Handheld Computer for Mastering All Basic "Math Facts" that Makes Flashcards Obsolete

I love this product and company! The company has been an absolute pleasure to do business with. There was some shipping trouble in the beginning (postal service's fault) and the company took care of it right away. Then a few months in the product became defective (as happens with every product occasionally). There was a problem with some of the buttons. Thankfully, the flash master has a 1 year warranty, so I called and the guy sent me a new one out without even asking me to return the defective one. It arrived in 2 days!!Now, let's discuss what I love about the flash master itself. The various practice and testing modes really help to reinforce the facts in several different ways. It records up to 9 results. You can program problems your child is struggling with into the memory and have them work on those specific problems. My kids think it is lots of fun and it holds their attention. I don't have to sit and drill flash cards with them or give them my phone to practice their math facts. I also like the fact that it's not a tablet so I don't have to fight with them about wanting to play other games on the tablet or worry if they're accessing other things. I can just hand them the flash master and they happily practice their facts. Plus, the flash master has far more features than any app I've tried.

I now have a first grader and a fourth grader, and we have owned our flashmaster for over three years. Three years of flashmaster ownership, and we still use it: I think that in itself is a recommendation for buying the flashmaster. I believe the flashmaster is a good way for the kids to learn their math facts, but not a perfect way, as I will detail in the below review.Okay, so, at the top of the flashmaster there are lots of pretty yellow buttons ranging from TABLES NO ORDER to TIMED TEST.Typically, when my kids set about learning their math facts (for any type of math facts, addition, multiplication, etc.), I start them off using the "TABLES NO ORDER" function. TABLES NO ORDER is not timed. I have them master every single one of the levels using TABLES NO ORDER. After they have passed that at 100 percent, then I have them master all of the levels using the TIMED TEST (or timed practice, which is similar to timed test, except it gives the kids the correct answer after they miss the question a couple of times.). After they have passed all of the levels in TIMED TEST, then I move to TIMED FLASHCARDS and have them pass all of those levels. (I have my fourth grader doing timed flashcards at 3 seconds per question, my first grader needs it at 7 seconds per question because her motor skills aren't advanced enough to go faster.) During every single practice session, no matter whether it is TABLES NO ORDER or TIMED FLASHCARDS, the kids do SPECIAL PROBLEMS so they can have extra practice on the problems that they missed. (I *love* SPECIAL PROBLEMS! Best. Yellow. Button. Ever.) After that, I use the SEE RESULTS (white button) to keep tabs on their progress, though I don't try to chart it or anything. I really just make sure that they did it.My kids spend about five minutes Monday-Thursday doing math facts for months out of the year, and in doing so, my kids have consistently been one of the first students to complete all of their math fact tests. We have used the flashmaster every year, EXCEPT for when my older daughter was in third grade. When my older daughter was in third grade, she had five minutes to do a hundred questions from the same multiplication or division table. (First she would start of with her twos, then her threes, etc.) We went for three weeks trying to get her to pass her two's test. We practiced using TIMED FLASHCARDS at 3 seconds (she got 100 percent on the flashmaster), but she failed the school math fact test every time. At that point, I had to stop using flashmaster. Instead, I made practice tests using Microsoft EXCEL, printed them out, and timed her when she took them. After I started quizzing her that way, she didn't fail a math fact test again.I think part of the reason that she failed it was because she needed to practice writing fast enough to answer the questions. However, I also think she failed because the flashmaster DOES NOT actually duplicate this type of test very well. Specifically, it does not have a way that the kids can do their tables in a timed test.Let me try to explain. The FLASHMASTER does have two yellow tables buttons: TABLES IN ORDER and TABLES NO ORDER. With each of those buttons, the children can focus on practicing specific tables. If you set TABLES NO ORDER to level 2, you would only see questions like 2x3 or 2x8 or 3x2 or 8x2 (all the questions would have a 2 in it). These TABLES buttons ARE NOT TIMED.The other options that you have are for the TIMED FLASHCARDS and TIMED TESTS. Both of those are timed, but the levels include the tables that you're working on and LEVELS THAT CAME BEFORE IT. Let's say that you want to practice your 7's, so you would set flashmaster to the appropriate level. On that level in TIMED FLASHCARDS and TIMED TESTS, you would see questions like 7x5 and 7x3, but you also would see questions like 6x4. That's great when you want to build overall knowledge, but not really all that great when all you want is for your daughter to pass her 7's test.So, if the flashmaster people ever read this review, I think I would like the Flashmaster better if you have the option of timing the TABLES NO ORDER. It's great that you don't *have* to time the practice... as I didn't want to have to time the practice when my daughter was learning. But later on, I definitely wanted the option to be able to time her practice on the TABLES NO ORDER.Overall, I definitely recommend the flashmaster. It's made my life a lot easier because my kids were/are able to master their math facts and I've pretty much not done any flashcards. (Yeah!) But keep in mind, if you are in the public school system, this might not be the only tool that you use... you might need additional tools to help your kids pass all of their tests.

It's not flashy and it's not fancy...but it works! My second grader was struggling with her speed on math drills and the plain old flash cards just weren't working. There were so many ways she could use this for practice. The set up was easy after looking over the instruction manual for a few minutes. In no time, she's become one of the fastest drillers in her class and her accuracy has improved, too. We do about twenty minutes every night, even weekends. It keeps her sharp and she KNOWS HER FACTS. She never whines and complains when I tell her it's time to do break out the FlashMaster. She likes it and works hard to beat her own times and scores. I can check and see which facts she is struggling with...and use the special problems function to give her extra practice there. This gadget is worth the pricetag.

Initially the Flashmaster was great and my great niece loved it and her mother was so happy. But after 3 days it froze and no longer worked just like another customer review had wrote. But since they said they had a good experience returning it that is what I am doing and I bought another one, hoping it is not defective like the first.

It does what it says. "Fun?" Uh . . . no. It's math. My kids use it but get bored only in a little more time than when using flash cards. I don't use the FlashMaster much anymore. I can see where it may be useful during travel.Another good alternative are math worksheets you can find for free on the web by Googling "math worksheets." Put a little time pressure on your kids for completion so they get out of the habit of counting on their fingers.