Mental math for grown-ups.
You are not bad at math. You were shown one way to do each sum, told to hurry, and left to it.
Coming to the App Store, for iPhone
Not a Math Person shows you the other ways: the short cuts that people who are quick with numbers use without thinking. Each one is a small lesson, worked through a step at a time, with a picture where a picture helps. Then you practice it for a few minutes, until the answer comes without the working.
IT STARTS EASY
Five sums nobody finds hard. Then one trick, then the next, at whatever pace suits you.
NO CLOCK
There is no clock in practice. Getting it right is all that counts, however long it takes, and that is what moves you on. Speed is a second stage you can ask for later, one skill at a time, or never.
MORE THAN ONE WAY
Most sums can be done several ways. Add by making a ten, or by leaning on a double you already know. Take away by counting up. You see the ways side by side and pick the one that suits your head.
WHEN YOU MISS ONE
You are shown the way through it, a line at a time, and you fill in each number yourself. Then it comes back until you have it.
IT STAYS LEARNED
A skill you have learned comes back for a short review, at longer and longer gaps, so it is still there next month.
A FEW MINUTES A DAY
A session is twenty questions. There is a daily challenge of ten, the same for everyone, and a streak that forgives a missed day.
GAMES, FOR THE DAYS YOU WOULD RATHER PLAY
16 short games made from the same sums: pairs, bingo, shut the box, darts, a till to ring up, a calculator to beat, and more.
64 SKILLS IN 12 AREAS
Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, percentages, decimals, fractions, estimation, negative numbers, algebra, and the sums that turn up every day: tips, money off, splitting a bill, change. Then the show-off ones, like squaring any two-digit number.
FREE, AND ONE PRICE FOR THE REST
All of adding and taking away is free, and so is the first skill in every other area: try tips, percentages or the times tables before you pay anything. The daily workout, the daily challenge and 6 of the games are free too, for as long as you like. One payment opens everything else and keeps it open. There is no subscription, and there are no ads.
PRIVATE
There is no account to make. Nothing you do leaves your iPhone.
ALSO
A home-screen widget. A daily reminder at a time you choose. Questions read aloud. A head-only mode, where the sum disappears and you hold it in your mind. Light and dark.