Review: IXL

Practice makes perfect, and IXL makes math practice fun! IXL allows teachers and parents to monitor the progress of their students and motivate them through interactive games and practice questions. Widely recognized as the Web's most comprehensive math site, IXL offers a dynamic and enjoyable environment for children to practice math. Students who use IXL are succeeding like never before.

About IXL

IXL is comprehensive. With math practice for grades pre-K through 8, more than 1,000 skills and an unlimited number of problems, IXL has everything your students need to excel in math. And just to be sure, IXL's problems include a mix of styles, including multiple choice and fill-in-the blank, to ensure skill mastery.

IXL is easy to use. Designed with a clean, uncluttered interface, students won't be distracted from their math goals, and parents and teachers can monitor students with simple, yet powerful, tools.

IXL is exciting. Students tackle challenges and earn rewards for their accomplishments. Math problems become increasingly difficult as students progress to ensure full comprehension of each skill.

IXL is informative. Parents and teachers to track their students' progress using IXL's vast library of detailed reports. Select from multiple options within each report to customize the data to suit your needs.

IXL is standards-based. The skills in IXL are aligned to standards for each US state, as well as Washington DC and the Department of Defense Education Activity. You'll never be surprised by those test scores again. And when you know which skills are problems for your students you can give those areas extra attention.

Our Experience

It was very easy for me to set up and it was very easy for both of my girls to use. For the non-readers, there was a little button that they could click so that they could hear the problem or choices read out loud to them. It was easy for Kayleigh to use on her own.

Basically, this is a math drill program. It is not designed to teach your child new concepts but, rather, to give them practice with skills that they already know. This makes it very compatible with every math program. When the student does get a problem wrong, there is the option to get an explanation. This was very helpful to my older daughter.

I really like the program. I like that it's easy for the kids to use. I like that it explains mistakes. I like the multitude of reports available that help me track their progress and problem areas.

As for the girls, this was not something that they beg to play. As I mentioned, it is a very straightforward drill program. There is no story, adventure, or cutesy character to make you forget that you are doing math drill.

The rewards are very basic. You complete so many minutes/correct problems/master skills and you earn a "reward." The rewards are on a game board screen and you click on a particular square to reveal the "prize", which is just a picture of a toy that you will now see in that particular square.

My four year old would get a kick of revealing her "prize" but it wasn't enough of a motivator to get her to ask to play with it on her own. She only gets on it when I require it. As for my math-hating 11 year old, the reward system does not motivate her at all. She needs the "bling" that makes her forget that she's practicing math.

So while it doesn't meet the fun factor for my children, I feel that it does everything else that it claims and we will continue to use it.

F.Y.I.

Website: http://www.ixl.com/
Age Range: pre-k through eighth grade
Price: $9.95/month or $79/year Additional kids can be added at a huge discount.

Disclaimer: I received a free subscription to this program for review purposes. All opinions are my own or that of my children.

Review: CapJaxMathFax

Getting your child to practice their math facts can be difficult, if not impossible.  I know at our house, just the word math can invoke groans and complaints.  So it's always nice to be introduced with a new way to drill those facts.

We were recently given the opportunity to try out a computer-based drill program called CapJaxMathFax.
CapJax claims to:

About CapJaxMathFax

From the website:

1. Uses a computer to provide drill and practice so that practice time is not limited by teacher availability.
2. Automatically generates exercises. Teachers don't prepare quizzes. They merely provide the parameters for them.
3. Builds exercises for any of the four math tables (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) or any combination of tables.
4. Guarantees student success by taking small steps through levels of 
   difficulty.
5. Can focus practice at a single level of difficulty or may review earlier levels.
6. Randomly generates problems without repetition.
7. Allows variable numbers of problems in an exercise.
8. Reduces learner stress by timing facts individually.
9. Provides immediate positive feedback for correct answers.
10. Provides extra reinforcement for fast, correct answers.
11. Displays an overall performance report at the conclusion of each exercise.
12. Prints reports for teacher review and for use as certificates of achievement.
13. Displays and prints item diagnostic details.
14. Uses a rating system that allows students to keep personal scores and 
    set goals.
15. Charts student rating progress graphically.
16. Maintains a database of student activity over time.

