Math Whiz has really helped my daughter with her addition skills. The games emphasize accuracy and speed. Her older brother can use this as well to reinforce his multiplication skills. It seems to travel well since my daughter has been toting it around in her backpack quite a bit.

This is a good little devise. It has a tendency of freezing up if you answer to fast or hit two buttons at the same time. I either wait until it unfreezes or have to pull the batteries to get it to reset. Other than that it is exactly what I was looking for for my kids.

My 8-year-old daughter has a logical mind but was bad at memorizing basic math facts, and, at least at her school, teachers don't want to do the kind of old-fashioned "drilling" that allowed me to learn this stuff when I was a kid. So we had to do the drilling at home -- but my daughter hated the flash cards, and got stressed out by them.
This little gadget has been a godsend. Both she and her 6-year-old brother love it and play with it like a favorite toy. It has a great many levels, so you can start your child at just the right point. They can work on it again and again on their own -- a very different feeling from getting a flash card question wrong in front of Mom. It's always encouraging and upbeat -- and they learn their math! I love it!

With the help of "Memorize in Minutes," my 4th grader was able to master her times tables, but she has always been incredibly slow. Her teacher would always tell me that she's great in math, but it just takes her forever to recall her multiplication facts. I was at my wits end trying to help her get faster. We tried flash cards, repetitive work sheets, nothing helped -- and she HATED it.

So last month we started using the Math Whiz and it's been great. There are different levels so you can work on one fact at the time (eg., the 6s) or mix them all up. (They even go into double digits). We have been working on one multiplication fact at a time and have made a game with breaking her record and getting faster and faster. In only a few weeks, she can do each math fact in under 20 seconds, which is phenomenal for her. On her lastest math test (where they are multiplying triple digits together, she was the first one done in her class (and got them all correct!) This has never happened before.

The other great thing about Math Whiz is you can use it for a variety of ages and abilities. There's also addition, subtraction, and division, and you can make the problems as easy or hard as you want. So my youngest is using it for addition. Both of my children are not at all competitive and don't like working under pressure, but for some reason, they enjoy competing against themselves with the Math Whiz and trying to beat their old time.

If your child is having trouble with math facts, I recommend looking at the "Memorize in Minutes" book. The teacher's edition is available through Amazon (or if you just need the student book, check out www.multiplication.com). Then when you get the math facts down, the Math Whiz is great for improving upon speed.

This is the most useful educational toy I have ever purchased. Highly recommended!

Daughter loves to play this and it is helping her with multiplication and division.

Only negative about this purchase is the shipper DHL is horrible. They are very unreliable, always takes 3 or 4 phone calls to them to get item ordered delivered and items are never delived in a timely manner.

Product is good though.

Great product for enriching the minds capabilty to mentally calculate an answer to each of the different mathematical combinations on the Math Whiz. Great Product!

I found this item to be more than what I expected. I love that you can set the level that your kids are doing the math problems at. This is a wonderful feature that allows both my children to use this product to its full extent. My oldest son loves to see how quickly he can finish the math problems.

"Toy" and "math" are two words that don't usually appear in the same sentence. My 7 year old enjoys this gadget. It gives positive feedback during the quiz games. It's shaped like a hand held video game, so that raises the "cool factor" in her mind. And since it also doubles as a calculator as well, it can serve double duty when needed.

I would recommend this educational toy!

I like the concept and my son seems to enjoy using this for now. I foresee some usage on car trips - I'm trying not to get him used to video games and DVD watching as the industry wants.

On my unit, the numbers are nowhere as distinct as shown in the photo and are quite dim especially if viewed straight. When tilting the screen back a little, the numbers are dark enough.

At first, I thought it was weak batteries. I replaced the batteries but the screen is still very faint. Not sure if this is a bad piece but I'm going to see if a replacement works better. I'll revise my rating if I can get the display to be as clear.

My son (10 Years Old - 5th Grade) had been having trouble with math in school. It was hard to convince him of the value of doing paper flash cards to help him increase his math strength. He got The Whiz for Christmas this year and so far he's used it everyday (even while on Holiday break!) and hasn't gotten tired of it. Knowing the answers to the questions has given him a lot more confidence and he said he couldn't wait for math class when he got back to school.

