out each word to “sight reading”; this app basically does same thing but for mathematics. My kids are no longer calculating each answer in their heads, they now sight read the problem and spit out the answer super fast.
At first, it was a bit of a grind trying to get the kids into the habit of using the app but after awhile they started to enjoy it and loved that they would receive a score at the end of each session and would use that to challenge themselves and each other. Often they would proudly tell me how many happy faces they were awarded at a time.
This app gets results and I highly recommend it.
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Another way to do flashcards
Just started homeschooling and had my first and third grader start this program to help with math facts after having them do assessments for other math programs.
I was a little surprised by their initial assessments and realized I could help if I was more consistent with flashcards for repetition.
A few things to note:
1. It is not a curriculum
2. It is a tool to help with memorization.
3. It tracks progress and gives a weekly summary with it of your individual students.
4. You have the ability to remove the teacher during when it quizzes you or races.. I admit that my third grader didn’t like that, but I framed it for him to say that I wanted him to crush the teacher and it didn’t require seeing the teacher visibly. There’s a function that takes the visible teachers body language away so it’s just the flashcards.
It’s been super helpful and to see him triple their accuracy rate and has given me time to help my newborn when they tackle it as flashcards at a consistent time. I really really enjoyed telling them that they have a numerical value with their progress that they can understand their improvements with memorization.
I also remind them that they are in different grades so trophies come and go based on them as individuals. It has helped tremendously.
I was a little surprised by their initial assessments and realized I could help if I was more consistent with flashcards for repetition.
A few things to note:
1. It is not a curriculum
2. It is a tool to help with memorization.
3. It tracks progress and gives a weekly summary with it of your individual students.
4. You have the ability to remove the teacher during when it quizzes you or races.. I admit that my third grader didn’t like that, but I framed it for him to say that I wanted him to crush the teacher and it didn’t require seeing the teacher visibly. There’s a function that takes the visible teachers body language away so it’s just the flashcards.
It’s been super helpful and to see him triple their accuracy rate and has given me time to help my newborn when they tackle it as flashcards at a consistent time. I really really enjoyed telling them that they have a numerical value with their progress that they can understand their improvements with memorization.
I also remind them that they are in different grades so trophies come and go based on them as individuals. It has helped tremendously.
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Not a teaching tool!
I can see the benefit of using this tool once math facts are already established in a student’s mind, but using this tool to teach math facts is missing the mark. This should be a tool to refine speed rather than teach facts and I think school districts that use it are missing this important step!
Teach FIRST, refine LATER. Use of this app without teaching the facts beforehand is similar to quizzing a child on facts about the Constitution prior to teaching the child what the Constitution is. It is incredibly frustrating and disheartening to watch a student have to fail over and over again to get an answer rather than simply giving them a flash card, teaching them the answers and how the math works, and then quizzing them over the problems with repetition and positive reinforcement.
The app itself works just fine, but use this tool for what it is!
Teach FIRST, refine LATER. Use of this app without teaching the facts beforehand is similar to quizzing a child on facts about the Constitution prior to teaching the child what the Constitution is. It is incredibly frustrating and disheartening to watch a student have to fail over and over again to get an answer rather than simply giving them a flash card, teaching them the answers and how the math works, and then quizzing them over the problems with repetition and positive reinforcement.
The app itself works just fine, but use this tool for what it is!
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Just don’t like getting timed
So when I was talking to my mom my mom just got the idea about downloading the XtraMath but it was optional and I was in Hazelwood elementary and I don’t like this much I do have a small complaint about it but also do you have another thing that you can see on the title I just don’t like it and kind of stresses me out and sometimes I even cry but sometimes I’m like hey this is not that bad very sarcastically bro no that’s just no no no no and every time you get a question wrong and you’re doing a race the teacher the teacher takes away literally all of your stars and I don’t like that I don’t like that I mean happy faces were yeah and I just don’t really like it also now on and if I could actually choose I would say no no no oh and also I had to I did it before I even downloaded it on my iPad and he yeah that’s cool I didn’t like it I kind of like my friend Oliver but it’s just not comforting me I just goodbye have a nice day right of you if you want and you can look at the other ones mine was kind of based on the one that was titled zero stars if I could
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Great application for kids
First let me say that Parent5234 seems to coddle their children too much and is obvious by the review given. The teacher on screen is a guide to whether the child answered correctly or not and can be turned off if a child cries about a computer image on screen, the world is not all cupcakes and rainbows, wait till that child gets a job and has a boss telling them what to do. Second thing, yes the app is timed, but is by no means prohibits the child from learning, if your child is slow, then work with them instead of ignoring the true problem, your kid. Okay, now for my personal review. My 3rd grader is learning what is demanded of kids in 3rd grade and she is doing great. She may struggle, which is shown on her progress report, but it is all about practice. The progress reports are great because it shows their improvements. I am extremely satisfied with this application that I will now set up an account for my kinder child. That is the other positive things about this app, it has settings for different grade levels. Customer support is also a plus when questions come up.
