Xtramath: Simple, Effective, Free Math Drills (Review)

Xtramath.org is a supplement we used alongside Teaching Textbooks and Times Tales this year. I found it to be a simple and effective tool to use in drilling Bradley on his math facts. It’s been so easy to implement into our day, I hope I never have to use math flash cards again!

The student begins the program by taking a placement test so the computer knows which facts the student already knows and which ones need to be worked on. The program gradually adds new facts while periodically quizzing the child on old ones. Students work on one math operation at a time until mastery is achieved.

Students must respond within 3 seconds with the correct answer in order to receive credit for mastery of a fact. This was a bit tricky for Bradley at first because it sometimes took him longer than that to type the correct answer on the keyboard, but he quickly learned the keyboard. Now, 3 seconds is plenty of time for him to enter his answer if he has mastered the fact. If it takes him any longer than that I know he is either simply not paying attention, or he is having to compute the answer in his head.

Xtramath keeps track of your child’s mastery and has a parent/teacher login with graphs showing your child’s progress. There is also a matrix that is provided showing which facts have been mastered, which are being worked on, and which ones they have yet to start.

This program has provided a much welcome relief to the tedium of flash cards (not to mention the whining that went along with them). If your child is just getting started with memorizing their math facts or has most of them memorized and struggles with quickly recalling some of the trickier ones, I’d recommend checking out this free Internet based program!

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