Review by Caryn Lix, Common Sense Education | Updated October 2016
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Math Fact Master

Get it now
  • Download from App Store

Review math facts on the go with bland digital flash cards

Subjects & skills
Subjects
  • Math
Skills
  • Critical Thinking
Grades This grade range is based on learning appropriateness and doesn't take into account privacy. It's determined by Common Sense Education, not the product's publisher.
1–5
Common Sense says (See details)
Teachers say (5 Reviews)
Price:  $0.99
Platforms:  iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch

Take a look inside

5 images
Main screen includes Flashcard and Challenge play options, profiles, settings, and progress reports.
Multiple profiles provide the ability to set unique settings and track each student's progress.
Options for one student's profile settings.
In Flashcard mode, kids answer out loud or silently, then tap to check their answer.
Challenge mode requires the student to type in the answer.

Pros: Students get to make their own choices, receive immediate feedback, and share progress with teachers via email.

Cons: This flash card-based experience doesn’t offer the interaction or fun that some kids will expect from digital learning.

Bottom Line: Simple flash card practice doesn't provide much fun or inspiration.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Unlimited individual student accounts can be created so each student can identify his or her current strengths and areas for improvement with various number sets. Students receive immediate feedback after each flash card and can track their challenge test results. Track student-learning progress by emailing parents progress reports directly from the app.

Students are not likely to engage with this program voluntarily, so it's best used as a quick review activity at the beginning of class or for early finishers. 

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Standards:

Math Fact Master is an app giving students solid practice in the four basic math operations. It includes two modes: Flashcard for practice and Challenge for testing knowledge and skills. Both the number set (0s through 12s) and the range of numbers within the set can be selected for individual students, so the level of practice grows with students' abilities.

Practice mode provides problems on flash cards, which kids answer (silently or out loud) before tapping to flip the card on the screen. When they flip the card, the answer appears with right (green check) or wrong (red "x") buttons, which users press according to what they answered. In Challenge mode, kids enter the answers onto the flash card, and the screen flashes green for correct and red for incorrect. Additional features include a timer, data showing results, and progress reports that can be emailed to teachers or parents.

With all the opportunities to make math learning engaging for kids, Math Fact Master is surprisingly dry. Its serious blue/gray interface doesn't exactly connote fun, and the app essentially consists of a series of flash cards. Still, it's intuitive and easy to use. Kids pick which operation and which sets of numbers they'd like to practice, empowering them to choose what skills they want to improve in any given session. Feedback as to whether they answered each problem correctly is immediate, and there's lots of information provided at the ends of tests, too (which can also be emailed to parents).

Students will learn best by competing against themselves through multiple sessions of play, but it will be a challenge to get them to use the app regularly. In addition, if kids pick too many numbers, the drills go on for an unreasonably long time, and if you quit ahead of schedule your results won't count. All in all, you're paying for something you could easily find for free on more engaging apps and sites.

Overall Rating
Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

The flash cards are, well, flash cards. There's nothing terribly engaging about them. The mobile app does make it quick and easy to review facts while waiting at the dentist or in the car.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Learning happens by rote memorization and repetition by using the flash cards. By working to master these core math skills, students learn the importance of steady academic development.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

Kids get immediate feedback on flash card answers, and there's lots of information provided at the end (which can be emailed to parents or teachers) but not much support if kids need help. 

Common Sense Reviewer
Caryn Lix Classroom teacher
About our ratings and privacy evaluation.

Key Standards Supported

Number And Operations In Base Ten

  • 2.NBT.5

    Fluently add and subtract within 100 using strategies based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction.

Operations And Algebraic Thinking

  • 1.OA.3

    Apply properties of operations as strategies to add and subtract.3 Examples: If 8 + 3 = 11 is known, then 3 + 8 = 11 is also known. (Commutative property of addition.) To add 2 + 6 + 4, the second two numbers can be added to make a ten, so 2 + 6 + 4 = 2 + 10 = 12. (Associative property of addition.)

  • 1.OA.6

    Add and subtract within 20, demonstrating fluency for addition and subtraction within 10. Use strategies such as counting on; making ten (e.g., 8 + 6 = 8 + 2 + 4 = 10 + 4 = 14); decomposing a number leading to a ten (e.g., 13 – 4 = 13 – 3 – 1 = 10 – 1 = 9); using the relationship between addition and subtraction (e.g., knowing that 8 + 4 = 12, one knows 12 – 8 = 4); and creating equivalent but easier or known sums (e.g., adding 6 + 7 by creating the known equivalent 6 + 6 + 1 = 12 + 1 = 13).

  • 2.OA.2

    Fluently add and subtract within 20 using mental strategies.2 By end of Grade 2, know from memory all sums of two one-digit numbers.

  • 3.OA.5

    Apply properties of operations as strategies to multiply and divide.2 Examples: If 6 × 4 = 24 is known, then 4 × 6 = 24 is also known. (Commutative property of multiplication.) 3 × 5 × 2 can be found by 3 × 5 = 15, then 15 × 2 = 30, or by 5 × 2 = 10, then 3 × 10 = 30. (Associative property of multiplication.) Knowing that 8 × 5 = 40 and 8 × 2 = 16, one can find 8 × 7 as 8 × (5 + 2) = (8 × 5) + (8 × 2) = 40 + 16 = 56. (Distributive property.)

  • 3.OA.6

    Understand division as an unknown-factor problem. For example, find 32 ÷ 8 by finding the number that makes 32 when multiplied by 8.

  • 3.OA.7

    Fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division (e.g., knowing that 8 × 5 = 40, one knows 40 ÷ 5 = 8) or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers.

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Teacher Reviews

(See all 5 reviews) (5 reviews) Write a review
Featured review by
Valerie H. , Technology coordinator
Technology coordinator
Milford Brook
Manalapan, United States
Flashcards with little flash

This app is really nothing more than flashcard practice on the iPad. If using the device would make a student practice their facts, then it serves its purpose. However there isn't much incentive to use it within the app itself. The Challenge setting is slightly more interactive in that the answer needs to be input into the equation. Even with that the app fails to motivate a learner. Progress reports can be emailed to a parent or the student themselves, but that really isn't much of a bonus feature ...

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