Monday, July 27, 2020

CTC Math - Crew Review



Disclaimer: I received a FREE copy of this product through the HOMESCHOOL REVIEW CREW in exchange for my honest review. I was not required to write a positive review nor was I compensated in any other way.

CTC Math is an online math curriculum for students in grades K-12. For this review, I was given a 12-month Family Membership which gives one access to all grade levels. After setting up my daughter’s high school course for Algebra 1 we worked through the program every Wednesday, completing two lessons each week during infusion time. Allow me to share with you how it works.
First, students watch a video tutorial. Each of the tutorials last around 4-9 minutes and presents the concepts of the math lessons step-by-step with clear, spoken explanations. Using synchronized audio and animation which is great for auditory and visual learners.



Next, students complete the interactive questions or pdf worksheet. Following each video tutorial there are questions which test the understanding of key concepts. I printed the pdf download for my daughter so she could work out the problems before entering her answers online.  The CTC Math program automatically grades each problem and stores the students results in their ongoing progress report.





Then, the CTC Math program emails weekly progress reports to the parent. Every math lesson a student attempts is logged and the results are stored along with statistical information detailing lessons viewed, tasks completed, average score, and more.



The CTC Math program is very easy to setup and very easy to use; but we had some issues within the program. To begin, it would not save the grade, so after my daughter completed the first lesson three times I reached out to the company. The email response said we were logged into the parent account; but we were actually logged into the student account, as you have to select which account you wish to login to; but after this email, things were working and lessons were being saved so we could move on. Then, the weekly progress report did not show her login, so we had to email again; but since then the reports have been correct. Also, when I setup the student account, I selected two attempts for each problem, so when we purposely answered one wrong to see what the system would do, it marked it wrong after the first try and moved on to the next question.

After working through several lessons in the Algebra 1 course, my daughter was quickly bored with the program because part one contains numerous review lessons, things she had learned before pre-algebra so I had her complete at least two lessons each Wednesday during her infusion time so I could write a thorough review. Part one covers order of operations, simplifying fractions, adding and subtraction with different denominators, adding and subtracting with mixed numerals, multiplication and division of fractions, decimals, and percentages – lessons learned in middle school.  After teaching algebra to my two in college, we never had this much review, we jumped right in to the new concepts of algebra. Part two covers algebraic equations, monomials, trinomials, and simultaneous equations. Part three covers factoring, inequalities, absolute values, and algebraic fractions. Part four covers coordinate geometry, functions, relations, variations, radicals, quadric equations, and univariate data. The CTC Math program does not compare to our current math curriculum and was not a good fit for our family. This program may be great for elementary and middle school students; but I would not recommend it for high school students who are preparing for the SAT or college courses.

Visit the Crew Blog to read more reviews from the Homeschool Review Crew.

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