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Horrible approach to learning math
Xtramath is an abysmal stress bomb of an app that seems to serve a primary purpose of discouraging a genuine appreciation for math. I initially thought the horrid reviews must be from parents who never challenge their kids, and that my high-performing math loving competitive child would appreciate this app. NO. I was completely wrong. My child hates it and this was the first time in his youthful education that I’ve heard him literally say, “Dad, I hate this. This app stresses me out. I don’t want to do math because of it”. I was shocked and did my best to encourage him to press on. My wife is an engineer and my background is econ / finance. Point being is we understand the mission critical role math plays in long-term success. However Xrtramath offers a short path to discouraging a sincere interest in the subject. We will be reverting to flash cards regardless of how much the school may encourage the use of this waste-of-money app as the last thing I want is for my child to lose interest in math.
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What a wonderful app for educators
I use Xtramath ALL the time with my students. I run a tutoring company and Xtramath is hands down the most efficient way to solidify basic arithmetic facts with my students. I often use it as a warm up at the start of each session just to get the mental gears running which gives me a few minutes to gather my materials and plan out what we’ll be doing later, all while they can slowly but sure get their facts down. I even use it with older students in JHS and beyond if I feel they need help with facts. It saves me time and effort not finding/creating fact sheets and it’s more dynamic than simply having them fill out addition or multiplication charts as it emphasizes speed and accuracy of the fats that they struggle with. Not to mention their analytics are extraordinarily useful as well giving me a solid insight to their progress. 10/10
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Response from developer
Thank you so much for your review! We're glad to hear that the program has been helpful for your students. We'd love to ask a few followup questions if you'd be willing - just email us at erika@xtramath.org.
I’m a veteran teacher & I ❤️ this app!
I’ve taught 5th grade for 15 yrs & can tell you being automatic w/ math facts makes math so much easier. Not knowing math facts is like trying to read w/o knowing the alphabet. This app is well-worth the few $. I use the free desktop version in class, but I bought this for my own child after seeing how well it works. I’ve never had so much success w/ math facts. Most of my class has passed multiplication, & even those who haven’t yet have improved dramatically. I have students w/IEPs who “just won’t ever be able to memorize them” about to pass. They came in barely knowing their 2s. Now their down to a few 9s. 10 min a day is all it takes (& it tells you when you’re done). The app has you practice the ones you miss to help you improve. I tell my students to focus more on getting them right than being fast. That makes a huge difference in their success. I ❤️ this app!
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Response from developer
Thank you for your thoughtful review! We are thrilled to hear that XtraMath has been working so well for your students! 🙂
Helped so much
We had such a terrible year last year we had to change schools. My 4th graders 3rd grade teacher did nothing with them. I would ask if she was ok and if we could do something at home. He said she was great. She went from the upper 90th percentile end of year testing to failing it! She’s my oldest, I didn’t know what they were teaching, I trusted she was doing well as she has done every other year. We had SOOOO much to catch up on over the summer to get her back where she was. Her new school uses this app. It helped sooooo much! It’s a fun game way to teach them the very basics, such as times tables, that makes the advancing math so much easier for her to learn and do. I cannot thank the creators enough, or recommend this app enough!
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Wish I had purchased flash cards instead.
