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A balanced review of Math Academy

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Re: A balanced review of Math Academy

#11

Post by AlchemistCamp »

Rendello wrote: post #4

I had a longer comment but it was too all over the place. For me, ultimately, I think Math Academy has really helped me. That being said, I put a lot of time and effort into it, and I imagine it would be difficult for people with a lot of commitments. I sometimes reach for supplementary materials, sometimes get ChatGPT to re-explain something, but mostly I manage. I think the article gives the impression that MA is l…

The most significant difference from Duolingo is that people get results with it. I’ve known literally hundreds of people who have put real time into Duolingo, over 10 hours a week for years in a few cases and zero of them have actually learned a language to a B2 level or higher through that massive time commitment. The best case I’ve seen is from people who accumulated a back of memorized word translations and grammar patterns through Duolingo and then spent time reading and listening to content that included them. Even those people learned slower than those who just focused on input from the beginning, though.

In contrast, I don’t know anyone who’s put 10 hours a week into Math Academy for multiple years but those I know who have done it for 6 months have made considerable progress, sometimes the equivalent of years of course work.

Duolingo’s flashy animations and casino-style gamification techniques are actually a negative signal for an educational product.

Re: A balanced review of Math Academy

#12

Post by Rendello »

AlchemistCamp wrote: post #11
Rendello wrote: post #4

I had a longer comment but it was too all over the place. For me, ultimately, I think Math Academy has really helped me. That being said, I put a lot of time and effort into it, and I imagine it would be difficult for people with a lot of commitments. I sometimes reach for supplementary materials, sometimes get ChatGPT to re-explain something, but mostly I manage. I think the article gives the impression that MA is l…

The most significant difference from Duolingo is that people get results with it. I’ve known literally hundreds of people who have put real time into Duolingo, over 10 hours a week for years in a few cases and zero of them have actually learned a language to a B2 level or higher through that massive time commitment. The best case I’ve seen is from people who accumulated a back of memorized word translations and gramm…

I agree totally, that was my point but perhaps it wasn't clear. I can't stand Duolingo or any flashy education tech, as soon as there's a sound effect and bubbly animations I'm out. I learned nothing from Duolingo (I ended up learning the language through other means) but I've learned a ton in my (coincidental) 6 months of Math Academy. MA's Justin Skycak put it best:

https://www.justinmath.com/why-is-the-edtech-industry-so-dam...

Re: A balanced review of Math Academy

#13

Post by rahimnathwani »

Rendello wrote: post #10
rahimnathwani wrote: post #8

I like that this review is written by someone who gave Math Academy a serious try. He mentions comments by a couple of other math educators (Michael Pershan and Dan Meyer), but I haven't seen any evidence that either of them has used Math Academy for enough time to evaluate it. (At the time I recommended my son start doing Math Academy, I had done 3722 XP myself, which is about 60 hours' worth.) It's true that there'…

This tracks with my experience. I had to start from the very basics, but now I'm able to watch 3B1B and really understand what he's talking about. During lessons I occasionally reach to ChatGPT to help explain a concept or (rarely) a Khan Academy video. I agree that the other articles mentioned didn't seem to give much of a chance. The Perhan thread has a comment chain between the author and the MA director [1] which…

One of the things mentioned in that comment thread is that, even with MA as it is today, some 4th graders can still benefit from it.

I can attest to this.

My son completed the 4th and 5th grade courses. They took about a year in total (5 months plus 7 months IIRC). During that time, I spent maybe 30 mins per week giving him some additional explanation. (At school he was studying Singapore Math 3A and 3B, which don't overlap much with these courses.)

If MA didn't exist, I would instead have my son speed run Beast Academy 4 and 5, to make sure he has no gaps, and then I would then need to tutor him 1:1 using the AoPS Prealgebra book, which is good, but a bit thick and intimidating for a child to self-study.

Re: A balanced review of Math Academy

#14

Post by emseetech »

Rendello wrote: post #4

I had a longer comment but it was too all over the place. For me, ultimately, I think Math Academy has really helped me. That being said, I put a lot of time and effort into it, and I imagine it would be difficult for people with a lot of commitments. I sometimes reach for supplementary materials, sometimes get ChatGPT to re-explain something, but mostly I manage. I think the article gives the impression that MA is l…

I would love to find a Mathacademy style language-learning app. Fluent Forever is good, but an app that drills mercilessly without any flash would be perfect.

Re: A balanced review of Math Academy

#15

Post by cultofmetatron »

as someone who's been using mathacademy for a few months now, I'm pretty happy with what it provides. Yes it focuses on "procedural fluency" and thats not a bad thing.

if learning mathematics was like body building, traditional classes would be the equivalent of going to a traditional classroom where you get a lecture on the various pathways to build muscle strength. its on you to spend your off ours going into the gym and doing the work. Progress might be slow becase your feedback on your "problem sets" comes back a few days later.

