Personal Trainer: Math - "Practice math in a flash!"

By Sophia, GameSpot
Posted Jan 9, 2009 1:11 pm PT

It's hard to find someone who actually enjoys math. Even if they do, chances are they probably wouldn't admit it to anyone. However, if you secretly enjoy speedy arithmetic, Personal Trainer: Math is a handy piece of software to jog that mushy brain of yours. Like Brain Age, it's all about...

Like Brain Age, it's all about repetition, speed and date stamps. Personal Trainer: Math is a great way to torture--uh, help your kids work on their multiplication table until they can recite it in their sleep. There is a calendar to track your sessions, but from what we've seen, it doesn't look like Dr. Kageyama is going to give you any lip if you skip a day or 50--unlike some other Dr. we know. This isn't really a game though, but you can make it one if you gather 16 of your friends and compete in an intense game of subtraction!

Or if you're like me, and find that it's been awhile since you haven't done basic math without a calculator, it is a good refresher so that you don't look completely stupid when you need to pause to remember what 8 x 7 is. (yes yes, I know it's 56. I played after lunch, I was sleepy ok?)

The handwriting recognition worked most of the time in my session with it. But when you're blazing through with incredible speed (like yours truly), it doesn't always register the right number. It could partially be due to my lousy handwriting, but I was doing it on purpose to see how often it would mess up. The game will pause to let you know when you have the wrong answer, so you're not immediately penalized for your chicken scratches.

Anyway, I'm just lucky that this wasn't around when I was a kid, because I'm pretty sure this would have easily replaced Mathcopter that I was forced to play during my summer vacation. Although now that I'm…wiser, math problems can be kind of fun because it doesn't require too much thought. These math drills really help exercise your brain, especially if you don't do a lot of mental math on a regular basis.

Get ready to bust out those math skills when Personal Trainer: Math is released on January 12.

3 Comments

Refresh comments

nftw
Posted Jan 9, 2009 3:17 pm PT

Math has always been fun to me, maybe I should get this.
- agree 0
- disagree 0
- = 0
- Sign in to rate this comment
Sophia
Posted Jan 9, 2009 2:13 pm PT

You want to play? 1 cartridge 16 players!
StanleyL
Posted Jan 9, 2009 1:56 pm PT

I just put 42 for all the math questions.

Hot Stories

Newsmakers

GameSpot's Best of 2009 - Dubious Honors Winners

Find out our Dubious Honors Winners in the Best of 2009 Awards! Full Story
- Posted Dec 22, 2009 11:56 am PT
GameSpot's Best of 2009 - Special Achievement Winners

Find out our special achievement winners in the Best of 2009 Awards! Full Story
- Posted Dec 21, 2009 11:59 am PT