I never would have purchased this app except for my kid bringing home an enrollment form from school. I feel like it was heavily marketed towards the school and then sold to me as a good idea for my kindergartener. My 5 year old loves math and is doing well in class. It is developmentally normal for a kid this age to count on fingers or use other physical objects to solve for addition and subtraction problems. With this app she has to set down the phone to check her answer on her fingers, pick up the phone to select the answer and try not to accidentally touch the wrong # from the cluster on the screen. Add the annoying countdown timer clicking like a metronome the whole time and my kid was a balling mess of angry tears in minutes. The format would be fine for an older kid. But even if your kinder kid is ready to practice for speed and accuracy I would recommend good old fashioned flash cards. I’m bothered that I was pressured to spend $5 on this app by our school and I feel like the developers shouldn’t be marketing it for 5 year olds if they don’t understand age appropriate needs.
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Response from developer
Thank you for your thoughtful review. I'm sorry that you felt pressured to buy the app and that it has been such a source of frustration for your child. We definitely don't want students to be so frustrated that they are turned off of math! There are a few program adjustments that might help. You could hide the timer element: sign into your parent account, go to the student report, then student settings. You could also ask your child's teacher about changing the amount of time given to answer... the default is 3 seconds for mastery (or 10 seconds until it shows the correct answer during a quiz), but you could double those time thresholds. This program option is under "Custom Programs" on the student settings page, but please do check with the teacher first. Ultimately, the program is meant to help memorize math facts... as you said, for speed and accuracy. This is often uncomfortable for awhile, and may not work for every child at every age. I would recommend talking to your child's teacher about your concerns. If you have other questions or feedback about XtraMath we'd love to hear from you: our support email is erika@xtramath.org.
Love this app. I recommend it for all elementary school kids
Mathematics has been around for thousands of years. Every civilization since cavemen has practiced, taught and enhanced humanity using math. This app won’t make you mathematician genius, but in this day and digital age, where even infant interacts and learn from digital media and devices, this XtraMath app is an excellent tool/app for any kid till they perfect their basic addition, subtraction multiplication and division skills. It’s the daily practice of doing it in every day till it becomes part of your DNA is the best part of it.
Help your kids with good tool/app like this. Try it and you’ll see the difference in your kids abilities to do quick math.
Help your kids with good tool/app like this. Try it and you’ll see the difference in your kids abilities to do quick math.
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Wonderful custom options!
I’ve had the same complaints that others have had but now the custom option gives a little more time to those still working on their math facts and found the 3second time frame terrifying. My 8 yr old daughter knows her math facts but not quickly and the 3seconds discouraged her, making her want to give up and she said she “felt stupid.” The custom 6seconds allows her to practice without continued failure. Thank you so much for adding in this vital component.
If you are considering this app, be sure that your child has strong number sense FIRST.
This year we begin multiplication (we homeschool) so fast recollection of addition and subtraction is necessary. Thank you to Xtra math for listening to the reviews and making an even stronger program to assist those who don’t operate under the shortest of times.
If you are considering this app, be sure that your child has strong number sense FIRST.
This year we begin multiplication (we homeschool) so fast recollection of addition and subtraction is necessary. Thank you to Xtra math for listening to the reviews and making an even stronger program to assist those who don’t operate under the shortest of times.
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Response from developer
I'm so glad to hear our Custom Programs are working for you!
Not the best, not the worst
My son’s 3rd grade teacher uses this app to assist with memorizing the multiplication tables. The app seems to focus on answering math questions quickly. I have never understood why doing math quickly is important unless you are trying to calculate the trajectory of an incoming missile and that is what computers are for because I’d love to see people working that out in their heads. Anyways, I have emphasized with him to ignore the timer and focus on the problem. As he learns he naturally gets quicker whether the timer is there or not. I suppose teaching kids to ignore outside pressures and distractions and just get things done is life skill in itself. There are a couple of body language expressions the “teacher” makes when he gets things wrong that make him think the “teacher” is mad at him which does not seem conducive to learning but I reminded him it’s not his real teacher it’s just a character in an app. Overall, it’s not the best math app I’ve seen, and I kinda feel it’s unnecessary for what my son’s teacher is using it for, but I’ve seen worse ones.
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Response from developer
XtraMath helps students transition from counting or calculating the basic math facts to recalling them. Quickly recalling math facts, instead of calculating them, frees up mental resources for higher-level operations. XtraMath’s timed activities encourage students to answer questions as quickly as possible. When combined with the spaced repetition of problems, this efficiently develops recall. The three-second threshold is carefully selected to be long enough to type in a recalled answer but not long enough for the student to comfortably enter a counted or calculated answer. Students should have already learned the basic counting or calculating strategies, and be able to solve the problems without time pressure, before starting to practice an operation with XtraMath.