The best thing about this product is that my 6 year old kindergartner can use it too. There are skill levels you can set. While my older child is using all functions (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) my younger child has a desire to learn math even though its not required in kindergarten so we set it to just addition for her and she loves learning from the electronic flash cards.

I highly recommend this product. The kids think its a toy, and when they use it they're learning. It builds confidence and math strength and its definately worth the price!

This has been great for my special needs son to work on his math. The colored key pad, the touch, the durability and the size - all help us get through the homework a little easier.

My 6 year old and I love this product. It teaches addition, subtraction, division and multiplication. It has multiple levels. It replaces flash cards. There are two drawbacks; the screen is small and there is no back light. I would recommend purchasing the product.

I have an 8 year old and an 11 year old. I ordered this and the Math Shark. The Shark is about twice as much, but both of my children prefer the Shark. The Shark appears to be more challenging and cover a wider range of problems. If your child is over 10 I would choose the Shark. If not, this is a good value. I give this 4 stars because of the value proposition. The Shark would get a 5 star rating.

We got this from Santa and the "drill" functions don't work whatsoever. Was a total bummer because the other reviews were so great. I had been looking forward to my daughter using this toy as she needs some math practice. Now I have to figure out the return issue because it can't be purchased anywhere locally.

if your child loves electronic toys but hates math flashcards, then this is a great gizmo for him. he can select the function, level, and a number to appear in a group of problems. then the machine flashes problems on the screen and times his answers. feels like a handheld video game to him, but he is actually doing math flash cards. my son says he likes it much better than the paper flashcards. he is now reviewing his math facts willingly! totally worth every penny.

only had it a day so cannot comment on durability. ok so far.

I just got this toy for my 10 yr old who is still not all that with his flash cards and for my first grader to start doing flash cards. Its great it works on so many different skill levels that my 6 year old uses it for begining addition facts and my ten year old then uses it for his timed multiplication and division tables. Its like killing two birds with one stone. And they both love the smiley face for rewards and my ten year old loves that it shows the time it took him because he is always trying to beat his last time.

I went to an educational store to find this toy for my daughter who was having trouble learning her multiplication tables. It is exactly what I was searching for. Drills are leveled so the first one is for essentially step-counting by number, say, 4 or 6, etc -- up to 9. They learn the multiplication set this way and then proceed to the second level where that particular "times table" is randomized for practice.

PERFECT!

My daughter has suddenly started passing her multiplication tests. She is so happy: she said to me "this is the best present ever" with a big beaming smile. Giving a child the tool for succeeding is about as good as it gets!!

I agree the muting function is pretty priceless too! Though it can hinder one's speed a tad so I tolerate the noise sometimes.

I agree the smiley faces get in the way of completing each round of 10 questions quickly, but you can just compensate for that -- in terms of the time that the machine provides for each round (also a terrific feature), you can just adjust; try aiming for a personal best rather than an absolute one.

And then there are many more levels above these two "drill" levels -- things get progressively harder, and are a wonderful prealgebra tool too.

Plus the device is a calculator.

About as good a purchase as I've ever made! Thank you thank you thank you to this company for producing a tool that has really tangibly improved my child's life. You cannot imagine how anxious her inability to master this expectation had been -- and how much clearness this device has given in her life!

Math Whiz replaces flash cards with a nifty digital solution, that doesn't need to be shuffled. The Math Whiz provides problems at various skill levels, it includes subtraction, addition, division, and multiplication. It is a great way to hone basic skills, improve speed, and accuracy, and move up step by step at your own pace. It's simple and to the point, making it suitable for adults and kids alike. An adult can use this without feeling they are using a kids toy, just mute the sound.

The only downside is that congratulatory text, and a quick smiley face can hinder answering problems rapidly, instead you must wait a second for the smiley or frown to leave the screen before you move on to the next problem.

This was a wonderful Christmas gift. Not only was it appreciated by my niece and her husband, for their son, but it's a gift that keeps on giving - everytime it's used. PS...My great nephew loved it!

This product was highly recommended by a school teacher in the UK as a great teaching tool. It was well received as a gift by the children and their parents. An excellent math teaching tool that the children love. It is portable, user friendly and has something for those on many different levels, so much so that one father, an engineer, loves to play the game by himself when travelling and is equally enjoyable to his 7 year old son, as well as a game that they can play together. Math Whiz is a tool that creates a friendly math experience which can be used for many years as the upgrading levels will remain a challenge.