The last few days I’ve been playing around with Softmath’s product for
helping students learn algebra: Algebrator. There seems to be a lot
of curiosity about this product, so I wanted to do an Algebrator review
to let my readers know what the product about. As of the writing of this
review, it costs $58.99, a reasonable cost for software of this type,
but enough that you’ll probably want to know a little more about the
software before investing in it. Softmath was willing to provide me a
full version of the software for review purposes.
What I Like about Algebrator
There’s a lot to like with Algebrator. While it has a lot of
capabilities, allowing it to be used as a scientific calculator,
graphing calculator, CAS calculator and more, there were two areas that I
think most students will use it for.
The first is the ability to input problems and see them solved step
by step. When you input a problem into Algebrator, it will use it’s CAS
calculator to work the problem out, step by step. Trust me when I say,
they are worked out in incredible detail. In some cases, there were more
steps than I would care to see. However, I am glad that if that given
the choice, the developers of Algebrator went with more detail rather
than less as students can often be confused by “skipped steps.” Students
can also click on any step for an explanation of how the software
calculated the step if they are confused.
The other main capability of Algebrator that I would point out are
the “Wizards.” The programmers at Softmath have created a list of
questions students are likely to encounter in high school math, and
created a long list of ready made templates to solve them. Many, but not
all of them, involve coordinate geometry. The headings in the Wizard
area of the software are:
- Line
- Parabola
- Circle
- Ellipse
- Graphing
- Basic Operations with Numbers
- Pre-Algebra
- Polynomials
- Functions
- Sequences
- Geometry and Trigonometry
- Statistics
How do Wizards work? As an example, within the Line menu, there are
options to find intercepts of a line, the slope between to points, the
equations of parallel/perpendicular lines through a point among many,
many others. You just provide the relevant points and lines, and
Algebrator will show you how to find the solution to the problem. By my
quick count, there were nearly 80 Wizards within the sub-menus listed
above. In my opinion, these Wizards are the strongest selling point of
the software.
What Algebrator Is Not
Algebrator is true to its Algebra name. If you’re looking for a
product with Calculus abilities, this isn’t it. On the other hand, there
are quite a few functions of the software that could be classified as
Pre-Calculus. Algebrator has the ability to work with matrices, logs,
and trig functions, although I did find its trig abilities to be a bit
limited (it handles numbers well enough but won’t simplify trig
identities). I also really like some of the “Wizards” that were
available to solve for conic sections as a Pre-Calculus tool.
I would highly recommend this software primarily for Pre-Algebra,
Algebra I, and Algebra II students. There are also some pretty cool
features that would make it appeal to Pre-Calculus students. The right
kind of Pre-Calculus student could actually get quite a bit of mileage
out of it. I wouldn’t recommend it beyond Pre-Calculus, though.
Bottom Line Algebrator Review
If all you’re looking for is a way for your child to check their answers, Wolfram Alpha still
can’t be beat. It’s free and can do a lot of really high level stuff
that Algebrator can’t. However, don’t expect it to do all the Wizards of
Algebrator can. It’s capable of some of them, but certainly not all.
Additionally, for a very reasonable cost, Algebrator is far more than
an answer checker. It’s designed to demonstrate how problems can be
solved step by step. I haven’t seen many resources that can do that, and
the few that do aren’t as polished and easy to use as Algebrator. If
you are looking for a way to walk students through answers in simple
steps with concise explanations, Algebrator is top notch. I recommend
you head over to
Softmath.com to
check out Algebrator. Additionally, you may want to check out the video
I created below demonstrating some of its capabilities.
Screen Shots