Mathacademy on the other hand is like having a trainer at the gym. every day they take a look at you and tell you what exercises to do and to set the difficulty. You might not know exactly how all the pieces fit together but thats ok. you're getting stronger. you are seeing progress in your ability to just power through problems.

I personally have found my algebra skills to have improved substantially. I remember factoring to be a struggle for me when I was in high school. after a few weeks of mathacademy its pretty easy now. Does it mean I have a great conceptual framework for solving real world problems? probably not but I'm in a much better position to learn that skill as a result of mathacademy.

BTW math academy guys, if you're reading this. Id LOVE a class on circuit analysis!

Re: A balanced review of Math Academy

#16

Post by aoki »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #13
Rendello wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This tracks with my experience. I had to start from the very basics, but now I'm able to watch 3B1B and really understand what he's talking about. During lessons I occasionally reach to ChatGPT to help explain a concept or (rarely) a Khan Academy video. I agree that the other articles mentioned didn't seem to give much of a chance. The Perhan thread has a comment chain between the author and the MA director [1] which…

One of the things mentioned in that comment thread is that, even with MA as it is today, some 4th graders can still benefit from it. I can attest to this. My son completed the 4th and 5th grade courses. They took about a year in total (5 months plus 7 months IIRC). During that time, I spent maybe 30 mins per week giving him some additional explanation. (At school he was studying Singapore Math 3A and 3B, which don't…

Honestly I’d do the BA. Later he’ll have memories of silly characters, funny pictures with hidden cultural references, and bad jokes, not just grinding XP. We still refer to Grogg and Captain Kraken.

Re: A balanced review of Math Academy

#17

Post by rahimnathwani »

aoki wrote: post #16
rahimnathwani wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the things mentioned in that comment thread is that, even with MA as it is today, some 4th graders can still benefit from it. I can attest to this. My son completed the 4th and 5th grade courses. They took about a year in total (5 months plus 7 months IIRC). During that time, I spent maybe 30 mins per week giving him some additional explanation. (At school he was studying Singapore Math 3A and 3B, which don't…

Honestly I’d do the BA. Later he’ll have memories of silly characters, funny pictures with hidden cultural references, and bad jokes, not just grinding XP. We still refer to Grogg and Captain Kraken.

Oh yeah, we have all the BA books and he's read most of comics in the guide books. He really likes them.

But the exercises in the practice books and BA online aren't as good as the MA exercises. And there's no spaced repetition.

Re: A balanced review of Math Academy

#18

Post by aoki »

turtleyacht wrote: post #2

Author mentions Simmons' Differential Equations with Applications and Historical Notes (1972), which is at Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/differentialequa0000simm/page/n6...

This shows as “Borrow Unavailable” for me.

The Internet Archive lost a court case against the publishers, so many books (including all books that are still available for sale) have been (or are being) soft-removed :-/

Re: A balanced review of Math Academy

#19

Post by aoki »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #17
aoki wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I’d do the BA. Later he’ll have memories of silly characters, funny pictures with hidden cultural references, and bad jokes, not just grinding XP. We still refer to Grogg and Captain Kraken.

Oh yeah, we have all the BA books and he's read most of comics in the guide books. He really likes them. But the exercises in the practice books and BA online aren't as good as the MA exercises. And there's no spaced repetition.

Valid, my younger kid forgets a lot of stuff without that kind of reinforcement.

Re: A balanced review of Math Academy

#20

Post by milesrout »

rahimnathwani wrote: post #8

I like that this review is written by someone who gave Math Academy a serious try. He mentions comments by a couple of other math educators (Michael Pershan and Dan Meyer), but I haven't seen any evidence that either of them has used Math Academy for enough time to evaluate it. (At the time I recommended my son start doing Math Academy, I had done 3722 XP myself, which is about 60 hours' worth.) It's true that there'…

Procedural fluency is the basis for conceptual fluency. Maths is very layered: every layer builds on the next. You can't do algebra if your arithmetic is slow, as every algebra problem has half a dozen arithmetical subproblems. And you can't do calculus if your algebra is slow, as every calculus problem has half a dozen algebraix subproblems. And every differential equations problem requires you do to a bunch of calculus.

You can't understand a topic without doing lots of examples, so that you can feel out what is incident to the problem and what is inherent to the class of problems: when do we do integration by parts? When do we do integration by substitution? Etc.

So as a result you need to build procedural mastery at every layer before moving to the next and being able to build that conceptual understanding.

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