Stressful
My daughter has used this app for three weeks and she appears to do worse every time. The pressure and stress of time pushes her to anxiety. To a 3rd grader who is not use to even using a calculator, the inverted number pad causes delays in response as she spends time looking for the numbers that are not in their natural order as she knows them. Second, while understanding the importance of rapid recall of math facts, a little more time should be given before an answer is marked wrong. Third, the racing the teacher aspect places more pressure as the guy in the side makes motions of “why don’t you know this” when an incorrect answer is given. There is a lot of improvements needed on this app and there should be other activities to gauge progress than repeated timed stressful testing. Learning should be fun, not stressful. While I am leaving a comment here that hopefully will spark more development of this app, I will also be commenting to my daughters school to discourage any further use of this app. This is a huge confidence deflator.
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Response from developer
Hello! Did you know you can extend the response time and hide the timer altogether (click on Edit student info on her student report)? We suggest to teachers and parents to introduce our program after the student is comfortable with the operation. It also allows for occasional typing errors as they're getting used to it. Our program was developed for teachers who wanted more adaptive timed tests for math fact mastery, so although it does take considerable time and effort to master an operation, we do cater it to the individual student and their ability level.
Misses the mark
My grandson uses this for school. As a retired educator, I can see where a classroom might see this as beneficial. You can assess many children in a short amount of time. Unfortunately, this does not help all children. My grandson knows his addition facts very well. He has been able to write answers to 100 addition facts in well under three minutes. His fingers do not hit the keypad accurately thus recording many incorrect answers. Also, when using a keypad, your sense of touch feels the same in your brain for a 3, for example, as a 7. When you are physically writing the numbers, these facts will be recorded to your long term memory much more efficiently. This is his seventh month working with your addition app and he has yet to ‘pass’ to subtraction. Unfortunately, his classroom doesn’t utilize multiple forms of assessment. The timing factor does not work well for him either. If this method works well for your child, great. Don’t continue if it’s not working for you though.
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Taught me a lot
This app has taught me a lot of stuff that is now easy for me. In 3rd grade, I was really struggling with my math because, it was all multiplication and division. I was at a public school in 2nd and we were just starting to learn about multiplying. We didn’t learn division yet, and then I changed to a private Montessori school. And they were already doing like 4th and 5th grade math, so of course I was clueless!! But I was glad to get outta that public school. Now, I’m in a public school in 4th grade, and my teacher made us do XtraMath. And curious little me was wondering, “What is XtraMath?!” So, I tried it, I hated it. I didn’t realize that slowly over time, I was getting better multiplication!! And one day, I passed! I was so unbelievably happy and proud of myself!! Then I started division, I hated it, but eventually I got better and passed! Now I’m on the faster multiplication and I’m close to passing!! So thank you so much XtraMath for changing my life for the
better! So anyway, long story short, BUY this app! It helps your child with adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division. It may not be that fun, but it’s worth it!! So buy this app for your kid, it totally works, I promise! Have a good day! 🤗🤗🤗
better! So anyway, long story short, BUY this app! It helps your child with adding, subtracting, multiplication, and division. It may not be that fun, but it’s worth it!! So buy this app for your kid, it totally works, I promise! Have a good day! 🤗🤗🤗
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My kids ask to do their math everyday now
I almost didn't buy this app after reading a lot of the negative reviews. There IS timed math on this app and it did really stress my kids out. I had talks with them about how they need to practice working under pressure, because there are lots of times in life where you have deadlines and you have to remain calm, or you will screw up...not to mention timed math tests. I also told them that this is the perfect way to practice working under pressure because this app really doesn't do anything. It's not for a grade, just for practice.
After our talk, my kids turned a new leaf and learned how to work calmly while having a timer. They now love the app and want to learn what comes next after they complete a program. There also is a setting where you can turn off the timer, but I think it's good for my kids and we keep it on.
In summary, we love it and it's helped my kids learn life skills and not just math.
After our talk, my kids turned a new leaf and learned how to work calmly while having a timer. They now love the app and want to learn what comes next after they complete a program. There also is a setting where you can turn off the timer, but I think it's good for my kids and we keep it on.
In summary, we love it and it's helped my kids learn life skills and not just math.
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Response from developer
Thank you for your thoughtful comment!
