Community reviews for Sumdog

Overall, I like the product and was willing to pay the price for a subscription. The advantage to Sumdog and other similar programs is that you always have a few kids who go home and do it because they want to do it. I am especially glad when it reaches those who generally struggle doing homework. You have to consider whether you think it is worth the money (about $200 per class), but if you are looking for ways to motivate students to improve fluency on basic math concepts, this may be a good option.

SumDog is an excellent tool for review and reinforcement. Being able to compete against classmates was a strong enough pull to keep my 5th grade students engaged. Each student has an avatar which they can customize as they acquire coins. One thing that would improve SumDog is if teachers had the ability to create sub-groupings within the class so that student could compete against students in the same grouping.

Sumdog is not teaching new content, but it is an excellent review tool. While you may have a student that begins to understand new concepts while playing Sumdog, it is not a teaching tool for those that want to introduce new content. Because Sumdog will continue to introduce new concepts until a student hits a wall, students will occasionally be forced into answering questions they have never seen before (ex. Multiplication or division when they haven't learned it in the classroom yet.) Sumdog seems to be easy to contact through email, but I don't have a lot of experience with this. TLDR: A lot of fun for students and a very welcome math review tool for students to use at home and at school.

I like that fact that students can play against their classmates or against a student on their grade level. My students actively use the site at home. Parents also have the opportunity to support their child at home using their parent account. It allows a fun way to practice math drills but offers no support if student doesn't understand topic other than the corrections given at the end of a game.

This isn't a teaching tool, it is to reinforce or practice math facts. It is much more fun then flipping flash cards to learn math facts.

The teacher can choose the grade level the students work on. As questions are answered correctly, students get coins to spend in the store. By default, the store is "closed" during the school day and can only be used after school or on weekends. This is a great feature that I wish other sites would implement (e.g. RAZ-Kids)! SumDog is a great site for kids to practice what they are learning in math. The games are all different and interesting. There isn't much language on the site, but I wish there were different language translations. That would help some of our English Learners. Also, this site doesn't teach any math concepts, it's merely practicing what students learn in the classroom. But as a way to motivate and reward students, it's a great site to use. Plus, one of the best features is that it's free! There are a few premium games, as well as reading and writing games, that require a subscription (inexpensive). Most of the site, the teacher managing features, and the games, are free!

I love how the site combines dull, rote learning with awesome, fun games! The students don't think about how much skill practice they are getting because they are so focused on scoring higher than their opponents. The option to play the class or play the world or play a robot are all excellent for different reasons. Students love taking on their classmates, but they also enjoy playing other students world-wide, and sometimes even the robot player! Even dressing their avatars is a fun option (and buying the items at the store with coins earned by playing well is an added incentive.) Everything about this site is done to enhance learning and make it fun instead of tiresome. I would love to have a full subscription to the site, but with budgets the way they are, we can only enjoy the free features. Luckily, they are plentiful!

This is my favorite math practice website.

Sumdog is highly engaging, but also allows for targeted review of math skills. It isn't a substitute for something like Khan Academy--it doesn't really provide instruction or support. However, it does provide the opportunity for practice of skills already learned. Setting up students with logins is easy and the site is fairly easy to navigate. Some students said that the start page was a little "busy", but they were able to find what they were looking for. In previous years, we used Sokikom for the same purposes, but find that Sumdog is more cost-effective, even at the paid level. This tool won't dive deep into content, but it definitely catches and hold student attention. Highly recommended.

I have only used the math portion. The math problems are grade appropriate and mixed concepts. Student engagement is high but it is best used for a review time or after work is complete. I find the reports to be somewhat helpful and can be used for student feedback. Another plus for this site is that it is easy to move students into new classes or groups in the teacher back channel. You can not just assign a particular skill or concept to practice so students are likely to have concepts that they are not familiar with.