Reinforcement builds skills. Feedback rewards skill performance and maintains importance of program. CapJaxMathFax™ employs a patented rating system that uses reinforcement and feedback data to create a game-like feeling. Ratings allow learners to keep score and set personal achievement goals. Student ratings also constitute a measure telling teachers and parents precisely where a student is in his or her math fact development.

Start at first level.
Beginning at the easiest level generates initial success and establishes keyboard skills useful at higher levels. Math types (+, -, x, /) may be practiced in any order and in combination. 

Play through each level.
Advancing through small levels of difficulty assures progress. Just a few minutes each day is all that’s needed. 

Watch score climb.
Visible progress encourages students. CapJaxMathFax™ has a proprietary rating system that produces obvious feedback about even small gains. Kids will say, This is fun! 

Master all facts.
CapJaxMathFax™ rating system assures structured practice through all sets of facts associated with each math type. Students achieve mastery at each level before advancing. 

Immediate Positive Reinforcement.
Immediate knowledge of results is vital to efficient skill development. Most efforts have some element of success. CapJaxMathFax™ captures these with instant feedback about accuracy and response time. 

Regular Positive Feedback.
Encouraging information about progress is critical. It underscores the importance of the effort and maintains learner involvement. CapJaxMathFax™ provides feedback about each session with a graphical bar chart, a running summary of session results, and a personalized session progress report. 

Achievement Certificates.
Tangible evidence of math achievement is available in the form of individual certificates showing student’s performance and current status. Certificates may be displayed and printed at any time. 

Detail Reports.
An Item Detail Report of each CapJaxMathFax™ performance session is available for teacher and parent diagnostic review. 

CapJaxMathFax™ Works
Reinforcement builds skills. Feedback rewards skill performance and maintains importance of program. CapJaxMathFax™ employs a patented rating system that uses reinforcement and feedback data to create a game-like feeling. Ratings allow learners to keep score and set personal achievement goals. Student ratings also constitute a measure telling teachers and parents precisely where a student is in his or her math fact development.

Our Experience

Unfortunately, CapJaxMathFax was not a big hit at our house.  I have a daughter who likes programs with all the bells and whistles.  Characters, adventure, color, rewards.  To quote the girl herself, "it's too boring."  In an age where kids have access to things like iPads, the internet, iPod Touches, smart phones, and all that those things have to offer, CapJax is very basic.

The screen is very plain and it doesn't even open to full screen. With the amount of information on each screen, being able to open it to full size would've been helpful.

The only real motivation comes from trying to beat your previous score, which is awesome if have a child who is motivated that way.  I don't.  She wants to be reward with something more tangible.  Now you can print out achievement certificates or order merit badges to give to your student when they complete certain levels.  The badges are an additional cost and they are definitely not something that would interest or motivate my daughter at all.

However, despite her dislike of the program, it did improve her math facts.  So, while it wasn't the program to motivate my daughter, I think it would be perfect for a student who is easily distracted by fancy webpages, story lines, and the like.

Once it's set-up, it's very easy for the student to use on their own without any direction.  That frees up mom to work with someone else.  And because the program is basic, it won't be much of a distraction to students working on other things.  A wonderful plus for those schooling multiple children.

It is definitely a program that will get results.  It's worth checking out the free trial to see if it will work with your student.

F.Y.I.

Website:  http://www.capjax.com/index.php?main_page=index
Age Range:  Anyone who needs to work on math facts
Pricing:  $29.95   And it's also available for traditional school programs.

Free trial available!!



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Disclaimer:  I was given free access to the program for review purposes.  All opinions are my own or my daughter's.