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