Update on MathScore

Recently I posted a review of a product that we have enjoyed called MathScore.

Well, there is even more excitement to share, as they have recently added a number of new features to their website.


Straight from the CEO, this is what you can expect to find, along with the results of a recent study:

- Improved critical thinking topics: Several topics, primarily word problems, feature improved solution explanations. We now highlight the keywords that lead students to the correct operation. Our Commutative Property and Associative Property topics have been completely redone and are far more instructive than they were previously.

- Now you can press the ENTER key to move to the next problem. Previously, you had to press the TAB key to move to the next problem, which was good if you had a 10-key keypad, but difficult if you had a laptop without a keypad. Now if you are using a laptop, type the numbers mostly with your left hand and press the ENTER key with your right hand to move to the next problem.

- Improved clickable keypad: If you are using the clickable keypad (which can always be disabled), we now support the ability to go back to a previous problem.

- You can now sort topics alphabetically.

- Added new prerequisites for certain trophies: Students won't lose trophies they've already earned, but we did add a couple prerequisites to some of the trophies to make them more complete. For example, the math facts trophy now requires mastery of some word problems. The final fraction trophy now requires fraction simplification. We added these new prerequisites to make the trophies more mastery-based and aligned with the latest research-based recommendations.

- Added new Algebra assessment. If you want to do a diagnostic test for the first half of a typical Algebra I curriculum, you will now be able to select it.


By the way, we recently achieved some impressive test score gains in Del Norte County, California. A group of 4th and 5th graders that used MathScore for 6 hours or more in the 2008-2009 school year substantially outperformed 4th and 5th graders at the same school who either didn't use MathScore, or barely used it. The MathScore users rose in proficiency from 45% proficient to 83% proficient! In fact, the percentage of students who scored Advanced rose from 12% to 45%. For details, check out http://www.mathscore.com/school/testscores/ .

We're proud to be able to cost-effectively deliver the same quality service to individual families like yours.

Sincerely,
Steven Yang
CEO, Accurate Learning Systems Corporation